On not using paper towels
This is one of those areas where frugality and environmentalism overlap (in my experience, that happens quite often!).
I also think that this is probably one of the most painless money saving moves I make.
I've poked around for quite a while and I cannot for the life of me find the statistics about how many rolls of paper towels a household uses on average, but let's assume that you use two rolls a week.
Even if you get paper towels for $1 a roll (which is what the cheapie-cheap-cheap ones cost here), that's $110 a year that you're spending on something that you just throw away.
If you have $2/roll paper towels, that's $220 a year.
Wouldn't you rather spend that on something more fun?
And of course, it's not exactly eco-friendly to throw away two rolls of paper each week either.
So, here's what I use instead.
Washcloths
I always have a stack of cotton dishcloths in my cabinet, and I cannot imagine having a kitchen without them.
(organic cotton dishcloths from Mighty Nest)
I use them for wiping counters, wiping my stove, wiping my sink, and wiping anything else in the kitchen that needs wiping!
Cloth washcloths can get smelly if you're not careful, so I change my kitchen washcloth each day.
Also, before I go to bed at night, I always hang the washcloth over my faucet or oven door so that it can dry out overnight.
(Leaving it wadded up in a wet ball behind the sink is not a good idea, just so you know!)
The next morning it gets thrown into the laundry pile.
Every so often the washcloths get dirty enough that they need some extra cleaning, so I boil them for ten minutes in a pot on the stove.
(More details on that, plus 7 other tips for keeping kitchen linens clean)
Even with heavy daily use, mine usually last me for a number of years.
Considering that I can get a pack of washcloths for the price of a multi-pack of paper towels, I'm definitely money ahead this way.
I know some people think that using a washcloth all day in the kitchen is unsanitary and unhealthy, but as long as you keep up on the changing and washing, your washcloths should be just fine.
Of course, if I use a washcloth to wipe up something that is truly unsanitary (a counter that's had chicken on it, for example), I don't use that particular cloth for anything again until it's gone through the wash.
Rags
For non-kitchen wiping purposes, I usually use my stack of old t-shirt rags.
I LOVE these things.
They don't really cost a penny, because I make them from old t-shirts that are ready for the trash, and they work so, so well.
I don't do anything fancy to the t-shirts...I just cut them up into what seems like an appropriate rag size and throw them into a box in my linen closet.
These are doubly eco-friendly because they keep you from using a disposable product and they also keep you from having to throw old shirts away.
I used to use paper towels to clean windows and appliances, and all sorts of other things but once I gave t-shirt rags a try, I never looked back.
It took tons of paper towels to get my sliding glass door clean, but I can do the whole thing and then some with a single rag.
I also use them to dust my piano, clean the outside of my appliances, and to clean my mirrors.
Good ol' kitchen towels
I have an entire drawer of cotton towels in my kitchen, which we use for hand-drying and dish drying.
(I have a variety of towels, but the ones pictured here are Now Designs cotton towels.)
Paper towels honestly aren't that great for drying wet things (they get soggy so fast!), so I prefer real towels.
Plus, when you are drying clean hands or clean dishes, there really is no reason to use a disposable product, even if you are super duper paranoid about sanitation.
Doesn't this make a lot of laundry?
Nope.
I promise you, the rags and washcloths do not significantly increase my laundry load. They're so small and I use so few of them each day, their impact is negligible.
Give it a try, and I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised, especially when you see how long a roll of paper towels can last you.
Wow, I could never use 2 rolls of paper towels in a week! A roll lasts a good 2 months around here - we use it mainly to cover messy food in the microwave or clean up after the dog if someone forgot to let it out. 🙂 I don't find that it is a huge expense around here, so I'm sticking to my paper towels! 😉
I'm totally with you on the rags though - I use them like you do for cleaning etc. Old flannel shirts or pajamas or sheets work really well for this too! I usually over-lock my rags and then they last me for years and don't fray in the washing machine that way.
We do the same thing. Washclothes for table napkins and paper towels. Rags for messy jobs, cleaning, etc. Paper towels are not cheap and unfortunately when I do have them in the house, the children are prone to overusing them.
I wonder if inside out paper bags or newspaper would work for bacon?? My hubs grandpa does a fish fry every year and that is what he uses as a liner for the trays to soak up the grease.
if you are a coffee drinker you can use a coffee filter to soak up the grease.
