r/ZeroWaste • u/Jeni-from-da-club • 1d ago
Question / Support Reusable “Paper towels” are they worth it?
I have been kicking around the idea of getting reusable paper towels for a while. I know they would be great for cleaning, and odd jobs like that. My main concern is can you use them to drain grease off fried bacon or cool cookies? Or I guess better yet, are they easy to clean after? Do you soak them before washing?? Tell me how you use your reusable “paper towels”
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u/LinearFolly 1d ago
As others have mentioned, I use reusable for most things and keep regular paper towels on hand for the grossest things (bacon grease and dog puke mostly). I last bought a pack of paper towels maybe a year ago? We also set aside the napkins we get with takeout for the same kinds of things.
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u/brycar1618 1d ago
This. I use both but with all my pets I have to keep paper towels. I buy recycled paper towels that makes me feel a little better about my choices.
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u/Defiant-Warthog-6887 17h ago
Same. Even though I use real paper towels for bacon grease and other gross things, using “unpaper towels” (they are essentially flannel sheets cut into towel shapes) I have drastically reduced my paper towel consumption over the last 10 years of using them. It was a worthwhile switch.
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u/cilucia 1d ago
I still use paper towels for draining bacon, but I just use a wire rack for cookies.
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u/a1exia_frogs 1d ago
I compost the bacon fat paper towel too
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u/scbgrl 1d ago
But animal by products attract rodents.... So I reserve paper bags or Kleenex in a jar to absorb grease. It's not perfect but it better than not trying.
And I have been using reusable flannel sheets instead of paper towels for about 3 years now finished the edges with a serger...and I don't care about stains. They roll up nice on the paper towel stand because flannel sticks to itself easily.
Look up marleys monsters online
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u/VapoursAndSpleen 15h ago
In my community, we get big green bins that we roll out on trash day and they go to a municipal composting facility. They take meat and grease, as well as food and lawn clippings.
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u/rrybwyb 1d ago
What’s wrong with rodents? Honestly I don’t know, is it black plague?
My compost pile is 60 feet from my back door there may or may not be mice in or around it. Should I nuke all the mice in my yard?
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u/scbgrl 1d ago
Ok. Maybe not rodents but racoons, fox and etc. and I don't mind them either but I don't live with a yard allowing space. My dog has busted thru enough windows going nuts . I wish we had a lot more fox to eat everything smaller. There is a balance. But, I do compost as much as possible... with as little paper and especially trying to avoid plastic but that is a momentous battle. I will battle on
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u/Jeni-from-da-club 1d ago
You can compost greasy paper towels? Wouldn’t that attract vermin?
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u/a1exia_frogs 1d ago
I have a goanna that lives near my compost, vermin are not a problem. My compost is lovely and healthy full of BSF larvae, I regularly tip fats in it, just balance it out with seaweed, toilet paper rolls and garden waste
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u/LadyOfTheNutTree 1d ago
I’ve taken great strides to mouse and rat-proof my compost bin with hardware cloth. Going on 3 years with no vermin
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u/aknomnoms 1d ago
Wire rack or we open up a brown paper bag. We still have a lot of paper bags despite using reusable grocery bags for 10 years. Any that get ripped handles or tears get used as textbook covers or cookie cooling sheets. Composted after.
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u/cheerupyoullthinkof1 1d ago
I have chickens, so I drain fat and grease onto stale bread and give it to them as a treat.
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u/Meikami 1d ago
You mean...towels?
Paper towels are called paper towels because they are paper versions of towels!
No, don't use them for grease, at least not a LOT of grease. (A little blob is ok.) Greasy towels and rags are flammable and you won't be able to clean them in the regular laundry.
But use them for everything else. Cooling cookies - yes. Wiping counters - yes. Disinfecting with bleach or whatever cleaners you use - yes. Cleaning up spilled liquids - yes.
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u/UnbelievableRose 1d ago
What if you just don’t put them in the dryer?
