A Swedish dishcloth that's left balled up on the counter after every use will sour and wear out fast, no matter how well you rinse it. We've already covered the basic wet, wring, and hang routine in detail elsewhere, so we won't repeat it here. This post is about the part that actually trips people up day to day: where to put a dishcloth hanger, how many you need, and how to keep two or three cloths organized without them turning into a damp pile by the faucet.
One hanger usually isn't enough
Most kitchens that struggle with dishcloth odor have the same root cause: one hanger, or none, serving three or four cloths in rotation. A Pluring push-in hanger ($6.95–$6.99) mounts without drilling, screws, or adhesive — it simply pushes into any cabinet edge, drawer front, or oven door handle bracket. That makes the real question less about whether you can hang a cloth and more about whether you've placed enough hangers to match how many cloths you keep in rotation. If you run the three-cloth setup we recommend — one wet at the sink, one drying, one spare — you need at least two mounting points, or a fresh cloth ends up waiting on one that's still drying.
Where to actually mount it
The hanger itself is simple; placement is what determines whether it gets used. A few spots that work well in practice:
- The sink-adjacent cabinet edge. This is the primary station for whichever cloth is currently in use — close enough to grab without thinking about it.
- A drawer front near the stove. A second cloth here catches cooking spills and stovetop wipe-downs without crossing the kitchen mid-task.
- The oven door handle bracket. Pluring is sized to push directly onto an oven handle, which is a convenient overflow spot if your cabinet edges are already spoken for.
- A bathroom or laundry cabinet edge. The same hanger works anywhere there's an edge to push into, which makes it easy to extend the habit beyond the kitchen.
Push-in vs. adhesive vs. screw-in hooks
It's worth being honest about the alternatives, since a hanger is a small purchase but a mounting mistake is annoying to undo. Adhesive hooks are cheap and don't require any hardware, but they tend to fail in the heat and humidity right around a sink or stove, and they can leave residue or peel finish off a cabinet when removed. Suction cups hold reliably on tile or glass but won't grip a textured or painted cabinet surface, which rules out most kitchens. Screw-in hooks are the most permanent and secure option, but drilling a hole for a $7 accessory is overkill for most kitchens and a non-starter for renters. A push-in design like Pluring splits the difference: no damage, no residue, and it can be moved if you rearrange a drawer, though it does need an actual edge to grip — it won't work on a flat wall.
Color-code by room or task
Pluring comes in red, white, teal, black, gray, and silver, plus a square silhouette in black or white alongside the original round shape. That range makes color-coding practical instead of theoretical: a red hanger and cloth at the kitchen sink, white in the bathroom, teal reserved for counters instead of dishes. If you'd rather color-code the cloths themselves, the Nordic Selection pack gives you the same absorbency in patterned designs, which works well paired with a matching or contrasting hanger so you can tell at a glance which cloth belongs where.
A setup that actually holds up
In practice, the households that stop losing track of their dishcloths tend to land on the same basic layout: one hanger at the sink for the active cloth, one on a nearby drawer front or the oven handle for the drying cloth, and a spare kept in a drawer rather than hung at all. That's two hangers and roughly $14, against a lot fewer damp cloths pushed into corners and a lot less time spent hunting for a clean one mid-task. It also solves the odor problem before it starts — a cloth that's hung open and air-dried between uses simply doesn't have the chance to sour the way one crumpled in the sink does.
Ready to set up a proper drying station? Shop Pluring hangers and pair them with your next pack of cloths.