We do the same thing in our house! We never buy paper towel, instead we have napkins on hand (for bacon or when company comes over!).
I also use newspaper to wash my windows/mirrors, if for some reason I'm out of t-shirt rags, and that works well too! 🙂
I'm trying to cut down on our paper towel usage. I recently took the paper towel holder out of our bathroom and put hand towels in. When I did home daycare, we had to provide paper towels in the bathroom (they said hand towels weren't sanitary enough) and when I stopped doing daycare, it was just a habit. So now I only have a roll in the kitchen.
I'm trying to remember to use old Sunday papers for cleaning my mirrors. And we've always used cloth napkins (place mats too). That's not so much for frugal or environmental purposes though. I just love to set a pretty table every night.
Glad to see this post. I've seen this on several other 'green' blogs as well and I am always suprised by the comment thread of people who debate rags versus paper towels. I grew up in a house that cut up old sheets etc for cleaning, dusting and kept a stack of cheap washrags for the kitchen so I have a hard time understanding using paper towels for this stuff. I think it's helpful to just think about your trash occasionally and look for substitutes where practical. One day this led to my permanent switch to cloth napkins, another day it made me get rid of disposable makeup sponges and makeup remover cloths.
I use em too. just suddenly thought that instead of throwing j cloths away I could by an old fashioned dish rag and wash them. I also dyed all mine pink. SO they dont look grey and minging.
Great post! I do the same thing! White washcloths are cleaning cloths, dark blue are for the kitchen, and rags are for everything in between!
I like to keep rags in plastic (recycled) zip lock bags tucked into an out of the way place in every room. I can do a quick dust and put the rag back into the plastic. I don't use Pledge or dusting spray, so this works great!
We use T-shirt rags too 🙂 And for draining greasy foods, I save any/all paper bag or paper products that come our way. Occasionaly I will forget to bring my reusable shopping bag and instead of plastic I will choose a paper bag. Then I cut it up and use it for draining greasy items. One bag lasts us months, since we don't fry all that often.
I'm trying to convert my parents to microfiber cloths. They are better than swiffers and cheaper in the long run. The Protip is to buy them in large quantities in the Automotive section (I think 12 in Target are $8)
I'm no environmentalist and I think Earth Day is a sham (founded by the Unicorn killer no less) but I agree that frugality and environmentalism do overlap a lot.
I won't totally give up my paper towels (or my tissues, God forbid) but I have given up Swiffers at least.
Battra, I feel like that about toilet paper! lol I don't think I'm ever going to get so frugal that I start using family cloth. I can live without napkins and paper towels, and I can see living without tissues, but I am NOT giving up TP(unless, I suppose, I get a bidet!).
Try cloth diapers! They're more economical (and environmentally friendly) than disposable when you've got a baby, and once baby is potty-trained (hooray!), they make fabulous rags. Strong, virtually lint-free, plus you've already got tons on hand!
If you don't have a baby, or you choose not to use cloth diapers, you can sometimes buy worn diapers from diaper services for reasonably cheap. They're a little frayed around the edges, but you can zip around them with the sewing machine.
Between our diaper-rags and our kitchen wash cloths, we go through a roll of paper towels every few months, which makes me feel justified in buying a more expensive brand (I know, they're more expensive...but they're way more absorbant!) than I would if I were buying them for daily use.
Michelle, thankfully we're past the diaper stage of life(woohoo!). My youngest wears a diaper at night still, but other than that, it's undies all the way for everyone here.
If I could start my parenting journey over again, though, I'd probably cloth diaper(when I had my first baby, we lived in an apartment with access to a washer only once a week, so I started out with disposables).
I've been cutting our paper towel usage for the past few months. I grew up in a paper towel household so it was just habit to use them for everything. Now, I use hand towels in the kitchen and rags. We are probably using one roll a month, which is down from about 1 roll a week. Since I've broken the habit, it's a lot easier.
For years now I've used bar towels instead of paper towels. It's the only thing that makes sense to me. It seems silly to wipe up a little water with a paper towel and then throw it away, but that's what many people have been convinced to do.
Those "quicker picker upper" ads on TV have convinced many people that our lives will be easier if we didn't have to mess with cloth. In the meantime, we're paying for that convenience, one roll at a time, and using several towels at once because they don't hold up to scrubbing.
