I can only tell you what I do. Others will have different opinions. I take a length of it, I'm guessing about 60ft., put that in a sauce pan with water, bring it to a boil and let it boil for 10 minutes. Then take it off the burner, pour out the water, rinse it a couple times in the pan. Then boil it for another 10 minutes and rinse again. To dry, I press it in a towel, wrap in a loop about 2ft. long and hang the loop to dry. It'll dry over night. Wind it in a ball and it's ready to use. I don't know how long that ball will last, I haven't run out yet.