Bar mops are typically smaller than a typical kitchen towel, which is smart: When utilized in precise watering holes, they’re typically saved folded alongside a bar’s slim glass rail.

A Utopia bar mop measures 16 by 19 inches. (In distinction, our top-pick kitchen towels, Williams Sonoma All Purpose Pantry Towels, every measure 20 by 30 inches.) However, in our intensive absorption testing, the Utopia towel rivaled and even outperformed a number of dearer kitchen towels from different manufacturers, regardless of its diminutive dimension.

“Bar mops are usually made from terry material, versus woven cotton,” says Lesley Stockton, a senior workers author on our kitchen staff. “That makes them higher for wiping up spills, cleansing counters, and drying pots and pans.”

Bar mops are much less superb, Lesley says, for such food-related duties as urgent tofu or drying leafy greens, since they “are inclined to launch extra lint than woven kitchen towels.”

Utopia’s bar mops are long-established from ring-spun cotton—which, as we notice in our tub towels information, “creates finer, smoother strands of yarn” and a extra high-quality cloth than common cotton.

I at all times retailer some Utopia towels below my kitchen sink for straightforward entry in order that I can rapidly wipe up on a regular basis meal-prep messes as wanted, and I preserve just a few extra close to my entrance door for when the canine finishes a rain-soaked stroll.

My most frequent use for them, although, is within the lavatory, the place they’ve change into my most well-liked washcloth for doing my twice-daily skincare routine. I soak a complete towel with sizzling water to take away cleanser from my face, neck, and chest; the towel’s nubbly texture presents a delicate, feel-good exfoliation, and for the reason that bar mop is outsized in contrast with a typical washcloth, it makes my routine really feel slightly extra luxurious.

Then I wring out the towel and use it to wipe up all of the water I’ve splashed throughout the vainness and onto the toilet mirror. (I’m very messy.) It simply handles these two duties again to again, and after rapidly drying out on a towel rack, it’s able to deal with different messes.

Our kitchen towel testers have given the Utopia bar mops low marks for being “not that engaging” in contrast with different kitchen towels, and I agree that they will look disproportionately stumpy when slung over a towel rack or via a drawer deal with—however I’ve provide you with just a few styling hacks that may elevate their look.

My favourite approach is to roll (fairly than fold) a number of of them and show them collectively in a basket that matches in a useful area near the sink. (A picket wine crate or related container additionally works.)

For my two-bathroom house, I preserve some in an ornamental storage bin that sits atop a bathroom tank, and I put others in a standing storage unit. When I’ve visitors over, I put a small wastebasket on the ground close by to encourage of us to make use of a recent hand towel on a rest room go to after which toss it into the wastebasket under.

If you’ve ever reached for a loo’s lone hand towel and located it damp due to the one who used it beforehand, you may think about how a lot nicer it’s to make use of a recent one each time—particularly in a home full of individuals.

After greater than a yr of utilizing the Utopia bar mops, I’ve discovered that I can simply preserve them wanting vibrant by washing them with different whites in heat or sizzling water and including OxiClean or white vinegar to the cycle. The better part is that once they do begin to get dingy, I really feel no regret about demoting them to rag obligation (and, sooner or later, to my textile recycling heap).

At lower than $2 a pop, they’re an amazingly bargain-priced manner so as to add slightly bougie to your lavatory.

This article was edited by Alexander Aciman and Annemarie Conte.