I have always used kitchen towels to be kind to my pocketbook. We pay by the bag for garbage disposal, and all that paper stuff adds up.
I keep them in the drawer in the kitchen, all of them. No specials...BUT I do use paper to wipe out a fry pan.
When they get too ugly, they are retired to the rag bag, where they will live till they literally fall apart from use!
I watch for the sales at WmSonoma outlet. They have nice quality towels, that wash well.
I also have a few of those microfiber towels which I like when I wipe down the counters with vinegar and water in a spray bottle. Another environ friendly item as well as cheap!

I dry my cast iron by wiping it with a squeezed out sponge- any remainder quickly evaporates. But, unless you're hanging the towels up for display, as long as they're clean, do stains matter?

I wouldn't use cotton towels to wipe out the wok or to wipe down the grill. I use a brush on the wok like they do in a Chinese restraunt and dry it over a slow burner...unless it's "gooky" then I use salt and a paper towel.
Periodically I take home the churches dish towels and soak them for a couple of days in oxy clean and Biz....most everything comes out.
Linda C

I use cotton towels for most drying, using paper towels for cast iron skillets or things I feel may stain, such as wiping up spilled beet juice. If the stains get very noticable on my cotton towels I do the same as Kathleen and retire them to the rag stack in the laundry room. I keep a plastic pail between the washer and dryer where I put the dirty rags and wash them when the pail is full.

I plan on making the same change you mentioned. I'm good at recycling and grey water, but have a dependency on paper towels. I'm not sure how environmentally friendly it is, but have you tried Oxy-clean?? Also, you could air dry them, to be more eco-friendly :) Christy

I use lots of kitchen towels, and use the rotation method. New ones are displayed and used, slightly stained ones are used but not on display, badly stained ones rotate to the rag pile. All are bleached so they are clean.
I usually buy 100 cotton, in assorted sizes. Bar towels(or mops) are inexpensive and used for most kitchen chores, but not displayed.
Di

I barely use paper towels anymore. Those cotton, that are way to stained or are threadbear, are sent into the garage for garden fingers or the rag bin. Even my cleaning ladies don't want paper anymore, so the old ones are still in use.

When the really, really old ones are about to disintegrate in the wash I can send them to the compost bin. They are cotton and will break down.

If your towels are solid white, no colors you can wash them using a product called "white magic" to realy bleach them clean. Note that it will also remove any colors. And remember, stains on a kitchen towel just show that you are cooking!

I can't add anything but just want to say that the posts so far are well thought out. They will cause me to rethink my routines.

Jim

I've had the same kitchen towel system for over 20 years and it has worked fine. I keep 4 different types of small towels...two terrycloth, one linen and one smooth cotton, all with loops and hanging on the inside of my kitchen door on hooks.

The farthest left towel is terrycloth and is for drying hands only, the next one is the linen one for drying glasses, silverware and dishes, the third (from the left) is the cheaper cotton square one used for drying pots and pans, coffee pot or coffee filter cone. The last one, furthest right and also terrycloth, is an older towel formerly used for drying hands which is now used for wiping off or shining the kettle, toaster or sink when it's clean but wet, or for drying off any wet clean kitchen surfaces.

As we wash dishes by hand and let them air dry, the drying towels are hardly used and stay pretty clean for a week, when I change them.
I use paper towels rarely, mostly as paper napkins when having coffee outside in the garden, not for kitchen wipeups. Frying pans are dried off with a flat sponge and left to finish air drying on top of the stove.

This has worked so well for me that I've never thought to change it. I don't seem to get many stains on the towels but whatever is there comes out in the washing machine and when drying in the sun.

SharonCb

Ditto Kathleen.

I buy the bulk side towels from Sam's Club as I use them in culinary school too. I have to mark my name on them with a laundry marker or the other students steal them!

I have about 15 dishtowels that I keep folded in a basket by the sink, in an assortment of colors and fabrics. The paper towel holder is on the other side of the sink, not quite as convenient as the dishtowels. I use them both, but I use the dishtowels more than paper towels since they are so easy to grab. If I kept them in a drawer, I doubt I would use them, out of sight, out of mind.

I just don't worry that much about the stains. Maybe I'm a slob, but I do try to keep a few nice ones. The grungier ones are the ones I use to wipe out my skillet.

Don't forget to use cloth napkins, too. I haven't bought paper napkins in years. What a waste those are.

Sally

My stash of kitchen towels is divided into two places, active ones in a drawer in the kitchen and back-up towels in a bag in the laundry room. Periodically I switch them up so I'm not using the same towels all the time. I've got towels from trips, towels I've made, and towels others have made and given to me. My favorite towels for drying dishes are the real linen ones that I made years ago. They still look great after 20 years or more and dry the best of any towels I have.

