Is there anything more tragic than rushing over to the dispenser only to realize that there are no paper towels? All that remains is a smug brown tube with a few tantalizing bits of paper towel clinging to it that serve only to mock you. So you go to get another roll, only to discover that you’re out! Now you have to put them on your shopping list.
Paper towels are one of those products where going with the cheap or off-brand is absolutely not worth it. While I’m not above getting the Wal-Mart brand of just about anything, bargain paper towels just don’t cut it. They are flimsy, scratchy, and are about as effective as the brown paper towels you remember cranking out of the dispensers in your elementary school bathroom. Y’know, the ones that pushed spilled milk around on the table instead of actually absorbing it, and then when it did finally get wet, it disintegrated into a million little shreds? See, you do remember.
All right, time to get the good kind! Buying in bulk is smart, right? A 12-pack of good paper towels can cost up to $25, which is a pretty hefty chunk of change for something you use to clean up yucky stuff and then just throw away. It’s enough to make you fall to your knees and beg the heavens for freedom from this cycle of expensive waste!
Never fear — there is a solution!
When I was growing up, we had a roll of paper towels, but my mom kept them in a cupboard where we couldn’t reach. We rarely, if ever, used them, and it was expected that if someone made a mess, they would clean it up with a rag.
Cloth rags are incredibly useful. I keep several different rags for different jobs. Microfiber cloths are good, but if you’re cleaning glass, you definitely want the remnants of an old T-shirt, because it doesn’t leave fuzzies on anything. A great go-to scrubber is the fabric they make thermal underwear out of. The best part? When your rags are dirty, you can just wash and reuse them, instead of throwing them away and creating more waste. If you want, you can go out and buy a bunch of different cloths and dish rags.
The best way to acquire a good supply: Cut up old clothes you were planning to throw away anyway
Once they are too worn out to be of use, you can finally throw them away or find a way to recycle them, perhaps by cutting them into strips and putting them out for birds to use in their nests.
We’re pretty crazy-busy at my house. A lot of our dinners happen on the fly, and we don’t participate in the old art of setting the table. For a long time, we used paper towels for napkins, especially for my husband who has a beard that tends to collect sauces and juices.
Then, when my grandmother moved out of her house and into assisted living, she gave us a lot of her heirloom linens, including dining napkins. At first I was afraid to use them, covered as they are with intricate embroidery and lace, but I realized that they were made to be used, and to just leave them in a drawer isn’t really honoring their history. So now we keep a stack next to the table to use, and then just toss them in the laundry at the end of the meal when we clear the table.
Boom, no need for paper towels or paper napkins
Let me guess, you have one more very important question — if you don’t have any paper towels, what do you use to drain your bacon? The answer is brown paper grocery bags! Anytime you fry something and want to drain it onto an absorbent surface, use a brown grocery bag. That way you’re getting another use out of the bag, and you don’t have to cave to the ridiculous pressure to buy paper towels.
It’s time to break free from the stranglehold paper towels have placed upon our kitchens and our lives. The Brawny Man might be a lumberjack, but it’s about time he gets the axe!
