Mini Paper Towels post Q&A

I was asked a question about not using paper towels. I thought I had written about it but I must have forgotten. The question from Dana

Agreeing 100% with one confession... I use paper towels to drain greasy stuff... like turkey bacon (which we don't actually eat very often and isn't really that greasy at all), ground beef, french fries...

Do you not ever have greasy foods that need to drain? Or what?

I use cardboard or newspaper. I always seem to have cardboard around and Clay reads the local paper now and then and I save those. Now to be honest the only greasy thing I ever have is bacon. I don't really fry things ever. But for bacon I use cardboard or newspaper. The truth is if I had paper towels around for certain things my tendency to be lazy would take over and I would use them instead of rags for things. I would. Give me convenience and I choose convenience every time. I wish I didn't but if I HAD presliced store bread I'd put off making bread, if I have disposable diapers laying around I use them, if I had paper towels I'd use em :)

Living Without Paper Towels

For many this will be old hand, but as I was folding today it felt like a good thing to post about. I don't know how long it's been now, quite a long time I'm sure, but we no longer use paper towels. It's honestly been one of the easiest things to transition to. I rarely even notice that we don't use them anymore. The only times I think I do is when the stomach flu is going around here or the dog has a bad accident. But with the day to day things, it's cake.

We use primarily three things.

Dishcloths. Not only are those for dishes, avoiding having to buy sponget, but wiping up spills, thing that need a wet wipe, these are great.


Little rags. These are free free free. Anything that has holes, gets too stained, quitter socks, etc. get cut up and turned into these smaller rags. We use these for noses, for picking up that piece of squished banana off the floor, things like that and also for anything that you REALLY want to just throw the rag away when you clean up. Those are very rare, but they happen and being that they're just old socks and shirts, no tears are shed if it has to go in the trash. Ours live in this hanging basket to be easily grabbed.


Dishtowels and surgical rags. Dishtowels are self explanatory. Hand drying, etc. all need dishtowel. But we are also blessed with surgical rags. My great aunt and uncle send them in boxes when they pack gifts, etc. They are super absorbant and great for anything really! Here soon I will be cutting and edging all old ripped towels as well. Smaller pieces of thick towels with a zigzag edge make fabulous fabulous rags.

And of course there's the old standby, cloth napkins. And we'll just pretend they're nice and folded in the drawer. Cloth napkins don't need an explanation do they? The only problem I have with them is there never seems to be enough here. I need more.

See? Not hard. There's something for every use of a paper towel. Cake.