Every year when I go to Lancaster to shop for quilt fabric, I pick up several yards of toweling that they keep on hand for the Amish and Mennonite homemakers. I won't buy anything but 100% cotton or linen. I don't throw many towels out; when they start to get raggedy I put them in the dust cloth bag.

I use paper towel for really grungy work and I use dark or patterned terry type towels for wiping my hands, etc. when I'm cooking - instead of using alot of paper towels. I do also use those flour sack towels for some things. Frankly I don't worry about the stains - I don't keep the stained towels out on display. I wash them - they're clean - I keep using them until they disintegrate and become too thin to be useful. Then they go into my rag pile.

I've reduced my paper towel usage to about a roll a week now. I only use them for greasy cleanups.

I use white dishcloths and towels, looped, plain, etc.

Besides Oxiclean (long soak like Lindac), I learned a trick from a clothing detergent manufacturer: use clorine bleach without soap. Soap neutralizes the bleaching agent. Try it. Then wash with soap.

I don't obsess about yellow stains or berry stains, I just bring the worst ones to my CT (LOL) or make them into rags.

My "decor" towels are mostly for fingertip use.

I buy bulk at Wal-mart. My better ones are from Wm Sonoma or Crate and Barrel.

Oh, I only use white bath towels now too...makes life so much easier.

Me too, all the above. No more paper towels or napkins; Lots of stains - recycle those to the dust rag bin; use mostly the potato sack kind and old linen napkins.and I use the small terry squares for pot holders. DH hates the stained ones but oh well, what's a girl to do?

I only use paper towels when I have something really gicky (drying off chicken) or dirty (cleaning and drying iron frying pans or the grill.) I've always been considered a renegade by friends because I always, always use cloth napkins.

I find that a pre-soak in Biz and then a wash in a light bleach bath keeps them all fairly spot free.

I also have a large rag-bag. ;-)

We could all learn a lesson from the Amish:

years ago I was privileged to sit in an Amish kitchen and visit with the older couple that lived there; Mary was baking cookies and cooled the hot out-of-the-oven cookies on the paper of opened flour sacks; she had a stack of flat, opened up paper flour sacks about 3" thick; when one got too oily, she crumpled it up and had a fresh one underneath; I'll bet she drained all fried foods this way too.

In the cabinet, I have 40 or so cheap white washcloths and I marked all of them with a dot of acrylic paint in the corner. I did the same for bathroom cleaning cloths but with a different color paint.
I use these for all wiping and cleaning in the kitchen. I also have a drawer of kitchen towels for drying our hands and that type of thing. I keep one next to the sink draped over a large heavy pitcher. It looks and works nicely. They all look good, but aren't the best.
Then!, I have kitchen towels in the laundry closet that I use when we have company. These are still functional but are perhaps embroidered and look new and fit the season. They are all pressed and most are new and somewhat pricey. I will use them in the pitcher next to the sink and for lining bread baskets.

I seem to have dishcloth fetish- I am always scoping them out at tjmaxx and tuesday morning.
Some of the worst ones I've bought were from Crate and Barrel. They were great looking: large, colorful and attractive Christmas patterns. But when I finally used them at a Christmas party and washed them -in cold water- the dyes bled all over and ruined the patterns. I should have sent them back but I had bought them in October and didn't have the receipt anymore.

We do use our share of paper towels. I go through perhaps 2 rolls a week. I am trying to break dh's habit of using one to dry his hands. This is strange because he is a very frugal person.
I still use paper towels for gunky stuff like wiping out the dish drain or other yucky stuff.

I have been working very hard to reduce my use of paper towels. Pretty much down to using them for greasy fry pans and cat issues, but am looking at ways to reduce that too.

I refuse to use any bleach or chemical based product to make a tea towel look better. So I let my cloth towels "evolve"!

I have five categories and they all work thorough the cycle!

Stage 1....Company worthy, left out, pretty, and stain free.
Stage 2....General purpose, a litle tired but presentable.
Stage 3....Work horse, used for what ever it needs to be used for
Stage 4....The rag bin........which is Clive's domain. Makes perfect cloths for washing the car
Stage 5 ... the compost heap.

I'm a "born again" when it comes to recycle, we need to think long and hard about what we are doing with our environment.

Replacing dish towels is cheap compared to the impact on our environment, who cares how white your tea towels are?

