We don't use paper towels here. We use washcloths and sometimes when a bath towel has gotten too worn out I'll cut it into washcloth size pieces and add that to stock pile.

We keep a plastic kitchen trashcan under the kitchen sink and put all the dirty rags in there. When it's full, I wash them with oxygen bleach and powder detergent and hot water with a soak.

I keep paper towels on hand, but those are only for company since most people recoil at the thought of something other than first touched by me.

I use flour sack towels for all kitchen use except raw meat. My kids use them as napkins. I do not use them to clean with except a cooked food or drink spill. I use microfiber to clean house. I have about 80 a week in the laundry. Pizza, red sauce, olive oil, mustard ect...a quick prewash than a sanitize wash and they are stain free and blindingly white. I don't use chlorine bleach but I do use oxygen bleach. I have found Walmart to have the best buy on flour sack towels 12 for about 9$ last I checked. They are 100% cotton so they do well in very hot water and are bleach friendly if you use it. I only buy paper towels for raw meat and dog messes otherwise its the flour sacks and microfiber cloths. I've saved money for sure.

Mama, please remind us again what products you use when you wash your flour sack towels?

BTW, I have ditched paper towels myself. I bought the yellow microfiber towels at Costco and use them for virtually everything except cleaning the toilet. If you go the microfiber route, wash them a few times before your first use and never use any fabric softener or dryer sheets and dry them on low.

Greeny I've always used Tide with Bleach powder or Persil Pearls, but lately I've been using Persil Free and either Vanish or ALL oxygen bleach. .screaming white.

I used to hate microfiber but Roc uses them so I figure they work well. I still don't like how they feel but they do such a great job its worth it. I wash them the same as the flour sacks (not together)but I only tumble them a few minutes on low. No FS ever.

What do you put bacon or fried foods on to soak up the oil?

Elizabeth, I do have a roll of paper towels for such things (and toilet).

BTW, thanks Mama for posting your recipe for screaming white towels. I also have All oxygen bleach and agree it works really well. I liked Persil Free but not as much as Costco's Kirkland Free that I'm currently using.

When I was young, my mother put one paper towel on top of a paper grocery bag for draining bacon and fried chicken to conserve on the paper towels.

Thanks,all, for your input. You've given me the boost I needed to make the switch. I think I'll buy white, so I can tell when they're clean.

I know a fairly large number of people are anti-paper towel, but I don't really understand. I bought a BIG package of paper towels last February (I write purchase dates on big packages so I can keep track of how long they last), and I just brought out the last roll,and I noted the rate of use ... so I'm using paper towels at the rate of less than one roll per month. Not 'specially wasteful.

I use a paper towel if I'm making a sandwich, if I'm draining something fried, various other uses.

I don't use paper towels for cleaning toilets, etc. Wouldn't they fall apart while you're scrubbing? Rather, I have a set of microfiber cleaning cloths (assorted bright colors), which I keep separate from kitchen towels. I use them all over the house for cleaning, and I wash them separately. They do seem to be superior to plain washcloths for cleaning, and as long as you wash them properly -- they'll be ruined if you wash them with terrycloth towels -- they last forever.

I have terrycloth kitchen towels for drying hands after washing, lifting hot things out of the oven, wiping up a drink spill, etc. I wash them together with terrycloth bath towels.

I like the idea of a grocery bag + one paper towel for draining bacon ... but I never have paper grocery bags anymore.

Mrs Pete,

It sounds like you have your paper towel usage under control. You have a nice system figured out. That was nice to read.

For some other people, paper towel usage can be what seems extreme. I know for our household, back in the early 1990's, before we made the switch, we would go through a roll of paper towels at a rate of one roll every day or two. I had to figure out a way to stop the paper towel madness around here and thus switched over to cloth towels at that time. It's worked well for us ever since. Our children grew up with this way of 'toweling'. One is a cloth towel person and launders them when she runs out. The other one has switched over to be a paper towel person now and buys her stash at Costco and is happy with things this way. Paper towels do have their place in my home and I too will use them on the rare occasion I cook bacon or french fries, or need to clean up messes left by wildlife...things like that. A Costco package of paper towels last several years here. I guess I don't need to buy them at Costco lol.

I would say most of the people I know in real life are big consumers of paper towels. Much like we used to be. Many of them use the subscribe and save feature on Amazon and have large packages of paper towels automatically delivered to their homes so they are never without them. I find that when guests come over they are intrigued with the idea of cloth towelettes for everyday kitchen and cleaning use. Most of the adult guests over age 40 turn their nose up at this practice after they think about it for a few minutes though. And that's A-OK to me. Many guests under the age of 40 though, have these light bulb moments and say thats a great idea and think about the used paper towels they are sending to the landfill and the money and natural resources spent on paper towels when they could be using reusable cloth towels instead. Then they too want to make the switch from paper to cloth towels.