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u/Meikami 1d ago
You want to make sure the grease is removed from the towels most of the way - if you get grease on them, use dish soap to remove it before putting it through the wash.
You don't want grease all up in your washing machine, for one. Bad for the machine, bad for your drains.
And for two, you REALLY don't want grease on a rag lying around the house, so it does need to get cleaned (or thrown out). Spontaneous combustion doesn't need a dryer for motivation.
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u/bulimianrhapsody 12h ago
Rags with bacon grease on them will spontaneously combust???
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u/d34rp34ch 10h ago
Correct. Massages therapist here and coconut oil set ablaze several colleagues sheets. I thought only from drying then not folding but according to google even storing them in a pile (not in an airtight metal container) can cause the chemical reaction with air to heat enough.
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u/yo-ovaries 1d ago
I drain bacon on a wire rack next to a brown paper bag.
I do not blot off meat with a cloth towel, I use a paper towel for that.
But I use a roll of paper towels every other month or so. Less is still better.
I do not pre-soak rags, but I do know this is common in commercial kitchen settings, as well as a tradition our grandmothers had. The soaking bucket usually has bleach in it.
At the end of the day, I’ll fill my electric kettle and give rags and sponges/scrubbers a little bath in boiling water in a shallow tray. Wring them out. Figure that’s about as much sanitizing as I need to bother with.
I hang my kitchen rags/towels/napkins until dry, then place in a mesh bag until laundry time.
I use a large scoop of powdered tide for kitchen and really dirty clothes (kids attend an outdoor preschool… so I mean dirty!)
I use the heavy soil setting on cold. They come out perfectly clean.
If you’re not doing laundry for a whole family, absolutely just put them in with your normal clothes.
I also find that Swedish dish cloth or paper based sponges are really much of the “paper towel” I need in a day. They don’t take up nearly as much volume. They can go in a dishwasher as well as laundry wash.
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u/WeepToWaterTheTrees 1d ago
I came to recommend the Swedish dish cloths. They’re great for 95% of the things we used to use paper towels for.
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u/Tasterspoon 13h ago
They’re purportedly compostable too, but I bought a 12-pack a year ago and they’re still going strong.
I don’t use them for grease. I save most of my bacon grease, and wipe with a regular paper towel and compost that. I also haven’t used them for scrubbing powder situations, wash cloths instead. But I’m happy to have moved away from melamine and microfiber.
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u/unventer 1d ago
No. Go buy sine old towels at the thrift and cut them up. Or just buy a bag of "painters rags" at the hardware store. We have a "rag drawer" and it's never steered us wrong. "Unpaper towels" or whatever feel like they are made for people who just can't fathom that the world functioned for millennia without paper towels. They are a recent invention. Use rags/kitchen towels.
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u/reptomcraddick 1d ago
I really like my reusable paper towels, they have been the easiest “ecofriendly” swap I’ve ever done. I do however keep some regular paper towels around for the grosser messes, cleaning up moldy fruit in the community fridge, cat vomit, etc. I use very few disposable paper towels, since I mostly used paper towels to clean up spills or wipe down kitchen counters.
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u/jerseysbestdancers 1d ago
I came to write exactly this! I have Marleys Monsters ones because they wrap up like a roll, so we have two rolls on the counter.
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u/wutato 1d ago edited 1d ago
No, just cut up old cotton T-shirts or ratty towels and cut them up to smaller sizes. Cotton is so much better. I have a whole stack in my cabinet and just wash them on hot weekly.
Cotton that has been washed more (like a hundred times) is so much better at cleaning than microfiber or new cotton. There's a rag industry that depends on 100% cotton that's been washed dozens of times.
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u/heavymetaltshirt 1d ago
I wouldn't use them to catch grease, because washing and then drying them would be a fire hazard. When I was a kid we always used brown paper grocery bags to catch grease (bacon on a rack over the bag).