The unspoken value that many see in paper towels is that they are always clean, whereas a stack of cloth towels will be stained from repeated use. Big deal. I'm just fine with clean but stained cloth towels.
Paper towels are well suited for when you're cleaning up something that you want to throw away - something that you don't want to get on your cloth towels. Things like puddles of oil, grease, oven cleaner, etc. This make sense because an oil soaked cloth towel can never be made clean - it will always be a little oily.
Cloth towels are superior to paper towels in almost every way. And, it's easy to get used to doing a small load of cloth towels every couple days so you always have them available for cleaning. Like many other wasteful things, the tried and true of the past have been overtaken by the convenience and hype of the present, but it has it's price.
I say, let the lumberjack sell somebody else those paper towels. I'm staying with my stack of bar towels that serve me so much more efficiently and effectively.
Clair
I agree with all the comments on using the washclothes / bar towels. I use the towels sold for mechanics to use; they are about 12 or 24 to a pack. I change them when they get too wet or too dirty. About every two weeks I do a full load in the wash machine using bleach and hot water to sterilize them.
I use paper towels though for animal body functions. I know the cloths wash up just fine, but I'd rather not have my kitchen supplies being used to clean up after the animals. That and cleaning the toilet lip are the only things we use paper towels for anymore.
dogear6, the Automotive stores are always a good place to look for cheaper rags and stuff.
I gave up paper towels about 2 years ago. It's great not wasting all that paper. I like to say that I tree does not need to be cut down because I spilled milk. Anyway, I keep an eye open for a good price on those packages of wash cloths and I make rags out of old clothes too. Now, I do miss the paper towels when I need to set fried food, like bacon, on something to soak up oil. I allow myself the occasional paper bag from the store for this or I use junk mail. It's funny to watch grease soaking into the junk mail.
Great post! If anyone is squeamish about re-using a washcloth (bacteria and such) most restaurants keep a bucket of bleach water that they throw their washcloths in to kill germs. Might be an option at home too.
I am LOVING my new napkins (they're actually kitchen towels) because I love that I don't use paper napkins or tissue paper any longer!
Great article!
I really shouldn't be saying this since one of my clients makes paper towels, but I hardly use them!
I always keep rags, washcloths and tea towels for use in the kitchen and around the house. Paper towels are strictly reserved for the dirtier or less savoury tasks.
If you're worried about keeping your dishcloth clean, just get it damp and pop it in the microwave for about 5 minutes-- this kills the bacteria and allows you to use it a little longer (with no harsh chemicals) before hitting the laundry pile!
That's an awesome tip. Thanks for that. I'll try it.
Oh yeah, the steam action from the damp cloth will also loosen any cooked-on food you might have in your microwave making it much easier to clean!
Add some lemon juice for a natural fresh scent and more grease-fighting power! 😉
I have a parrot that is the center of our home. When I sit with him in the evening I need a parrot diaper. I find old blue jeans and cut the legs of and then open 1 of the leg seams. Perfect pads for shoulder, chair back or couch. I throw the dirty ones in the wash with hot water and bleach in addition to laundry detergent. He gets to socialize with the family, and I don't have any parrot oops! on me or my furniture.
I thought at first you made diapers for your parrot. I must have amused myself for five minutes imagining tiny pull-ups for parrots. You could open an Etsy store specializing in parrot pull-ups!
Sorry to sound dense, but are you saying you use washcloths for napkins at the table? Any particular ones? We always have napkins (aka paper towels used as napkins) when we eat, I guess we are messy people. So that would be washing about 15 a day vs using one of those small pieces of paper towels. Is this really cheaper/more efficient? I just see my laundry pile getting even larger 🙂
Alison
In my eyes. do not see that as cheaper/more efficient. Considering the water and electricity used for such...As far as paper towels, so many are out now with 1/3 or 1/2 of paper towels and if strong enough, I can rinse them and reuse for spills etc..Give it the old college try!!!
Why can't you reuse a cloth napkin all day? You can use a single water cup all day long, you don't need a new one for each meal.
Alison, I just use the cheap white washcloths from Walmart or Target. 🙂 They're not very large at all, so they don't make a lot of laundry. Honestly, it takes a lot of washcloths to make the same amount of laundry that one pair of jeans makes, you know?
