A Swedish dishcloth is cellulose sponge pressed into a thin, flexible sheet and blended with cotton, usually in a 70/30 split. It is stiff when dry, goes soft as soon as it is wet, and soaks up many times its own weight in water. Because it is a sheet rather than a block, it dries out between uses, which is the reason its makers give for why it stays fresher than a sponge. Wash it in the dishwasher or the washing machine, let it air-dry, and when it finally wears through, cut it up and compost it.
Before buying any, look in the drawer. Cotton dish towels and rags cut from worn-out bath towels do most of what a Swedish dishcloth does, and they cost nothing. A new cloth earns its place when it replaces something you keep rebuying: a sponge you throw out on a schedule, or roll after roll of paper towels.
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What a Swedish Dishcloth Is Made Of
The three makers here that state a ratio all give the same one: 70% cellulose and 30% cotton. Who Gives A Crap specifies repurposed cotton in its Dream Cloths, EcoRoots and the Wettex listing say cotton, and Skoy’s Amazon listing says cotton and cellulose without a split. Cellulose is the plant fiber a cellulose sponge is made from, so the cloth drinks like one: Who Gives A Crap says its cloths hold 13 times their weight in water, Skoy says 15 and EcoRoots says 20.
Wettex sells itself as the original. Its U.S. distributor dates the cloth to 1949 and a Swedish engineer, Curt Lindquist, who it says put a sponge through a meat grinder, flattened it and mixed it with cotton. The Wettex listing says the cloths are still made in Sweden.
Swedish Dishcloth vs Sponge, Microfiber and Paper Towels
Each comparison turns on a different point: shape against a sponge, end of life against microfiber, and reuse against paper towels.
Against a sponge
A sponge is a block with an inside, and the inside is where bacteria settle. A study that sequenced and imaged used kitchen sponges found bacteria throughout them, concentrated in the internal cavities and on the surfaces, at local densities of up to 54 billion cells per cubic centimeter (Cardinale et al., 2017). Next to a cellulose sponge, a Swedish dishcloth is the same fiber with far less interior to stay damp. That is the reasoning behind every maker’s freshness claim, though none of the four product pages offers a germ count for its own cloth.
What the cloth can’t do is scour. Stuck-on pans still need a brush or a scrub pad, and the guide to biodegradable sponges sorts out which scrub sides are plant fiber and which are synthetic.
Against a microfiber cloth
A microfiber cloth is made of plastic fiber: E-Cloth’s General Purpose Cloth, for one, is 80% polyester and 20% polyamide (nylon), sold with a promise of one year or 100 washes. That is twice the 50 washes Who Gives A Crap states for its cloths and half the 200 EcoRoots states, so microfiber does not clearly last longer. It ends differently, though. A synthetic cloth can’t go in the compost, and synthetic fabrics shed fibers in the washing machine, which a study of polyester, polyester-cotton and acrylic fabrics in domestic washes measured (Napper and Thompson, 2016).
Against paper towels
A paper towel is used once. EcoRoots and Skoy each say a single cloth replaces up to 15 rolls of paper towels, and Wettex’s U.S. distributor uses the same number. None of them explains how the figure was worked out, so read it as a ceiling for a household that wipes nearly everything with the cloth. Who Gives A Crap, which also sells recycled paper towels, gives no count and suggests keeping a roll on hand.
Some jobs still favor the roll. FDA’s safe food handling advice suggests paper towels for cleaning kitchen surfaces and says cloth towels should be laundered often in the hot cycle, so a cloth that has mopped up raw-meat juice goes straight into the wash instead of back beside the sink. For the roll you keep, the bamboo paper towels guide compares tree-free and recycled sheets. Cloth in place of paper towels is also one of the easiest swaps on the list in the zero waste kitchen guide.
How to Use a Swedish Dishcloth
Run it under the tap first; Who Gives A Crap’s instructions start there, to soften the cloth. Then wipe counters, tables, the sink, glass and stainless steel. EcoRoots lists granite, tile and ceramic as safe, and Who Gives A Crap adds marble and wood. After each job, squeeze the water out instead of twisting it, which EcoRoots says keeps the cloth in shape, then hang it or lay it flat where air can reach both sides.
Give it the jobs it suits: drips, spills, wiping down counters and washing ordinary dishes, and, by Wettex’s account, glass and windows without streaks. It won’t lift baked-on food, and for the reason FDA gives above, it is not the cloth to leave by the sink after wiping up raw-meat juice.
How to Wash and Sanitize a Swedish Dishcloth
All three makers that give care instructions allow both the washing machine and the dishwasher. EcoRoots specifies the top rack and says its cloths are not prewashed, so expect slight shrinkage at first and better absorbency after a few washes. Who Gives A Crap recommends washing its cloths regularly to keep them fresh. The makers part ways on drying: Skoy’s listing calls its cloths dryer-safe, EcoRoots says air dry only, and Who Gives A Crap tells buyers to keep them out of the clothes dryer. Air-drying is the one choice none of them rules out.
Microwaving and boiling
EcoRoots says to sterilize its cloth by microwaving it while damp or boiling it briefly, and Skoy’s listing says a few minutes in the microwave gives a deeper clean. Neither cites a test on a cloth. The nearest government test was on sponges: USDA’s Agricultural Research Service soaked sponges in a ground-beef solution, then found that one minute in the microwave killed 99.99999% of the bacteria and a dishwasher cycle with a drying stage killed 99.9998% (2007).
The 2017 sponge study adds a caution. Sponges their owners said they sanitized regularly carried larger shares of two bacteria closely related to potential pathogens, which led the authors to question that kind of sanitizing over the long term. Treat the microwave as a reset for a cloth that is still in good shape, done damp as EcoRoots specifies, not as a way to keep a worn one going.