It's all a matter of choice and what works for you.

I am raising two young grands...I go thru tons of paper towels which is why I made the switch to cloth.

My bathrooms are stocked with a large'ish basket filled with cheap white face cloths rolled neatly for drying hands. A clean one each time and I've found guests expecially appricate this instead of using a community towel.

I do not wash any kitchen towels with bath towels ever. I know we all have some amounts of ecoli near our....area....LOL. All of my towels, kitchen, bath, hands are white. I enjoy the clean fresh look of white.

Elizabeth, as for frying foods I use paper towels, but I do little frying as it makes me ill smelling hot oil. I always have a few brown paper bags and next rare time I decide to be expecially nice to the family and fry something I'll use your method. Sounds like a great idea.

As for the toilet. My hubs brings me stacks of cloth like disposable cloths home from work they work great for the toilets which get wiped down daily, boys ya know.

Lets touch on disinfection while were talking about kitchen towels. Its a good idea to either use thermal or chemical disinfection since many times kitchen towels are exposed to raw meats or other foods with risks of bacterias. In other words either wash them on a sanitize cycle that truely heats the water to the proper temps (not all washers with a sanitize cycle actually engage the heater, some manufactures LIE) or use chlorine bleach unless your sure the towels wernt exposed to dangerous bacterias.

Its really not difficult to keep white kitchen towels white, just don't be a cold water person. LOL

With 7 people in the house, we use a TON of paper towels. Hence the switch. When we empty the nest, I'll sure it would be a lot less.

We use the white terry shop towels from Costco instead of paper towels. They get washed separately with hot water, then they get bleached. When they get worn, we save them to use on the big messes (e.g. pet accident, cleaning in the garage, etc.), then I'll wash those separately from everything else.

Who uses paper towels for cleaning a toilet? We always have paper towels, but try to use them judiciously. Pet messes? Sorry, anything with urine, feces, vomit gets paper towels that are thrown out.

We also use microfiber towels, sponges, and scrub brushes.

I have been thinking about this for ages. Seems every other day we go through a roll of paper towels & there is only 3 adults! Big problem is DH & son often use paper towels to blow their noses even though in our small ranch, the tissues in the bathroom are 20 steps away! I always tell them, but they ignore me. I would probably just throw them down the laundry hole in the bathroom, as under my sink is very cluttered. Love my laundry hole which falls into a laundry basket in the downstairs bathroom (used to fall on the cellar floor near my laundry area). I would just have to go down more often & hang them around the basket to dry. Nobody uses that bathroom but my son. Bought some napkins for Thanksgiving & want to go to cloth napkins for everyday, but they will think I am nuts. I am definitely going to do this!

Microfiber towels have replaced paper for many tasks. Nothing is better than wiping up spills or removing a fresh stain -- I can get red wine out of almost anything with a microfiber towel. Also have found white waffle micros that are best at drying dishes, pots, pans silverware etc in the kitchen.

Downside of microfiber is that it melts easily so can't go super hot with it though I have used it for wiping out a warm oven. It's amazing at that but use an old one as those grease stains from the oven bond and it never gets clean again.

Otherwise, I like old linen towels which I bought from France on ebay because they are huge and I hate dish drainers so I put stuff down on the towels and then wipe it dry. They also have hanging hooks.

Paper towels have their place. Sometimes I will use one as a napkin or fold it over as a coaster. So I wouldn't get rid of them entirely. But, agree, they are wasteful so using them more carefully seems right.

One thing about draining bacon. My DD cooks bacon on cooking parchment in the oven. It sort of automatically drains as it cooks.

Roc my favorite kitchen towel is the french linen one you sent me, but its only out for special occasions. LOL

You guys are encouraging me to look for ways to improve paper waste here. We do have a lot of raw meat out daily (for our cats, not us) but in almost all other tasks, cloth could work. MamaP, love the idea of single use facecloths for drying hands.

Lizzie there's actually several folks here that use single use cloths in the bath for hand drying. I know Larsi does also.

I found that our Habitat for Humanity restore (thrift shop) had tons of very cheap cotton and linen napkins, many of them look to be never used. If you have a store like this, take a look. I also found that our grocery store called Marc's has a closeout section where I found packages of new 100% cotton napkins for dirt cheap. I'm not sure how far the Marc's chain reaches though but I love that store!

If you sew, a tip for making wash cloths last longer is to stitch the edges while they are brand new, that will keep them for falling apart later. This tip also applies to towel and hand towels! They are stitched so poorly from the factory that often times, they will begin to fall apart on the first washing.