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u/chrisinator9393 18h ago
We use rags for everything. But do keep paper towels around for grease and pet cleanup. We probably use 1 roll a year which I'm content with.
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u/dahliasubiquitous 1d ago
I keep paper towels on hand to use for particularly gross stuff I wouldn't want to use reusable towels for, or that wouldn't wash out well. I use more like 2 rolls a year verses 2 a month now.
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u/xstrex 1d ago
I’ve been using reusable paper towels for about 8yrs now and I swear by them! I use them for everything, as a napkin, as a rag to clean counters, on raw meat to pat them dry, to cover bowls in the microwave, etc. the only thing I don’t use them for is cleaning windows- as paper towels or newspaper does a much better job.
Most of the time I just toss them in the wash, and call them good enough. Eventually they will start to get a little dingy, when this happens I take the worst of the worst and soak them in boiling water & borax overnight. This usually does the trick. Over time I may even soak the bad ones in bleach.
Eventually you’ll end up with two piles, one which still looks brand new, and another which just looks faded, dingy, or oil stained no matter how hard you try. I’ll use the clean ish ones for food items, no problem. I’ll use the dingy ones for scrubbing counters, pots, spills, or really messy jobs. Eventually the really bad ones make it to my garage as shop towels, and continue their life there.
So yea, in my opinion, it’s totally worth it!
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u/glamourcrow 1d ago
I never had paper towels. Never. Culturally, it's only a US thing. Where I live, they sell excellent fabric towels that are optimised for cleaning. You rinse them after use and wash them with the rest of your laundry.
The entire world is using fabric towels. Only the US is addicted to paper towels.
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u/ScaredAlexNoises 1d ago
You can use literally any towel or rag in place of a paper towel, you don't need to get anything special. It can be washed the same way you'd wash any towel.
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u/Puzzled_Act_4576 1d ago
I’ve been using them to oil my pans. So basically dunked in oil. I use the oldest ones only for this and just hand wash in dawn dish soap before laundering with everything else.
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u/Poohu812many 1d ago
You can get a silicone basting brush to oil your pans. Dunk the bristles in oil, then "paint" the desired surface. Put the brush in the dishwasher afterwards. That way, you don't have to use a paper towel! 😊
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u/Puzzled_Act_4576 16h ago
Very true. I also use the cloths to wipe them out after cooking, so it just serves a dual purpose for me. And i am the dishwasher in my house…🙃
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u/extinct_banana 1d ago
i love mine i made some just from a large piece of fabric. cut them into different size squares (large, medium, small) and i finished the ends. i use them so much! i still use paper towels but it has cut back immensely on how many i use. instead of drying my hands with a paper towel i just reach for one of the fabric ones and i can reuse that one foreverrrr as it just dries back up again. if i use them to clean up something oily or with food on it i just throw it in the hamper to be washed and pull out more fabric ones to use.
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u/quichedapoodle 1d ago
I have the ones from Marley's Monsters and I like them. I toyed around with making my own, but I wanted some to keep handy on the counter on a roll, like paper towels, for quick jobs, and to keep them looking nice I really needed a serger, which I don't have. I have a stash of old towels and washcloths for cleaning jobs and large spills. So basically, it was what we have been doing all along, but I swapped out my disposable paper towel for the reusable ones.
Honestly, I could get away without having them, but I like the convenience of having them readily available.
We like them for quick jobs, wiping down the counters, doing dishes. They have lasted us 5 years so far. I have a mix of patterns and dark colors. They do work well fro draining the fat off of meat, although things like bacon grease will stain them. I have bleached mine and wash them in every temperature imaginable depending on what load I throw them in and the have held up beautifully.
We do still use paper towels for some things. When my husband works on the car and spills things like motor oil or transmission fluid, we use paper towels. And when my cat has an accident, paper towels really seem to do the best job for blotting up cat pee on our rugs and, sadly, sometimes furniture. Although I bought a Costco size paper towel package 2 years ago that I have not finished up.
