Unpaper Towels

[dodgesmammaw]

Anyone making some unpaper towels? I need to make a new batch. I make them out of flannel and baby receiving blankets. Surprised some of my family or friends who laughed at me years ago haven't requested a batch. 

[susannah]

In the past, I made batches of "paper towel substitutes" out of old sweatshirts and thick cotton t-shirts but they kept disappearing. Turns out, dh was grabbing them for use in his workshop, then tossing them out. To be honest, I wouldn't have used a lot of them in the kitchen after he got done with them, anyway. 

We ended up with an understanding: He could keep all the ones he'd taken (that he hadn't tossed out) and I'd give him the rest of my "paper towel substitutes." Since he would be using them for similar purposes, there were a bunch that could be cleaned and used more than once. Or just used more than once, if for the same purpose (got that?). Meanwhile, I bought a big bunch of cheap dishcloths that had a surprisingly good weave to them, and told dh "These are the new paper towel replacments. They will be washed and used again and again. This little retractable clothes line is for hanging them on, so they don't get all mildew-y and gamey before I can wash a load of them. They are not for your workshop."

So far, this is working very well. Dh knows that as a sweatshirt or t-shirt gets too worn to wear, he'll get some new "paper towels" (much to my dismay, my beloved Loon Land t-shirt has just fallen into "paper towel" category). They're his to do what he wants with. But the dish cloths are off limits for use in his workshop.

We do occasionally use actual paper towels for particularly ooky things, but a roll of paper towels lasts a long, long time.

[feather]

I stopped buying paper towel years ago, and use the white tea towels, some of which get stained, until I made cheese. When I was sanitizing everything, there was a need for actual paper towels to keep things clean. Now I don't need them anymore again so we don't buy them. I can't actually get over how expensive they are when they are running $1/roll, you might as well buy fabric and deal with it that way.

The only time I need a napkin (package must be 4 years old), is to wipe the edges of the canning jars with vinegar when I'm canning, so that package of napkins will have to last another year or two.

I really need to cut up some of the old clothes we haven't thrown out yet, to make some kitchen cloths, like you two do. I had cut up dozens of tshirts for mr feather to use in the garage, and throw out. That was 2 years ago and he's got lots more left.

There now dodgesmammaw, and susannah, you've given my life a purpose. I bet you two didn't know the responsibility for me having purpose in my life would actually be yours.