I have been feeling pretty guilty for a while about my use (and abuse) of paper towels. It is one disposable product I simply have been unable to live without. I use it for cleaning spills, cleaning counters, drying my hands, putting under food in the microwave, laying wet dishes to dry…etc…etc…and we go through at least a roll a week.
I have tried using dish towels instead, but we don’t have nearly enough (or anywhere to keep thick dish towels if we did have enough), and I simply cannot re-use a towel that has been left out after cleaning a spill or counter. I was somewhat successful at drying my hands on a hanging towel from the oven until I realized my husband was using it to dry the floor, and then re-hanging it. YUCK!
I have tried using J-clothes, but they are so flimsy they just don’t do the job.
Then, a few weeks ago, I saw a ROLL of 30 soft thick cloth towels at the supermarket. ( I cannot find them on-line to show you though I can tell you they had the word sushi in the name for some reason) and decided to buy them. I immediately replaced the paper towel roll with the cloth towel roll, and hung a bag in the kitchen closet to throw soiled ones in, and a tray on the counter to lay clean ones in.
It was so easy. For the first week or so, I grabbed them from the roll as always, gradually watching the roll get smaller and the pile in the tray get higher.
By the time I finished the roll, I was totally loving my cloth towels, and in the habit of grabbing them, using them, tossing them in the bag, then throwing them in the (non-diaper) laundry a couple times a week.
Now the roll is gone, the try is out, and we have been paper towel free for 3 week. Yeah Us!!!
Now, to figure out what to do with the three rolls of paper towel living under the sink…
Dina said,
August 5, 2009 @ 2:31 am
Sounds good- one question though- How do you put them back on the roll when you need to reuse them???
The Blogger said,
August 7, 2009 @ 9:12 pm
Dina I just started out with them on the roll to make it easy…now they are folded in a tray and I just grab one when I need one!