If you happened to miss our tips for reducing your use of paper towels in your household on Facebook over the last five days, I've decided to share them on the blog as well. Our journey started in December 2015, when we decided to reduce paper towel consumption in our kitchen.
Our key to reducing their use in the kitchen is to have a basket of washcloths at easy reach on the counter instead of a roll of paper towels. Spilled something? Grab a washcloth. Need to clean off the stovetop? A washcloth will do! Really greasy fried foods? Wet a washcloth to wipe your hands on instead of a paper towel. The possibilities are endless.
Our second tip to limit the use of paper towels is when cleaning, whether it be the house or a spill, use rags. I've cut up a few old t-shirts and have a small crate with t-shirt rags in underneath the bathroom sink. They're quick to grab when cleaning up. Once they're dirty, toss them into another container or bucket, and after the bucket fills up wash a bleach load of rags in your washer.
(Bonus Tip: Don't toss wet rags into the bucket, or you'll know it in a few days! I leave mine to dry out on an aluminum pie pan first.)
Can you smell the bacon? The third tip I'd like to share with you on limiting paper towels has to do with all those fried foods you love. We used to toss piles of bacon, egg rolls, donuts, and fried chicken onto paper towels to sop up all that grease, but now, we found that using a splatter guard over a kitchen plate allows the grease to drip through.
(Bonus Tip: If you have a spray nozzle at your kitchen sink, it really helps to clean your splatter guard afterwards.)
Cloth napkins can be used for more than keeping the crumbs at bay in our fourth tip. We certainly used paper towels in place of napkins when it comes to greasy foods, or when you just run out of napkins and forgot to add it to your grocery list. There's added bonuses to using cloth napkins:
We currently have about 20 cloth napkins (all thrift store buys, which cost 50 cents or less each), which last the two of us about a week. That's $10 or less for multiple years' supply of napkins! I haven't purchased paper napkins since last year as cloth napkins also reduce our use of napkins, and not just paper towels!
Ewwww! I pondered long and hard about sharing a picture of my toilet to the world before I posted this last tip, but alas, I just had to. Believe it or not cleaning the bathroom is not my least favorite chore, but it does lead us to our fifth and final tip on reducing paper towels.
Once you get really dirty rags that the wash can't clean, use them to clean the bathroom, and toss them when they're done. For me, the toilet is one of those places that I just can't clean with a rag that is going to be washed, and maybe touch my kitchen floor. Although the rag is washed, the thought alone makes me cringe a little.
I hope you have a few new ideas now to try around your house. Is there another way you reduced the use of paper towels in your own home? We'd love to hear it!
Our key to reducing their use in the kitchen is to have a basket of washcloths at easy reach on the counter instead of a roll of paper towels. Spilled something? Grab a washcloth. Need to clean off the stovetop? A washcloth will do! Really greasy fried foods? Wet a washcloth to wipe your hands on instead of a paper towel. The possibilities are endless.
Our second tip to limit the use of paper towels is when cleaning, whether it be the house or a spill, use rags. I've cut up a few old t-shirts and have a small crate with t-shirt rags in underneath the bathroom sink. They're quick to grab when cleaning up. Once they're dirty, toss them into another container or bucket, and after the bucket fills up wash a bleach load of rags in your washer.
(Bonus Tip: Don't toss wet rags into the bucket, or you'll know it in a few days! I leave mine to dry out on an aluminum pie pan first.)
Can you smell the bacon? The third tip I'd like to share with you on limiting paper towels has to do with all those fried foods you love. We used to toss piles of bacon, egg rolls, donuts, and fried chicken onto paper towels to sop up all that grease, but now, we found that using a splatter guard over a kitchen plate allows the grease to drip through.
(Bonus Tip: If you have a spray nozzle at your kitchen sink, it really helps to clean your splatter guard afterwards.)
Cloth napkins can be used for more than keeping the crumbs at bay in our fourth tip. We certainly used paper towels in place of napkins when it comes to greasy foods, or when you just run out of napkins and forgot to add it to your grocery list. There's added bonuses to using cloth napkins:
- If you weren't too messy, cloth napkins can be used for more than one meal before they need to be washed.
- Cloth napkins can easily be dampened to clean sticky fingers.
- Fancier napkins also work great in place of paper towels for lining baskets for chips and rolls during picnics.
- They're reusable!
We currently have about 20 cloth napkins (all thrift store buys, which cost 50 cents or less each), which last the two of us about a week. That's $10 or less for multiple years' supply of napkins! I haven't purchased paper napkins since last year as cloth napkins also reduce our use of napkins, and not just paper towels!
Ewwww! I pondered long and hard about sharing a picture of my toilet to the world before I posted this last tip, but alas, I just had to. Believe it or not cleaning the bathroom is not my least favorite chore, but it does lead us to our fifth and final tip on reducing paper towels.
Once you get really dirty rags that the wash can't clean, use them to clean the bathroom, and toss them when they're done. For me, the toilet is one of those places that I just can't clean with a rag that is going to be washed, and maybe touch my kitchen floor. Although the rag is washed, the thought alone makes me cringe a little.
I hope you have a few new ideas now to try around your house. Is there another way you reduced the use of paper towels in your own home? We'd love to hear it!
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