It’s nice to dry dishes with something that actually absorbs water, rather than just pushes it around like so many cheap dishtowels do. I also like the “reduce, reuse, recycle” adage. Consequently, I have numerous rectangles of soft cotton that I use to dry my dishes and as napkins when eating, the origin of which sounds decidedly unhygenic. Before entering service in the kitchen, these dishclothes had a previous life as cotton socks! As they inevitably wear out (I ditch them once a toe begins sticking out unclad into the dark world of my shoe), I trim them into something approximating a rectangle. And they work wonderfully well.