Who needs paper towels and napkins?

[cornflakesdisease]

I never buy paper towels or napkins. Instead, the wife and I buy those white terry cloths for your car that come 12 for $3.00 at the discount store. You eat, use them, and then throw them in the wash and re-use them a zillon times. Save the paper stuff for fancy doo-dahs and when guests come over. Think about the savings over a year and how many trees you'll save.

$3.00 per year for a dozen white terry clothes which are superior in absorbancy

compared to:

$2.00 package of paper napkins x 12 months (or however many you use).

= $ 24.00 per year

This is even better if you have kids!

[sweeps]

Re: Who needs paper towels and napkins?

Yes, but how much does the laundry detergent and the energy to heat the water and run the washer and dryer cost?

[Fern]

Re: Who needs paper towels and napkins?

I try to limit the times i use paper towels to those instances when i don't want to contaminate a sponge, for instance,with the drippings from raw meat, or when the cat threw up a hair ball on the floor. Nice image, huh?

[bjl584]

Re: Who needs paper towels and napkins?

I bought a six pack of paper towels about a year ago at the dollar store for around $3. I still haven't used all of them yet. I live alone, so it's not really worth me worrying about trying to save a few pennies on paper towels by using cloth.

[pearlieq]

Re: Who needs paper towels and napkins?

I do try to use cloth for general kitchen clean up and for drying my hands after washing at the sink, but I definitely prefer disposable paper towels for gross or germy jobs.

I do need to get DH and I back in the habit of cloth napkins for meals too, I guess, but then you have to worry about crumbs everywhere!

[MonkeyMama]

Re: Who needs paper towels and napkins?

We don't really use paper towels. Dish towels are fine. We do laundry all the time with cloth diapers. IT doesn't make a difference - you can squeeze in another dish towel or 2 every day in the same loads we always do.

BUT napkins we just use paper. I actually would not be opposed to cloth napkins in the least. We generally have piles and piles of free napkins for fast food so we use them. Not sure what else we would do with them except send them back. Since we have them might as well use them. I Swear every time we order a pizza we get a year supply of paper plates and napkins delivered with it. I am not talking about stealing - just what is given with our orders. So wasteful, but cheap for us I guess.

[lrjohnson]

Re: Who needs paper towels and napkins?

Yes, but how much does the laundry detergent and the energy to heat the water and run the washer and dryer cost?

If you wash with cold and line dry and use low cost detergent moderately, the cost can be negligible. So can paper napkins on supreme sale, but I'm still a cloth gal...just feels a little nicer at dinner.

[DivaJen]

Re: Who needs paper towels and napkins?

I've never had to run a separate load to wash cloth napkins or cleaning rags, so the extra cost of using cloth when it comes to cleaning them? Zero.

And anything that keeps trash out of the landfills is good, too.

[Hez]

Re: Who needs paper towels and napkins?

I buy my paper napkins at the dollar store; $1 for 100 napkins. That definitely doesn't break the bank. I'm on my own, so I don't do laudry often enough to justify using cloth napkins...although I guess in the long run, even if I bought a lot of cloth napkins it would end up being cheaper eventually.

[zakity]

Re: Who needs paper towels and napkins?

We have rag towels that we use to clean up non-gross messes. We have those bar towels/car rags too. I am constantly doing laundry so throwing in an extra towel or a bar towel/car rag thing is nothing.

[PRICEPLUS]

Re: Who needs paper towels and napkins?

My wife goes through paper towels like nobodys business! Same with napkins!

[disneysteve]

Re: Who needs paper towels and napkins?

My wife goes through paper towels like nobodys business! Same with napkins!

She must be friends with my wife. I always tell her that before we were married, a roll of paper towels lasted me a month or two. Now, we change the roll a couple of times a week. If she spills something, she grabs a paper towel. If I spill something, I grab a sponge. If she's eating something, she grabs a paper towel/napkin. I grab a cloth napkin.

I definitely would go through very little of these on my own.

[tinapbeana]

Re: Who needs paper towels and napkins?

i use the select-a-size papertowels and find they do help me cut waste. while i use dish cloths/rags for cleaning, mopping, etc, i use papertowels for food prep and eating. makes it easier to remember which one is the veggie towel and which one is the drippy meat-hand towel!

[cschin4]

Re: Who needs paper towels and napkins?

I use paper towels to clean the toilet. E-coli is not easily killed in the wash and can be transferred to clothes, dish towels, etc. I use dish rags in the kitchen but I always wash them in a separate load with bleach.

[PrincessPerky]

Re: Who needs paper towels and napkins?

I don't even use paper plates for company, we have nice plastic thin plates, and I love not having ot keep track of the mounds of garbage paper creates..we do use paper napkins though (for company) people seem to have a fear of real napkins..like they are for special occasions..they don't want to get them dirty!!! silly.

We also use real cups for company...it is easier to tell your oocahantas cup from my christmas one, much easier than a row of identical paper/foam ones!