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u/Voc1Vic2 1d ago
Newspaper and paper bags are also alternatives to paper towels for draining greasy food.
Soft cotton fabrics, such as from pajamas or tee shirts, can also be cut into pieces from clothing that is no longer wearable. I keep a basket of these in the kitchen, and then toss in the laundry or trash after use depending on the mess.
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u/LekkerSnopje 1d ago
We use about 30 rags a week for a family of 4 with pets. When folded, they take up an entire large plastic tall laundry basket. They are old looking and dirty and they just go in the wash - usually in their own load in hot with bleach. They start off cute rags and then the cute rags become dry rags and then they become wall rags and then floor rags. It’s a life cycle. We don’t eat bacon but do still keep one or two rolls of recycled paper towels for really icky things (like stove grease cleaning and such).
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u/Sam_Eu_Sou 1d ago
Yes!! I switched to them nearly a year ago.
We use LOLA brand Swedish dish cloths. They're made in Germany, but I got them from Amazon.
I use them for cleaning our mirrors and pretty much anything I previously cleaned with paper towels.
I just throw them in the washing machine and dryer. They're holding up great so far.
Aesthetics are important to me, so "ugly rags" will not do.
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u/PasgettiMonster 1d ago
My reusable paper towels are a stack of old T-shirts and sheets that have been cut up into approximately 16 to 18 in squares. For fabrics that fray, I just run a zig zag stitch around the edges on my sewing machine.
I have a few that are for food contact use - green cotton fabric that was from a bed sheet. These I used to wrap herbs or to line a container that I put my chopped greens in. I do not use these for cleaning. The rest I will usually snatch one out of the basket and first use it for drying hands, tucking it into the waist tie of my apron as I work. when I need a clean up rag, that's what I grab to use to wipe up counters or spills, and grab a fresh one to use to wipe hands.
At the end of the day I rinse out The rags that I have used that day and let them hang over the divider between the two sides of my sink to dry overnight. I'm not trying to get them clean or sanitized, just get any gunk that they've picked up off so that they don't start to smell. In the morning they get tossed into a basket of dirty rags and I start with fresh rags for the day.
By rinsing and drying my rags overnight everyday before tossing them in the dirty pile they Don't get stinky or musty. They're just not as clean as they could be. Which is fine. I keep collecting dirty rags until I've got enough to do a load in the washer on hot along with any other "dirty" laundry I have that is dirtier than usual, for example something I wore while working in the garden that got exceptionally dirty and I don't want to put it in with my regular laundry or towels that were used to mop up spills, etc. I have found this method works for me Despite my ADHD propensity for losing the plot on a task that has too many steps. It's a 2 minute task if that at the end of the day after I've wiped up the last counter to just rinse the rag and stick it somewhere that it will dry.
If I use a rag for something that's really gross or disgusting or I just look at it and decide I don't want to clean this anymore, that's when it just gets tossed in the trash. These are rags. They're not some cutesy green washed new purchased fabric to make on paper towels. They've already served their purpose as clothing or bedding and then have probably been used multiple times as rags in my kitchen. If they get gross, if they get stinky, if they get greasy, I'm throwing them away. I do keep paper towels in the kitchen, or more likely I keep a stack of napkins from any meals that come home with me. For things like soaking up the fat on bacon, that is what I use. To me using the occasional paper towel rather than washing a grease soaked rag is acceptable. I don't deep fry at home. I rarely cook bacon, And if I do it's usually because I want the fat to flavor a meal. So I don't have the situation come up very often.
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u/PhoneboothLynn 1d ago
I bought two rolls of paper towels 10 years ago. I just finished the second one.
