Can you live without paper towels?

cackle

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I use about a roll a week but have been trying to cut down by keeping clean handiwipes and other rags under the sink. My problem like I so many others in my husband will dry his hands with 3 or 4 then throw them away. If I only dry my hands I will lay it next to the paper towels and then use later when I need to clean up the granbaby's high chair or something equally as nasty...

Susan
 

Arctichicken

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This is so funny, my DH and I have been debating this exact thing. He says we don't need them, that they are a waste of money (and he's the one that works). When we were really poor years ago I never had the luxury of them, so I know I can live without them because we have before. Now I get them BUT we don't go through them very fast at all. We use dish towels to dry our hands off with so they stay clean. I use another dish rag to clean my counters after doing the dishes. The only thing I use them for now is to wipe up something really dirty. Or for cleaning windows. And an 8 pack can last up to 2 weeks (and may I mention I have 6 kids) so I think we do pretty good.
 

Cassandra

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I sold John on the idea last night. His only concern (as I suspected) was "I'm not ever going to be able to deep fry anything ever again?!" So, I broke it to him about the picnic napkins in the cabinet, and even demonstrated their handiness this morning while cooking bacon.

He warmed up to the idea--we talked about what kinds of dish towels we like. So, I think this is a little bend in the road for us.

Cassandra
 

amyquilt

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I have made a bunch of "un" paper towels for myself. I use them for most everything I used to use paper towels for. EXCEPT greasy things or really nasty cleanups, I use regular paper towels for that. So, one roll of paper towels lasts me a long, long time.

Also, I haven't bought paper napkins in nearly 10 years. We use cloth napkins exclusively.
 

Cassandra

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I never use paper napkins for napkins except when we eat out and that is all their is. (Says a lot about the kinds of eateries we visit, don't it?! LOL) When we are at home, I generally will throw a dishtowel over my shoulder when we are eating something messy (chicken wings or bbq chicken, for example.) Otherwise, I just wash my hands when I'm done. LOL

... (omg we're like cave men, aren't we?!?!) :gig


My mom always brings me those paper napkins and I never do anything with them. I think the pack in the cabinet has been there over a year! My house is the big house in the family, so whenever there's an occasion, it's always at my place. Without fail, mom will bring plastic plates, cups, flatware and paper napkins.

I have been looking for myself a set of cloth napkins for at home. We rarely use them, but I wanted some to monogram. I had been looking (and my SIL who works at a monogram shop had been looking.) But I really didn't want to pay $45 or more (ridiculous!) for a set of them. I finally found a set of six in the appropriate color at our thrift store for... four dollars, i think. After giving it some thought, next time I go I will probably get a bunch of odd colored ones for every-day use. It won't matter what color they are unless we have company. :)

Cassandra
 

punkin

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Just today I hung up a new roll of paper towels. I don't think we use that many (just 3 of us). I'm going to mark on the calendar that I put it out today and write down when I change it again. That way I'll know how much we use them.

OK, so yesterday I ran out of paper towels from that roll. That's not too bad. A roll of paper towels every 5 weeks.
 

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