However, napkins are not all that expensive(unless you buy really nice ones), so if this is something you don't want to mess with, I hardly think you are headed for financial doom. lol I mostly avoid napkins for ecological reasons. 🙂
Try knitting one It is SOOOOOO easy and the knitted kind last for a long time in mercerized cotton worsted or the blends of 80% cotton 20% wool They are thick and thirsty ! Knitted ones also make a good gift and you can find bargains on yarn on ebay and other places There are many many patterns Here is one and it is only 2 stitches
What I can not find out is what the total cost difference is between switching from paper towels to rags. Fine ... I don't throw the rags away I can reuse them but I do have to bleach them and wash them which requires water and electricity to dry. Any thoughts from anyone?
Amy Dyc.... I don't know how to spell her name, but who wrote the tightwad gazette, did the math, cloth is cheaper, including water, soap, electricity, etc.
I think old socks make the best dust rags; with the sock on your hand like a glove you're able to quickly get into all the corners.
I use dish towels and wash them frequently. They go in with my regular laundry so there's no added cost. I use cloth napkins, exclusively. They last a really long time. I can fold a cloth napkin in about 10 seconds. yes it's an added chore, but a pretty small chore. And, I have less trash to take out. Cloth napkins are so much nicer to use - get all cotton or linen, not polyester.
Newspaper does a great job of absorbing bacon grease. I have a wood stove and newspaper with bacon grease is a great firestarter.
I'm working on using fewer paper towels. I decided to put the roll in the hallway closet. That way, I get used to pick up a rag or towel, since they are closer than the closet. My little trick has worked well. I've only used one piece since I put them in the closet. I'm also using cloth napkins as well.
In my town you can get "bags-of-rags" from thrift or charity stores. Basically any clothes that are donated that are stained/in poor condition/ragged get thrown in the rags pile and turned into bags-of-rags. Perfect for cleaning up spills and they like.
In regard to cleaning up after dogs... that's what news papers for !
I use rags pretty often too, but I do have a weakness for paper towels in the kitchen. If they're there, I use them. So maybe I should just hide them. Ha ha!!! Anyway, another one of my go-to cleaning products are those disinfecting wipes we often use for toilet wipe-downs. We have 3 boys, ages ranging from 9 down to 3---need I say more. I usually have the wipes sitting on top of each of our three toilets. But it adds up--the money and the garbage. Your post inspired me to get thinking about an alternative. I came up with something I'm trying it in our master bath for now. I have a bunch of baby washcloths that I don't use anymore. They're really thin and pretty small, so they fold up really compact in a small pile on top of my toilet tank, and don't add much to the laundry. I use my homemade all purpose cleaning spray (2 T ammonia, 2 T laundry detergent, 1 quart water mixed in a spray bottle), spray it around the rim and seat, etc and then wipe down with the little baby washcloths, which then gets tossed into the laundry. So far so good. Thanks for the nudge.
I have a roommate that has to wipe dishes dry with papertowel, dry his hands with paper towel wipe the counters with paper towel. Every time I catch him I tell him how wasteful it is and explain again what the tea towel is for as well as the washcloths in the sink. Then the very next morning I get up and there is a huge wad of like 10 paper towels in the trash can - NOT the green bin!
Actually, paper towels aren’t recyclable as they’re not the same as paper. You can compost them though, especially the unbleached ones.
I've been using cut up receiving blankets-the thin flannel ones as a replacement for paper towels.You can usually cut 5 or 6 good sized cloths from one baby blanket,and they work great and dry out fast.It's best to use pinking shears to cut,that way they don't fray in the wash.They work great.
O.K., I need to confess...I use to be 100% addicted to only using paper towels. As a child, I remember having my face washed with a disgusting dirty, smelly dish rag! I hated it!!! However, I have evolved 🙂 I have cut up my old towels. In the morning, I fill a small bowl of hot water & dish soap. I dip my rag in there to wipe up & clean. I don't allow it to get disgusting!! I, too, hang the towels to dry before they make it to the washer. I clean out the bowl & start over. Please be patient with others who are working through chilhood issues. 🙂 You never know why people do the things they do. ( I have a 85 year old friend who uses the same paper towel to dry her hands all day. She hangs in on her dish rack to dry.)
