Paper Towel Swap Out

Ok Ladies, we're going to start this fall's green living about as easy as it gets. We're putting our toes in the shallow end here and I promise the water's nice. It's so easy I didn't actually do anything to prepare for this post. I didn't even pull out my camera, so excuse the cell phone pictures. I promise this is something every single one of you can do without putting forth any effort. Have I won you over yet? Ok, good.

 

I don't use paper towels. Or napkins for that matter. We use these bad boys.

Yes, my big kick off blog post is a picture of wash cloths. But not just any wash cloths, these are like $0.50 a piece, utility wash cloths from a big box store. Nice, right? And you can see I also keep my dish washing cloths in there too so they're easy to grab. These guys hang out next to my sink and get used for pretty much everything. Here's a running list of what these get used for on a daily basis:

-Napkins (we don't even have paper napkins in our house)

-Hand and face wiping after meals

-Hand drying (because let's face it, kitchen towels get gross after 2 uses in my house)

-Kitchen counter wipe down

-Any mess you can imagine my son making (or his father)

Honestly pretty much anything and everything you would use a paper towel for.

 

I have cloth napkins that I love and we use for dinner, but for every day stuff we just use these. Just to give you an idea of how much they get used, I bought a package of 3 paper towel rolls the beginning of the year. We're talking 9+ months ago. I just started on my third roll people.

 

So to answer your first question, yes these are cheapy, 10 to a pack, utility washcloths. You can find them at any big box store. No need to get fancy unless you want to.

To answer your next question, because I get asked this all the time, what do you do when you're done with them? They get one use, toss in the basket when you're done, and then wash with the weekly towel load. My washer and dryer are in my kitchen in a closet nook area with louver doors. I have this handy basket from the dollar tree on top and after rags get used and rinsed out they are tossed on the edge of the basket so they dry completely and don't get stinky. Just like so...

 

You can always keep a basket under your kitchen sink, just make sure you hang them on the side to dry if they're wet.

Oh, and 90% of the time I roll them like you saw above, but sometimes I'm lazy at the end of laundry day and just half fold and stack like this. Whatever works for you is great, I just suggest keeping them on the counter so if you have messy hands you don't have to open a drawer to get to them.

There you have it! A nice, easy green living project to kick start the year. For a pretty simple post it got a little wordy, sorry about that. Guess I just missed blogging!

And in case you don't know me very well, here's my intro post from last year.

Happy Thursday!