Home Life

What The Heck Is A Swedish Dishcloth?

Maybe it’s because our ears perk up at the mere mention of Sweden, but we feel like we’re seeing “Swedish dishcloths” everywhere.

You’re probably familiar with them. They’re usually the size of a napkin, a little stiff with some sort of cute pattern or design printed on it?

According to Swede Dishcloths, these handy kitchen wipers, which soften to a cloth-like material when wet, were invented in 1949 by Swedish engineer, Curt Lindquist. The cloths are a composite material made of wood pulp cellulose and cotton.

It turns out that these little cloths can replace up to 17 paper towel rolls and are made with far less pulp than its paper counterparts.

We tried out a dishcloth for ourselves. While the cloth stained pretty quickly (what can we say, we drink lots of coffee and eat a good amount of saucy pasta), it did the job for getting food off of plates before loading into the dishwasher. It also made for a good wiper when we needed to make a quick pass at the counter. We kept our cloth chemical-free, although we think it could be good for light kitchen cleaning (like counters, faucets and appliance surfaces).

There is a Swedish dishcloth design for everyone. To prove it, here are a few of our favorites.