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u/lvmijp 1d ago
I don’t eat out much at all but when I do …I save the paper napkins that comes with my meal..coffee…or whatever and I use them for spreading grease in a pan or dabbing grease off something. But I use cloth “paper towels” for everything else. So I don’t use the paper ..paper towels much AT ALL.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Gear622 18h ago
I've always tried to keep my paper towel buying to a very minimum because of my stance on the environmental issues. However I'm a chef and there are times where you just have to have something disposable like if you're wiping up Grease or needing to pat seafood dry. I generally average about four rolls of toilet paper a year. But about 8 months ago I decided to try swedish dish cloths and I will say I absolutely love them. They drive within an hour or two of being hung up which means they never sour, they're very absorbable, they're extremely affordable and I absolutely love them. My paper towel usage has dropped dramatically and I'll probably be able to get away with one or two rolls of paper towels a year.
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u/jelycazi 15h ago
I never buy paper towels. I use the extra serviettes that I get when we eat out for bacon fat.
I have so many rags that I can use the old ones for really gross things (cat puke 🤮) and just throw them away after. I cut up all old, wrecked clothes, sheets, towels for rags. Even holey socks.
I have a goal that we don’t bring anything that’s ’single use’ into the house) so I try to think of a second use for everything. Doesn’t always work (don’t want to use my dental floss twice!) but it has helped us reduce what we buy!
how can such extremely gross things come out of a creature as cute as this?!
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u/moosmutzel81 15h ago
I haven bought paper towels in over a decade (except when we moved). I use old diapers and old dish towels and whatever old rags.
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u/Several-Ant1443 14h ago
Reusable paper towels are just… towels. If you want to do something super nasty like bacon grease, I would have some super old/gross rags set aside for them, and if you want to wash and reuse hand wash them, because that much grease isn’t good for your washer. I made the switch two years ago I wouldn’t ever go back!
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u/saraccch 1d ago
yes! i haven’t bought paper towels in over a year. i do have to wash them pretty often tho (once a week for our ~30 unpaper towels)
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u/violet-fae 1d ago
I keep paper towels for things I consider especially gross - for me that’s generally cat vomit - and use rags for anything else. I shake them out over the garbage before throwing them in their little mini hamper under the sink to get any crumbs off, or will rinse them if they have a fluid on them. Basically I don’t want to be throwing chunks of food into my washing machine.
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u/OneMoreBlanket 1d ago
We use both traditional paper towels and a zero waste option. I’d say something like bacon grease you’re much better off with a disposable option (or learning to save the bacon grease to cook with), but the cloth ones have their uses and reduce our overall paper towel consumption. We do also keep a pile of old towels for larger spills, but the purpose-made flannel wipes that fit on a paper towel holder are also really handy to store in the kitchen. Examples of use for each item looks like this:
Disposables: picking up solid chunks of dog vomit, particularly greasy messes, spills involving broken glass
Flannel “unpaper” towels: wiping up standard soda/juice/milk/etc. spills, wiping/drying hands while working in the kitchen
Old towels: major spills, cleaning the liquid part of a vomit incident
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u/mary200ok 1d ago
I bought 3 rolls of organic bamboo paper towels during early covid and have so far still been on the first roll. We just collect and wash them with bleach and air dry when we’re low. We’ve thrown away a few over the years, either when they break down (too holey to be useful) or we misjudge a cleanup and it’s too nasty to wash. It’s one of the best buys I’ve made. We still use disposable paper towels for the nastier things but these have cut back usage of those very significantly.
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u/coffeebuzzbuzzz 1d ago
I just use regular towels. I have hand towels, kitchen towels, tea towels. Depending on what I need it for, I grab a towel based on that. Cleaning something that is really dirty you use an old cut up tshirt or rag.
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u/fouldspasta 1d ago
I just use old dish towels- it's the same thing but cheaper (or free). I don't pre soak them before washing or anything, but sometimes I'll shake off any food/crumbs into the trash first. Some of them are permanently stained from cleaning up spilled coffee or tomato sauce but since they're only used for cleaning anyways I've given up trying to get it out.
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u/sockpoppit 1d ago
I nearly have switched to dishtowels. The only thing that I won't use them for is obviously-staining things like coffee, where I still use paper towels.