Now that's a good idea! also,you can buy nice tea towels at thrift stores for fifty cents or a dollar-they are usually new! they are nice to have around,you can use those for alot of things...napkins,cleanup,dish towels and they dry pretty fast.I've had more since I've been broke than when I was working.
My grandmother used to do the same thing! She made one paper towel last all day, hanging it up to dry. But she went one step beyond---when it had dried over night, the next morning she used it as toilet paper! Just to give it some perspective, she and my parents had lived in German camps and then spent two years in displaced person camps in Germany, waiting to be admitted to the U.S., so she wasted nothing and thanked God every day for the abundance she found in this country.
I didn't read every comment so forgive me if I repeat - but I agree with the post about microfiber clothes. I bought a stack of 12 from TJ Maxx for maybe $7 and have used them for everything from kitchen rag to dust cloth. I must admit they are just as good, if not better than a swiffer on dust & are nice and soft on electronics that seem to be dust magnets. I also do not use paper towels (except on the rare occassion something really nasty is involved) and stick to kitchen towels and t-shirt rags. Our wash clothes are reserved for bathroom personal use. And I have switched to family cloth and LOVE it ... but only for #1. #2's still get the good ole TP. I do have my limits.
🙂 Great post!
I didn't read every comment so forgive me if I repeat - but I agree with the post about microfiber clothes. I bought a stack of 12 from TJ Maxx for maybe $7 and have used them for everything from kitchen rag to dust cloth. I must admit they are just as good, if not better than a swiffer on dust & are nice and soft on electronics that seem to be dust magnets. I also do not use paper towels (except on the rare occassion something really nasty is involved) and stick to kitchen towels and t-shirt rags. Our wash clothes are reserved for bathroom personal use. And I have switched to family cloth and LOVE it ... but only for #1. #2's still get the good ole TP. I do have my limits.
🙂 Great post!
Ok, I am the MOST frugal person I know. I use cloth EVERYWHERE. But I simply cannot use rags to clean up hair! YICK! I have to get it with a paper towel before I clean it! Why dont I ever hear about that?! I mean, people and animals shed like CRAZY!!
I use a vacuum to help with our shedding dogo and after hair cuts. That takes care of most of it.
Rags are not free. Washing and drying them costs money. There is alsi the cost of your time to consider.
True, but rags are so small, they add an insignificant amount of laundry to my life, and washing and drying them takes almost no time. Totally worth it to me!
If you took this argument to the extreme, you could argue that we should all wear disposable clothes because of having to wash and dry real clothes. 😉
I really WANT to use fewer rolls of paper towels -- I go through about a roll a day in my house. Because of chronic illness, used rags and dish cloths in my house would never be clean enough unless washed in boiling water for hours. I can't understand, though, how anyone who does use paper towels use any less than two rolls per week -- and I use the "Giant" rolls.
I'm so curious, what are you cleaning up with paper towels? I have a friend who is addicted to paper towels, she says it's a very hard habit to break. I have 3 chronic illnesses in our home and deal with way too much diarrhea and vomit, I've never liked using paper towels because even expensive ones soak through too fast. I bleach my rags and boil (definitely not for hours!), it doesn't take me longer than regular laundry. It's everyone's personal choice but I'm curious what you use them for. Do you wash your dishes with them?
I wonder the same thing, in terms of boiling for hours. Boiling for 10 minutes will be just effective as boiling for hours. One of the visiting nurses who came to my house daily when I was very ill with c. diff, and needed a nurse to change bandages on my wounds, told me that washing in the hot cycle and throwing in a half a cup or so of vinegar would destroy the germs as well as bleach and was less toxic. We had been throwing out any wash clothes and so on that I used, for fear of passing it on. C. diff is very communicable but if she felt comfortable with the vinegar wash and a regular wash cycle, so did we. My husband never caught it from me. If you are boiling for hours, you may be making your life harder than it needs to be.
I'm also surprised that no one here has a problem with washing filthy rags and cleaning cloths in the same laundry load as towels and wash cloths you're going to use on your body.
Eh, I don't really see it as any grosser than washing undies and socks with other things. The washing machine should be getting everything clean, you know?