I only use paper napkins for an outdoors or large party. Everyday use is multiple sets of cloth napkins. It was DH's preference 33 years ago and I much prefer the feel on my hands and mouth.
Paper towels, I admit I use them far too much, but have many, many cloth towels for daily use too. I've cut my paper towel use down to about a roll per week, but when the grands are here it seems to ramp up quite a bit!

I almost never use paper towels. One roll will last me several months. I clean up most spills with sponges, and I seldom wipe a skillet or frying pan - I generally wash them with water and then put on a burner for a few seconds to dry them out. I probably use terry towels in the kitchen more than any other kind, but I also have the cotton plain weave tea towels that I use to dry crystal and glassware.

I have no towels on display to impress company - there's no room in my kitchen for more than one person at a time. I would be more likely to hide my good tea towels when I have company, so that they won't get stains on them.

Lars

Just to clarify, by "displayed" I mean hanging on the oven door handle or a drawer pull! lol.( I have seen some of your beautiful kitchens) Extras are neatly folded on the secound shelf of my kitchen cart.

Just plain white towels in this country kitchen.

Bubbeskitchen, I will have to try the chlorine bleach, then soap method.
Di

I'm glad to know that I'm not the only person who prefers cloth to paper. Paper just seems so wasteful. I have a roll of paper towels, but we go through them very slowly. Mostly I used them as napkins in my husband's lunches, and then it occurred to me that since he takes his lunch in a cooler that he must bring home anyway, so I started using cloth napkins in his lunch "pail" as well.

Now, I guess I mostly use them to clean up kitty upchuck, to fold up in plastic bags containing produce to soak up excess moisture (although I've started using cloth for this as well) and to wipe out frypans.

I have a drawer full of rags and towels. buy white terry towels in big packages from Costco for cleaning and soaking up spills, and get yards of 100% cotton fabric from the dollar a yard rack in fabric stores, cut it up and run a really quick hem on them for drying towels. I can make enough towels in half an hour to last me months, having only spent a couple of dollars.

As the rags get too "raggy", they go into a bag in the garage and my husband hauls them up to the local railroad park where the volunteers use them to clean the steam engines...they go through a ton of rags and don't care how stained or worn they are.

I do the same thing for napkins...buy sale materials, hem two sides, and fray the other two for fringe, just running a couple of lines of stitching to keep the fray from progressing too far. They're so much nicer and thriftier to use than paper. I can make them to match my table clothes (I make those too) or to contrast, and size them the way I like.

I don't think stains hinder performance. I hang mine under the sink, but I don't care if anyone sees my kitchen towels and dishcloths. I don't use chlorine bleach, and if they get incredibly gross, I use them for other cleanups/rags.

I buy "bar mops" at Sam's Club, less than $10 for a package of 15. They're plain white terry cloth, as are my bath towels and wash clothes, LOL.

I use mine for everything, I seldom buy paper towels. I have a towel over my shoulder nearly any time I'm in the kitchen.

When they get absolutely embarrassing even though they are clean, they go to Dave as garage rags and I blow another $10 for more bar mops.

Annie

Wow Annie - here the packages of "bar mops" (or side towels) are a package of 48 for $15.

As bathtowels were mentioned, I found that it's nice and easy to have one colour towel per person.
So Wolf's towels are all blue and mine are ivory or white. We keep a stack of spares in all sizes in each other's bathroom on a shelf and put out each week an x-large showertowel, a large drying towel, a small handtowel and a facecloth. They are changed and washed once a week. That works fine too.

SharonCb

I always use kitchen towels rather than paper although I have paper ones on hand. I hate when they look stained so I buy mostly dark colored ones! The stains don't show that way! When I wash them I do use Oxy clean from time to time and it doesn't seem to fade them much. The white ones are pretty but I hate it when they get stained.

I use paper towels and don't see that changing any time soon. I like paper towels. Although maybe next time I stock up on them I'll give the ones made from recycled paper a try.

Ann

I pretty much use kitchen towels for everything (except wiping up particularly messy stuff of course). I think I use one roll of paper towels every four months or so. I've been looking at making some fabric napkins, but I'm not sure what kind of fabric will be soft yet durable. Any recommendations?

I use a variety of things to clean up, sponges, microfiber cloths, and paper towels more sparingly. The tea towels get used for hand drying, dish drying, pot holders, etc., not for clean-up. They don't dry fast enough and tend to sour. And I don't like terrycloth in the kitchen, it seems to collect bits, ick. Microfiber dries quickly hung over the faucet. It gets a bleach rinse as does my sink. Sponges go into the dishwasher after a good rinse and squeeze.