I keep one clean towel hanging for dishes, food, etc. When it gets questionable in a couple of days I replace it with a fresh one and rotate it over as a second towel hanging in a different spot for stove and counter cleaning. Then I mop the floor with the one that's moving out of the #2 spot and throw it over to the laundry to wash.
That way there's a clean one, a messy cleanup one, and the floor gets mopped every two or three days with the third. I don't have a lot of laundry to do so it doesn't increase my laundry loads at all.
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u/CelticKira 1d ago
for bacon/meat grease i bought a little silicone thing on amazon designed for that purpose. even has a strainer piece on top to catch larger bits. once it is full i think you just scoop the stuff out into your trash.
i use bamboo paper towels from Grove. for cleaning, i cut up old and ruined clothing for rags. i repurposed an old lunch box and a cloth bag that a sheet set came in for clean and dirty rags respectively that sit on a shelf by my washer and dryer. when the dirty bag fills up, i throw them and the bag in for washing.
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u/sreneeweaver 1d ago
I use re-usable cloths, I clean everything with them. Even bacon grease off a pan. Let cool, scrape the hard stuff in the garbage and wash the cloth. May make them look less pretty, but they are basically rags. I love them for washing dishes. I don’t know why, but when I used dishcloths, I used the same one for days. With these, I use one a day, let it dry out, throw it in the basket to be washed and grab a new one. And yes, I realize now I could have always and should have grabbed a new dish cloth every day, but it just didn’t feel right I guess?
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u/SmoothLikeVinyl 1d ago
I have reusable “paper” towels that snap together into a roll. I don’t use them for super greasy things, like draining bacon grease, but use them for wiping down counters and pretty much everything else. For things like bacon grease, I use brown paper bags from the grocery store. Cookies go on a wire rack, but have used the paper bags as well.
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u/Agustusglooponloop 1d ago
I love mine. Yes, I use rags too, but the reusable paper towels I got as a gift are super absorbent, thin, and the perfect size.
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u/FuckTheMods5 1d ago
I got some washable bamboo paper towels once, but they were INFESTED with dog hair after washing them with my other clothes. It just attracts contaminants. I stick with real ones now. I guess i should have washed them alone or something
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u/Familiar_Raise234 1d ago
I cool cookies on a rack. The only use for paper towels that have is draining bacon. Everything else is non-disposable. I just throw them into the wash.
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u/Jazzlike-Cow-8943 1d ago
Old t-shirts, sweatshirts, jeans, blankets get cut up and turned into washcloths or woven into a door mat.
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u/KatliysiWinchester 1d ago
I bought a roll of 75 microfiber towels for $20 and use those instead of paper towels. I last opened a roll of paper towels in September. I’m only about halfway through it. I still use it for cat stuff
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u/burnitdown007 1d ago
I bought a 48 roll of Marley’s monsters and we use the hell out of them. I’ve got a 10 month old though, so we do laundry like crazy anyways.
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u/Super-Travel-407 1d ago
I have a stack of dedicated dish cloths used as "paper towels". They are cotton and came in a 24 pack I think...I wash them hot with maybe a presoak and yeah they're stained and disreputable but I don't care.
Some things (bacon grease) I'll use paper for and then compost. I don't want that in my washer.
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u/Tortoiseshell_Blue 1d ago
The IKEA red and white dish rags are great. Last time I checked they were around 79 cents each. I buy a ton and they are in different life stages from pristine to gross. When too gross to clean I throw them out but they could probably be composted.
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u/EmbarrassedSong9147 1d ago
I got a big package of microfiber cloths at Costco. They clean much better than paper towels.
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u/alexthebiologist 1d ago
For me there’s always going to be a (small) place for single use paper towels, and bacon grease is just one of those uses. You’re not supposed to put anything that’s come in contact with grease or oil in your dryer to avoid fire, which means you’d also need to wash it by hand and keep it separate from your other laundry.
