I've always used cloth. Using brushes and sponges is foreign to me. :)

We made the switch several years ago, because we wanted to be able to easily use a clean cloth each day and/or meal (depending on the dishwashing involved). We bought a stack on sale and never looked back. I love having clean cloths and being able to just toss them in the laundry when daily. Easy and green.

Another must for handwashing is a nylon scraper. It's a little square flattish tool you use to scrape the stickier bits off pots and pans, etc. I couldn't live without mine. And, unlike brushes, it won't destroy the surface of iron pans.

I use dishcloths, but also keep a brush around for the really baked on stuff. Sponges-- no thanks. They're super germy, always come wrapped in plastic, and only last about a month.

I hate, hate, hate dishcloths. They're always damp and they get gummy and smell moldy so quickly. It puts your hands way too close to the dirty dishes. I don't like to get that up-close-and-personal with left over food but prefer to tackle it from a distance with a long handled scrub brush.

Dishcloths only get moldy, smelly and gummy if you keep using them. We use a fresh cloth every time we clean, then it goes into a tote we keep just for the cloths. We wash them all at the end of the week.

If you use one, wring it out,then hang it over the faucet, then try to use it again tomorrow, then yes, that will be nasty. The beauty of the dish towel is they are cheap, so you have a ton of them. That way there is always a fresh one.

I guess if you don't want to get up close to waste food, you could scrape it off the dishes into the trash with a long handled rubber scraper first, which isn't a bad idea any way, to keep the water cleaner.

I wonder if we can clear up the dishwasher vs hand washing debate. I can fit 42 kitchen ware items along with 30 or so pieces of silverware in my dishwasher, that's 72 items that are washed in a single short-cycle load with no dry cycle. Compare washing 72 items by hand, wouldn't that use much more water?

We switched to dishcloths a couple of years ago and haven't looked back. We use about one a day and we don't have a problem with moldiness.

I have a dishwasher, so only hand wash pots and pans, plus occasional dishes when I'm too lazy to empty the dishwasher. I use dish cloths, rinse the cloth well when I finished, and hang it to dry over the faucet. I've been using the same 2 microfiber cloths for years. I swap out once a week when I'm gather dirty laundry. I use old washcloths and towels as cleaning rags, so no worries about getting the dish and counter cloths confused.

Ick, I'm not sure I like the idea of dirty dishcloths moldering away in a bag under the sink until I had time to do a dirty rag wash. Maybe you could put a light vinegar solution in a pail with a completely sealed lid?

As for me, once I discovered good scrubby brushes I never looked back. Towels are reserved for drying dishes, not washing. ;)

Dish Clothes all the way. I knit mine out of cotton and they last forever.

Emmi: With 5 in my household plus cat and dog dishes, i love my dishwasher. But, when i do choose to wash by hand, i just open my dishwasher and load the clean but not rinsed dishes into it and run the rinse cycle. I think that there is a lot of water wasted in the rinsing of dishes (although, when I have no dishwasher, i simple fill the second sink with clean water and dunk them for rinsing so that there is not quite as much water wasted.

Not a fan of dishcloths, either. I found washable microfiber sponges at Williams Sonoma, and really like them.

I have never been a sponge user. Too expensive!

I use a dish brush. Even when I did have a dishwasher, it didn't get the dishes clean enough, so I rarely used it.

@argylecardigan Wow, that is a great idea. Thanks for the thought - our dishwasher also seems to run unnecessarily long on certain cycles.

@argylecardigan: Great idea! What a time- and water-saver!

@argylecardigan: I get the whole one side clean, rinsing water, one side dirty water scenario, and I'm on board with rinsing with clean water but... aren't you still dumping the dishes into water that has other plates food bits and whatnot? Or instead doo you just do the best you can to clean with suds? This is the part I don't understand, maybe someone can link me with visuals. I just canNOT become comfortable with dunking plates into dirty water. And then those food bits and whatnot get onto your sponge/brush/cloth? EW. I used to fanatically try and keep my sponge clear of particles because then you're just wiping other people's germs onto your plate and calling it clean. And then when someone informed me sponges are gross anyway, I switched to dishwasher. Am I being environmentally close-minded? Someone help a sister out!

One of those nylon net things for washing.

Dishwasher only when enough to fill it.

Never understood the one side to wash and one to rinse, either. Dunking in increasingly dirty water to rinse?? Instead, start with 1" water and a squirt of earth friendly soap. Wash something, hold between the dish pan that has soap and the faucet to rinse (rinse water into dish pan). Repeat. Save water.

I love using dishcloths and have for years. Haven't bought paper towels or napkins for over a decade, either.
To keep my dish cloths cleaner longer, when I boil some water on the stove, if it's clean, I dump it on my dishcloths. For instance, I canned pickles the other day and used the pot of water I sterilized my jars in for my dish rags, then dumped the gray and still very hot water on the weeds in my garden (not near my plants). Two birds, so to speak.
I haven't bought a sponge in years and only run the dishwasher when it's an absolute necessity. I am also miserly with my soap and rinse water. However, as a comment to an earlier post, I've read from consumer reports that if you do your dishes by hand with the water running then, yes, your dishwasher is more developmentally friendly... especially with large quantities of items.

oops, "environmentally friendly", sorry, typo.

Ha. Have been thinking about this since I commented. Realized that all of it would be tons easier to clean if you just rinsed out your plate after eating, when the food is still relatively warm and easier to scrape off. Or does this waste water? Thanks in advance.

the microfibre dishcloths are good and we use it for everything fore a few days and then chuck it in the wash and grab a new one.
Cloths can't be hidden in cupboards! they need to dry in the open hanging otherwise you will have a disgusting mouldy cloth. if you don't like clutter on your bench then cloths probably aren't ok. Me I don't care, it can just add to the drying rack, cups, tomatoes, dish liquid and hand soap that sit on my sill.

Emmi: yes, dishwashers use less water and are better for the environment, especially because most of them have an economy setting nowadays.

That aside, I've always used a brush for any stray bits, using a cloth is just icky.