Like Lars, it takes at least a month, really more like 2 or 3 months for us to use up a roll of paper towels. I can't think of a kitchen job that a cloth towel or rag can't do. The only time I use paper towels is to clean up after my cats if they have an accident or leave me a hair ball, and then I don't even use paper towels that much, because toilet paper (am I allowed to say that on the forums? lol) is flushable, so I use that instead.

Sally

Bri,
Many folks like to use small hand towels for table napkins, they're soft, fold easily, come in many colors and are very durable for everyday family use. I think linen/cotton dish towels could be cut up for napkins. I've always made table napkins and cut them square 15-inches to 17-inches for everyday use. Fancy dinner napkins are usually larger. A linen-type blend of fabric or heavier cotton serves better than thin calico cottons. Nothing worse than a flimsy napkin.

Even if you decide to buy some rather than make them, you can feel good about your decision to use napkins that are reusable. If you find some you really like, buy more than you think you will need, then you will have them for guests too. I use a napkin for about a week or less if it gets noticeably dirty. You don't have to put out fresh napkins at every meal. Most family members sit in the same place at meals anyway.

I'm like ann t and still use paper towels, but to a minimum. I buy inexpensive hand towels to drap over our kitchen drawer handles to use for drying hands and dishes. Paper towels are used mainly to drain grease from bacon or wipe out greasy kettles before washing. I use older wash cloths as "rags" in the kitchen to wipe up spills on the counter or floor. But you can find many green paper products these days that are made from recycled materials and are 100% biodegradable and compostable so you don't have to feel guilty about throwing them away.

I use paper and cloth. For messy spills I use two small

Here in SoCal we will be facing a water shortage and possibly rationing soon. So there may be a marginal reason to use paper (which I know uses water to manufactur) - just a thought.

I used paper towels fairly exclusively for the last 15 years. The change to washcloths has been primarily to reduce our paper towel usage for saving money. However, I now prefer the wiping ability of a washcloth much better than the paper towels. They really have more "grip" and clean better.
The smoother texture of dish towels (compared to the cheapo washcloths) is about the same as a paper towel though.

Pat, I need to come visit you and stock up! I use those bar mops for everything.

My non-use of paper towels is for two reasons. The first is to save money, I do laundry anyway so I just toss them in with the whites, so I don't use any more water or gas for the dryer, etc. The second reason is because we now have free recycling, so I cancelled my garbage service. Oh wait, that saves money too, LOL, about $30 a month. However, I have to take everything to the recyling center myself, there's no curbside service. So, the more I use in paper products the more I have to haul to recycling or find a way to dispose of.

Dave has a big commercial sized dumpster because of the business, so anything I can't recycle or compost goes there, but I have to haul it. The less garbage I have to haul in the Jeep, the better I like it, LOL.

As for paper napkins, I've NEVER liked paper napkins unless I'm eating something really messy like ribs. I like cloth napkins and have a basket that sits on the end of my counter. Those just go in the laundry too.

Annie

I bought a huge box of shop rags at Home Depot, they're a cotton t-shirt type material, that I use for most wiping chores. I just wash them with my whites and NEVER wory about stains. My towels stay pretty clean. I hang a used mesh garlic bag upside-down under the sink, it makes for a nice dispenser.

I still use paper towels to dry food (like drying off chicken before I season it), anybody have a different method for that?

aug

I use both. Here in San Diego County, we are being encouraged to try to use less water, but we have a very active recycling program. Paper towels and napkins can be placed in the recycling bin, but if we use a lot of cloth that has to be washed, we end up using more water. So it's a real toss-up. I think we use about a roll of paper towels every week, but a large package of paper napkins lasts us for months.

I sop up grease with paper towels - and I prefer Bounty classics. They are thick, absorbent, and it only takes 1 or 2 to do the job of 4 or 5 cheaper, thinner ones. I haven't found one made from recycled paper (yet) that I like as well as the Bounty classics. Paper towels are also used for wiping up large spills. But as for hands - cloth. Wash the hands first under a little running water, and dry on a cloth towel.

DonnaR/CA

I use a kitchen sponge and dish towels for almost everything. A roll of paper towels probably lasts me 3 weeks or more. Only used for oiling my cast iron, draining fried foods (which hardly ever happens anymore).
I do use them for cleaning the car windows.

We recently switched to cloth napkins, but still have some paper available.
I don't think cloth would have worked for me when all 4 kids were at home. Sheesh! We had to color code their water glasses to avoid having a dozen or more per day!

I HATE paper napkins with anything sticky like ribs, chicken. The paper ends up stuck to my fingers. Another "PRO" for cloth.

Deanna