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u/teamboomerang 1d ago
I use rags for everything except gross messes and have cut down paper towel consumption to one package per year (I have a dog who occasionally gets into something she shouldn't and vomits). I just toss them in my regular loads of wash. Had them for YEARS, and I don't think any have gotten so gross I have thrown them away. I used old towels and just cut them up and serged the edges and keep them in a basket on the counter.
I am another who collects extra napkins from takeout to also use as paper towels, but I also made cloth napkins for actual napkin use out of thrifted quilting cotton.
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u/THEPrincess-D 1d ago
I bought flannel fabric with subtle prints. Cut into paper towel sized pieces and surge the edges. I even put them on a PVC core for my husband to roll them off as if they were paper towels. They’re very absorbent and better looking than paper towels.
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u/ExoticSherbet 1d ago
As others have said, I keep a drawer of rags (cut up tshirts, some cut up towels) & hand towels and then a little wire basket hangs next to my sink to hold the used ones. When that fills up I dump it into a larger laundry hamper in the garage (which is where my washer is). I store them dry and wash all my rags and towels together using hot water once a week.
Sometimes they’ll get a little too raggedy and then I’ll use them for grosser messes and throw them out. I still keep paper towels on hand, but my household uses one roll maaaaybe every 2 years?
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u/LadyOfTheNutTree 1d ago
I made some for gifts this Christmas. They’re pretty cool. The way I made them so you can roll them onto an old paper towel roll and pull off one at a time.
I don’t use them for exceptionally greasy things.
For bacon I put a wire rack over a sheet pan. Then I scrape the grease into my bacon grease can for reuse.
I don’t understand how you would cool cookies with paper towels to begin with? I’ve never used anything but a wire rack.
To clean I just toss them in the washer.
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u/vcwalden 1d ago
I put newspaper on a jelly roll pan with a cooling rack over it and drain the grease from bacon like that. I'm also saving the brown craft paper I get in shipping boxes and I'm planning on using that with a cooling rack over it for stuff like draining bacon.
Reusable paper towels are so worth it.
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u/birdsandbeesandknees 1d ago
Also, I have a “clean” set that I prefer as a hanky when I have a cold. The softness of them feels so good and I throw them in the wash. Less Kleenex
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u/Mondonodo 1d ago
I bought a big stack of microfiber towels and I find them super useful. I wouldn't use them for bacon grease, since laundering might not remove all of the grease and it could become a fire hazard in the dryer, but they're great for everyday spills and messes, as well as drying hands and cleaning. I even throw one in my work lunch bag to clean up whatever small messes I might make from eating.
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u/MeatPopsicle10 1d ago
I wouldn’t buy anything expensive. I’ve used grey washcloths, hand towels, and towels for every paper need for over a decade. A pack of washcloths costs about $10 and they last about 2-3 years. (I keep the ones I clean the bathrooms with separate because I don’t want to mix my bathroom stuff with kitchen stuff.)
Yes, bacon grease gets soaked up by a reusable white napkin or grey hand towel.
(But I use a plate to cool cookies, so not sure how I would even use a paper towel there?)
I don’t purchase paper towels, napkins, tissues, aluminum foil, parchment paper, dish sponges, nor ziplock bags ever. I have reusable alternatives for all of those things.
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u/FlashyImprovement5 1d ago
Absolutely.
Completely returnable and compostable at the end of its life.
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u/nope_nic_tesla 1d ago
I just use cloth napkins and cleaning rags. If they are particularly dirty, I will rinse them in the sink before washing. I just toss them in with towels or clothes (if they aren't too dirty).
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u/Hello-Witchling 1d ago
I don’t buy paper towels anymore. I have a collection of cleaning rags and kitchen towels. I use them for whatever I need and then wash them. Haven’t looked back. I don’t cook bacon, so not sure exactly about that, but I think you could use towels and wash them?