How Long a Swedish Dishcloth Lasts
Who Gives A Crap says its Dream Cloths last up to a couple of months, or up to 50 machine washes. EcoRoots says its cloth can be washed up to 200 times. Skoy’s listing says only that its cloths are designed to last for months, and the Wettex listing gives no lifespan. Taking the two numbers at face value, an EcoRoots cloth at $6.97 works out to about 3.5 cents a wash, and a Dream Cloth, at $14 for three, to about 9 cents. For buying as few cloths as possible, EcoRoots states the longest life.
Why it smells, and when to replace it
The makers trace a sour smell to a cloth that stays wet. Who Gives A Crap’s advice is to hang the cloth to dry after every use to keep smells and bacteria away, and Wettex’s U.S. distributor credits fast drying for fewer odors than a sponge. Put a smelly cloth through a hot wash or the dishwasher before deciding anything.
Replace it when a wash no longer clears the smell, when it tears or wears thin enough to show holes, or when it stops holding water. That can happen well before the maker’s wash count, which is a ceiling rather than a schedule.
Which Swedish Dishcloth to Buy
Only one of these four names the ink in its print, and only two put a number on how many washes a cloth survives. Prices are list prices in November 2026; the Skoy and Wettex rows come from their Amazon listings.
| Dishcloth and price (Nov 2026) | Material, stated life and print | Buy |
|---|---|---|
|
Who Gives A Crap Dream Cloths 3 for $14, about $4.67 each |
70% cellulose, 30% repurposed cotton Up to 50 machine washes or a couple of months Print: not stated |
Buy at Who Gives A Crap |
|
EcoRoots Reusable Dishcloth $6.97 each, four prints |
70% cellulose, 30% cotton Up to 200 washes Print: screen printed with water-based inks |
Buy at EcoRoots |
|
Skoy Cloth, white 4-pack $7.99 at Amazon, about $2 each |
Cotton and cellulose, no ratio given “Designed to last for months” Print: white; no ink or dye named |
Buy at Amazon |
|
Wettex The Original, 10-pack $9.70 at Amazon, about 97 cents each |
70% cellulose, 30% cotton, made in Sweden No wash count or lifespan given Print: assorted colors; dye not named |
Buy at Amazon |
Who Gives A Crap Dream Cloths
Who Gives A Crap sells its cloths in sets of three for $14, made from 70% cellulose and 30% repurposed cotton, and is the most specific about lifespan: up to 50 machine washes or a couple of months. On those figures each wash costs more than with EcoRoots, so the set makes most sense for a household already ordering the company’s recycled paper towels or toilet paper.
EcoRoots Reusable Dishcloth
EcoRoots sells single cloths at $6.97 in four prints (flowers, avocado, lemons and herbs) and states the longest life of the four, up to 200 washes. It is also the only one that says what its print is made of: screen printing with water-based inks. Each cloth measures 6.5 by 8 inches, and EcoRoots says it ships orders without plastic.
Skoy and Wettex on Amazon
Skoy’s white four-pack is $7.99, sold by Skoy and shipped by Amazon, or about $2 a cloth. The listing describes cotton and cellulose without a ratio, says the cloths are designed to last for months and can go in the dishwasher and the dryer, and calls them 100% biodegradable.
The Wettex 10-pack is $9.70 from a third-party seller, Geodesign, shipped by Amazon, which makes it the cheapest per cloth here at about 97 cents. The listing gives a 70/30 cellulose and cotton blend made in Sweden and assorted colors, but no wash count or lifespan.
Composting a Swedish Dishcloth
Cellulose and cotton are both plant fibers, so a worn-out cloth can go in a home compost pile. EcoRoots says its cloth is 100% compostable in a backyard, Who Gives A Crap says to compost its cloths when they are done, and Skoy and Wettex call theirs biodegradable. Cut it into strips first. EPA’s home composting guidance says breaking materials into smaller pieces helps them break down faster, and the home composting guide gives the same advice for natural fabrics.
Two things change that answer. A cloth that spent its last week wiping up grease should get one more wash first, since EPA lists fats, oils and grease among the things to keep out of a backyard pile. And the print is the part with the least information behind it. EcoRoots names water-based inks; Who Gives A Crap, Skoy and Wettex don’t say what their colors or prints are made of. EPA’s own list accepts shredded paper only when it is non-glossy and uncolored. It says nothing about printed cloth, but the same caution makes sense: compost plain cloths and ones printed with a named water-based ink, and from the others, trim away heavily printed areas and put those in the trash.
Without a compost pile at home, Who Gives A Crap suggests checking whether your local green-waste collection takes biodegradable cloths. Either way, a worn cloth that has been washed can do one more job as a floor or garden rag before it goes.
Sources
- Cardinale M, Kaiser D, Lueders T, Schnell S, Egert M. Microbiome analysis and confocal microscopy of used kitchen sponges reveal massive colonization by Acinetobacter, Moraxella and Chryseobacterium species. Scientific Reports 7 (2017)
- Napper IE, Thompson RC. Release of synthetic microplastic plastic fibres from domestic washing machines: effects of fabric type and washing conditions. Marine Pollution Bulletin 112 (2016): 39–45
- USDA Agricultural Research Service: Best Ways to Clean Kitchen Sponges (April 23, 2007)
- FDA: Safe Food Handling
- EPA: Composting at Home
- E-Cloth: General Purpose Cloth (materials and wash promise)
- Wettex USA press release on PR Newswire (April 7, 2021): the Wettex Swedish dishcloth arrives in the U.S.
- Who Gives A Crap: Dream Cloths product page; EcoRoots: Reusable Dishcloth product page; Amazon listings for the Skoy Cloth white 4-pack and Wettex The Original 10-pack (all November 2026)