Just use the hottest water your water heater will generate. I do my "white" load with socks, undies, rags, etc. with entirely hot water. And my water heater is set pretty hot for that reason. As in, hot enough to burn you if you're not careful. I warn houseguests of that fact before they would shower. And hanging stuff outside, the sun kicks in it's whitening/sterilizing power, too.
I feel that my washing machine gets my clothes clean.
Everything in the same load, my friend! Hey, I even mix dark and whites!
I love this idea, especially the old t-shirt rags!
We started using cloth napkins recently which has significantly cut down on our paper use.
Cloth all the way, for me. I don't wash any more laundry since switching to cloth than I did before.
Here's how we do it:
Cloth napkins -- get used several times before washing, unless it gets really messy, like after ribs with barbecue sauce. I spray them with homemade prewash and later wash them with a load of towels. I keep a stack of clean ones to pull from.
Kitchen towels and dish cloths: old terry hand towels of ours or some from a thrift store are used for hands only in the kitchen. They are easily distinguishable from the dish towels, so that no one wipes hands on a clean dish towel by accident. Scrubbing dish cloths are for my hand washed dishes, and microfiber cloths clean up spills and messes. I change the cloths often, and I have collected a bunch of them over time so I always have clean ones handy.
Rags: consists of old cut up clothing, worn out towels that are cut down, and really old washcloths and hand towels. When a rag gets really worn and stained, it gets used for nasty things like cat hairballs, and I throw it all away.
Draining grease in the kitchen: take care of the grease with newspaper, paper sacks, take out napkins left by others at work, a really old rag that can be tossed. A wad of toilet paper can wipe out a greasy pan, or my husband's method is to take a greasy pan outside and use the garden hose with a nozzle set at full force :). It works, I must say.
Bathroom: I use the cheap white washcloths with a spray cleaner, drop the used ones in a small plastic tote, and wash them on hot with a dash of bleach along with other whites like dirty socks, sweaty white tee-shirts and white cotton underwear. As pointed out, washing underwear exposes the rest of the load to the same type of germs as found around toilets in most homes, according to the consumer safety notice I received at work. Not a pleasant thought, but there it is.
Glass cleaning -- microfiber cloths with water, usually, or homemade glass cleaner when needed.
Microwaving -- it took me a while to realize, but there are both BPA-free plastic and glass covers for the microwave, so no paper towels are needed there.
To me there are serious sanitary/hygienic issues involved, especially now with issues re surface contamination and coronavirus. I also have health issues and have to be exceptionally careful.
So like it or not, we (my health aide and I) rely on paper towels.
Additionally, it IS costly to wash towels (and no, I would NOT ever put them in same load with body towels). I live in a big city apt building. Access to the laundry room is limited.
If I lived in a private home, with my own washer and dryer, it would not be as expensive and I could do as needed. But that is not the case. Also, I am disabled and dependent on others to do my wash so if I ran out of towels (which is possible) and had to wait for someone to do? Not a good thing.
I honestly feel that those of us who do not opt for fabric towels for whatever reasons are judged because we don't. These sorts of articles sort of reinforce that feeling. I don't want or need to be made to feel bad about using paper towels, even if that is not the intention of whomever is writing such stories.
You make a good point about using especially now with shortage of paper towels.
But in the age of coronavirus, people who share space with multiple folks, even if related...should consider using paper towels in some instances for better hygiene (family members mistakenly or otherwise using towels so that they are shared? In kitchens? Bathrooms? Ugh ugh ugh. We used kitchen towels up until last week when I got concerned because of coronavirus spread from cleaning items and surfaces.
I definitely understand that some people, in some situations, need to use paper towels. No judgment here!
I have a washing machine and dryer in my house, though, and my house is populated with young-ish people with no serious health complications. So, my situation is totally different than yours.
I think you should do whatever you need to do to stay healthy. <3
I think environmentalism and frugality are about balance; cloth towels are not perfect for everyone. While I am happy to use cloth, obviously it is not at all feasible for you. I have sometimes felt judged (on other blogs and sites, not so much here!) for using my car as much as I do. The crime in SA makes cycling, or taking the train to work a potentially dangerous choice. Of course, now with the risk of infectious illness so much greater, it's an even bigger no-no. Please don't feel judged here, as Kristen says "you do YOU". It's about finding what works. Stay healthy and safe!