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u/FayeViolets 23h ago
I got some Swedish dish cloths for next to nothing. They hold up well through washing. They soak up so much so easily. And they dry out completely super quick. Also, it’s not a one use and wash situation. I treat them a bit like sponges. Rinse well, wring out and air dry to be used again next clean up. We use kitchen hand towels as like napkins and as hot bowl holders but the dish cloths are so much more equipped to handle clean up than those especially with the fast drying.
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u/hereitcomesagin 20h ago
Drain bacon on cheap cotton napkins and wash those and natural fiber dish towels with real soap in hot water.
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u/julianradish 17h ago
I like my reusable paper towels because they have a stickiness to each other that enables them to be stored on a roll instead of having to find a place to stash a box or stack of rags. I still have the regular paper towels for cat messes and grease.
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u/SueZen224 16h ago
When my dish towels start to get ragged and stained, I cut them in half, finish the edges on a sewing machine so they don’t fray, and fold them Marie Kondo style in a basket on the counter. About the size of a paper towel and I use them for all kitchen messes except the grossest ones - like others, I keep a roll of paper towels on hand but rarely use them.
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u/DryDiet6051 16h ago
Yes! I love them and have never gone back. They’re not the best for cleaning toilets etc but you can reserve some of them specifically for that purpose maybe by color coordinating. I love them and love that they easily roll onto the roll and I have them right on the inside of my cabinet below the sink. People saying ‘just use rags’ I guess, but the actual ones they sell are very absorbent, microfiberish, and don’t hold smells. I love them.
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u/VapoursAndSpleen 15h ago
Get a pack of bar cloths/bar rags. They are simple towels to absorb liquids. Toss them in the washer when they get funky. "reusable" paper towels are not. They're poor quality.
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u/eileenm212 12h ago
My reusable paper towels are cotton, flannel. They have been washed thousands of times.
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u/VapoursAndSpleen 7h ago
Good to know. So they aren't really paper towels, they are cotton towels and flannel towels (in my brain, anyway).
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u/Kimmalah 14h ago
I thought about getting them until it hit me that they're basically just...rags. I just cut up old t-shirts and towels to use for anything like that.
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u/mojoburquano 13h ago
I would NEVER put something coated in bacon grease into my washing machine. Clogging the drain tube or otherwise causing the need to replace an appliance is the opposite of zero waste.
Let grease coagulate, scrape out with a rubber spatula, and throw it away. You might look into compostable paper towels for the dirtiest messes. I’ve composted Kleenex successfully, but I have a farm with ample manure to help the process.
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u/Kellisandra 13h ago
We use Swedish dish clothes for anything that isn't draining grease or throwing away messes that are too gross to wash out. Will never go back.
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u/Specific-Sundae2530 13h ago
Cleaning cloths. Nothing new about it. My nanna used to cut up old bedsheets when they were worn out, and make cleaning cloths.
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u/eileenm212 12h ago
I LOVE mine. They are so pretty and soft. I have some old hospital blue towels I use for bacon, but otherwise, I use the pretty towels for everything else.
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u/Numerous_Smoke_7334 7h ago
I got a bunch of microfiber cloths that I use as napkins, paper towels, etc. Have no regretted it at all and they work great. I definitely recommend it but get enough so yours not having to wash every day. I have about 30.
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u/East-Cartoonist-272 2h ago
once you soak up grease throw them out- cloth soaked in grease is horrible for your washing machine. if you’re using rags that’s the rag to throw out when it’s greasy. A little spill is ok but if it’s a lot, throw it away.
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u/honestredditor1984 1d ago
We have a pack of organic cotton wipes. LOVE them. They are so handy. Like others have mentioned, we still have some regular paper towels around for certain things but use them way less. For bacon and all that, we have a tin foil lined bowl we dump in. When that gets full we throw that away. Alt would just be draining into the bowl and clearing out after.
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u/happy_bluebird 1d ago
Reusable paper towels = cloths. Use whatever old cloths or rags you have