I have paper towels. I even use them .... sometimes. But I rarely purchase them. I keep a lovely basket beside the kitchen sink, filled with 24 square terry dish cloths, folded in half. I use them to dry my hands when I wash them, wipe up minor spills & wipe down the kitchen counter. I even use them for dish cloths every now and then if it's not a messy pile of dishes (I like to keep them looking nice). I just use them and toss them in the laundry basket. You can't do that with a paper towel! Use it once, and that sucker's gone! I have a friend from out of town with a large family, who visits frequently. She tells me that she'd never, ever get away with that! She also purchases the industrial size packages of paper towels from Sam's Club.

Happy Day!

Linda

2 Corinthians 4:7 We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that this all-surpassing power is from God, not from us.

Hi, Linda! 

For decades I've been buying the strongest paper towels; they're more expensive initially, even with coupons, but I use each one many times.  There's a logical progression:  the first time I clean my glasses/sunglasses; then I use it for a small counter wipe-up and toss it into a bag under the sink to dry out - this is good for several times; if I have a messy wipe-up I can generally rinse it out and dry it - if not, or if it was a floor wipe-up, it gets rinsed and used to get cat-hair up, or wipe down the toilet seat or whatever last-stop thing.

Yesterday I lucked onto a roll of REALLY heavy-duty shop towels - still paper, but very thick - and begged a few to experiment with. Should be good for a dozen uses per. 

That said, I like your idea better.  It's neater and prettier.  I'm thinking I can look for nice washcloths at yard sales, the more different colors the better.  So thanks for the tip.

juditur

Fasting.  Today is day 5 of my water fast.  It's hard to do this when I have lots of meetings but this week is easy on the meetings and my boyfriend is on a shoot in Canada.  My breath is still rank which means I'm still detoxing from food additives, etc that get into the body, my energy level is good and I do 20 minutes of pilates in the morning.  It feels good being able to to give all my major organs a rest and allowing my body to do a thorough housekeeping.   Skin is very soft.  I'm down 11 pounds.  Day 2-3 were the hardest as I was lethargic.  I would imagine it would be hard to juice or water fast in an environment with lots of people. 

Like you say, I think that is something to do no one around!  my dh and kids may not survive lol. don't do well without eating!

I have been known to skip dinner and just eat small snacks since there's no one else to cook for. Also, I eat from paper plates. If I do have glass dishes to wash, I fill the sink with warm, soapy water and use for multiple loads as long as it still looks clean. For the final rinse, I just use cold water.

O.K. I guess I'm really weird. I also use paper towels very sparingly, but for yucky clean ups like wiping gunk out of the sink drain or cleaning something off the floor I cut up a newspaper (one of those free ones after I've read it) into quarters and eighths. I keep a small stack of them somewhere out of sight but easy to get at and they work pretty good! I also use half pages to wrap fruit and veggie scraps that are destined for the composter. Being wrapped keeps the fruit flys off while they wait to go into the composter.

I like the dish cloth idea, I'm going to give it a try, thanks for the idea!

Susan

I think fasting is one of the healthiest things which one can do for ones self.  I have intermittently fasted and felt 100% better afterward.  I find that a water fast is really tough for me but I can tolerate a juice fast.

Hi, Lil...

Your idea is good, but I can recycle the newspapers, so doing that makes more sense to me.

But they don't take the phone books, and where I live I get 3 or 4 very thick ones every year, as it's a populous area served by several different phone companies.  What a waste of paper!  I even get one in Spanish. 

So, when a new one comes I rip the front cover off the old one and put it on the kitchen counter.  When I peel vegetables or cut fat off meat, I do it on this, then just rip off the pages as far down as it got wet, and wrap it all up.  If there's no meat I can put the whole bundle into the compost, and the paper's good for it.

I guess you must feel guilty about wasting things, too. 

Juditur

I am single parent with a teenager and a fiancee' who is just like a teenager  . I have been using white wash clothes and white hand towels for about 5 months as napkins & in place of paper towel in the kitchen. Use and drop in the laundry.

I use to purchase 8-12 paper towel rolls every 2 weeks along with 1-2 bags of napkins. I buy 1 8 pack and it has lasted 2 months. 

Hey nothing wrong with that me I wash ziplock bags so many times keep reusing them keep reusing them until they fall apart along with everthing around here in my space I have a sister threatened me she will trash my bags I prefere to get those zip lock bags 2 yearly...

Happens here now Im justed turned into a single chic my self as of thursday of last week...