Yep, biking to work is seriously unfeasible for so many people. I think it's great when people can do it, but where I live, not much is bikeable at all. It would take serious redesign of the roads to make it safe!
Cloth napkins! We roll them up and keep them at each place on the table. We wash them every few days. I would have thought they’d get yucky but they really don’t after just a few days. Also at the dollar store they sell plastic microwave covers so no using Saran Wrap or paper napkins as a cover. And we just bought some silicone reusable food bags on Amazon to replace ziplock bags.
My roommate politely requested that I not use cloth to drain fried foods, so I use ONE layer of paper towel on top of whatever trash paper I have. If it's wintertime I use that paper to start a fire. It's not as good as using cloth, but it does help keep down the paper wastage.
Ooh, I bet that makes a fantastic fire starter!
We do the same thing, including using the remains for fire starting!
That is a fabulous idea, THANK YOU. The one paper towel use I haven’t been able to figure out is the draining grease from meat & fried things and you just described a perfect way to not “waste” them.
I never knew you could get a good clean on a window with a rag. I usually use old newspapers for cleaning windows (a great, lint free clean... just be careful around white windows frames), but I've been know to use paper towels also. Thanks for the tip! I'll try a t-shirt rag.
Isn't it amazing that not everyone does this? I use paper towels rarely (I do use them to clean up after cleaning chicken) and I have a huge earthenware bowl full of dish cloths on my island. I also have a drawer full of tea towels for drying things (no dishwasher in our tiny kitchen). I also save sheets and tshirts in a box and once or twice a year I cut them up to make rags. I keep my rags in my old diaper holder that my mom made when my first child was born (30 years ago!). And that's all I've got on rags and cloths, lol.
May I add that all of the above are true for wet whipes? My baby is happy with rags made from our old shirts - no mystery ingrediences, no petrol, just cotton and water.
We have cut up discarded T-shirts and other soft garments for rags for a long time, used cloth napkins and placemats, but we are just now trying to get over the kitchen scrunge habit and the paper towel habit. I got a dozen "surgical towels" from Amazon to use in place of paper towels, and I love to knit so I knit a dozen cotton dish cloths. Plus I bought some washable scrubby cloths to use as needed. We still use paper towels occasionally to cover food in the microwave to avoid splatters and for the occasional really greasy grungy cleanup but our usage is going way down.
Three cheers for rags, cloth napkins, Cloth cooland kitchen towels!!
Hooray!
Hooray!
Hooray!
I love this idea and have been using washcloths like this for awhile. I think we could cut back more but for things like cleaning the toilet or cleaning up from prepping meat, I still use the paper towels and dispose of them. I need to work on that. But we've been using much less paper towels now that we invested in the washcloths. We change them a few times a day and just bleach them in the washing machine.
We use cloth napkins and placemats. Each family member has a spot at the table, so no sharing napkins. I wash as needed, as opposed to all the napkins or placemats in each load.
In the kitchen, I have dish towels for drying hands or pots. We do have a dishwasher, but there are several things I hand wash and (usually) air dry on a towel on the counter. Cuts down on how often I need to run the dishwasher. In addition, I have one dishcloth for washing pots, mugs & things that aren’t dishwasher safe, and a separate dish rag for wiping the counters and stove top (which is multiple times per day because family members have multiple food allergies (but not the same ones). I keep all the dirty food-related textiles in one pile and wash a small-medium load every 2-3 days. We are fortunate to have a washer & dryer.
We keep a collection of rags of various sizes: old towels, retired holey kitchen rags and towels, cut up t-shirts, torn sheets, cotton socks. Flannel sheets and worn out shirts make great dust cloths. Since our rags are free to us, if they have to be used for something particularly disgusting, we just throw them out afterward. I only wash rags with rags so I can wash on a sanitary cycle. We have major pollen allergies so, sadly, no outdoors clothesline.
I keep a roll of paper towels around (lasts several months). Rather than banning whole categories of food (like wheat bread), I’ll reserve the paper towels for those times I’m worried the tiny allergenic crumbs have accumulated. It’s amazing how hard it can be to see them. Maybe due to my ugly beige counters? But that’s another issue.
I'm another happy non paper towel user. We use cloth napkins - my sister-in-law made me a set of cloth napkins when our kids were little - and have rags for clean up. I've been doing this for a long time and will never go back to paper towels.