I use the paper towels in public reset rooms because many folks don't like to wash their hands and they use the door handle with poopy hands on the way out. I would be really nice if all the public restrooms had those neat foot pull devices on the door.
I used old cut-up t-shirts (think man's old under shirt) for the supper gross stuff. I did throw them away after I wiped up the gross stuff though. I have three drawers categorized the towels for drying hands, counter top and dinner table wiping, and kitchen floor towels (for some reason, my kitchen floor always get wet every time I am in there prepping for dinner. Lol!) . I also have a basket full of (white) towels for drying dishes directly above my kitchen sink, if I need to use a dish before it is air dried. I also have recently re-implementing the cloth napkins on our dinner table. Love your drying your hand on your pants idea but I do use their paper towel so I don't touch the door knob with my cleaned hand in public places. Lol! I unearth my paper towels for companies who come to visit and not quite like the idea of paper- towel-free just yet. Relationship trumps life style, always. :)
Thank you for the vinegar wash tip! I use homemade laundry soap and my mom recently told me she thought all my ‘clean’ rags were dirty when she tried to clean the inside of the car windshield with them. I also use the pants to dry hands method...gotta balance things out from my coworkers who use 3-5 paper towels to dry their hands every time. 🙄
Hey love, I really appreciate your channel and your content and was so pleased to see an entire RU-vid channel dedicated to this! Also I wanted to applaud you for your encouragement to move toward zero-waste in a way that doesn’t shame. (Even when it’s highly frustrating to watch the way the majority of the world operates) Cuz we know that’s not going to incite change! Thanks again for all you do! ❤️
Lol I did the same thing when I was starting zero waste 😂 I hid our paper towels behind the garbage can underneath the sink so that they’d be out of sight and out of mind. We use a combination of regular kitchen towels and some small rags that we keep in a jar out of sight. We use the little rags for all of the gross stuff so that we don’t stain our nicer towels, and no one sees our stained little rags anyways 🤷🏻♀️ so it works for me lol
A tip from a old timer: a bathroom doesn’t need a solution, esp if it has toothpaste on it. A tip from me: crumbs can be more easily dealt with dry. Brush off. Then clean the surface. I have no kids at home now so am lacking good rags, but the Inn near me has lots they’ll share. Pat anything dry with a clean rag. Just a few ideas. You don’t have to have a washer. Rinse immediately and wash in the sink twice a week. I boil my “ good” rags.
When you mentioned people who use paper towels to dry their hands at home...it took me back. I had a guest one time who used a glass measuring cup to heat up water for tea in the microwave. just to heat the water, and then pour it into her mug. She then asked if she needed to clean it, I said no, and she ripped off a paper towel to *slightly* dry it and put it back in the cabinet. It never occurred to me to use a disposable paper towel to *dry* a glass dish, which would have dried pretty quickly on its own. obviously I didn't say anything, but it did catch me off guard.
Been using cloth forever and paper only for patting dry meat. Recently switched to using flour sack dish towels for meat. It seems a little gross at first but now i love it. It's like a spa towel for my chicken. Then it just goes in the wash with a bit of bleach.
I come from the time before disposable diapers. When your precious baby pooped, you initially dunked the diaper in the toilet, then you soak it, then you wash it. So, cleaning up animal puke with a cloth is nothing for my generation. I love your ideas and your videos and I'll be searching for cloth diapers for my clean-ups.
This is what I dont get though, if 15% of the cost goes on packaging why are bulk stores usually quite expensive? Shouldnt it be less expensive because no packaging is used rather its reused?
What is your view or suggestions on reducing paper towels use in healthcare/medical settings? Cos we have to wash our hands so frequently and look into infection control and contact precaution, but all these add up on one-time use items not only paper towels but also gloves, mask, apron, full PPE (personal protection equipment).
I live in an apartment that doesn’t have a washer and dryer hookup. Do I bought a RV washer/dryer combo for $100 and it’s been super helpful. I’ve had it for about 2-3 years and we use it 1-2x per day and it’s still going strong. It’s the perfect size to wash a load of rags that will now replace my paper towels.
Great tips on slowing down and being handy. I appreciate your suggestions. Basically just don’t buy the paper towels and then we will figure it out. Keep inspiring!!!
With some cook potatoes, cut them in slices or cubes and make them cook them in the bacon grease! In French, we call them patates rôties what you call breakfast potatoes!
Pretty sure the environmental impact of producing and throwing away paper towels outweighs that of washing and drying reusable towels. And I'd much rather spend my money on that than something I'm going to immediately throw away.
The cleaning surfaces and washing my hands I definitely need to improve on! I waste a lot of paper towels like that. But, i dont bother with windows and at work we just use air to dry hands. I dont have a washer though so for very dirty stuff I would still use paper towels but that happens so rarely i could make a 6 pack of paper towels last 2 months or more
Girl Meets Farm has a pretzel bun stuffing recipe that calls for bacon grease! And if you just don’t keep bacon in hand you can make some out of coconut oil and bacon seasoning (which is also excellent).
We use paper towels very infrequently. I use rags for everything. Except wiping down the litter box with a bleach mixture so I’m not sure how to get around that one...
You didn’t cover a few reasons we all really use paper towels. 1) if you bake a cake, you have to get your fingers in shortening to grease a pan. We use them to wipe off this excess grease from our hands. 2 bacon, or other fried items. If I make bacon I put the bacon or say fried chicken or potatoes on a folded paper towel to absorb the excess grease so the food isn’t sitting in grease. Who wants all that grease on rags? What about these things??
the grease in the pan is not the only problem. after frying something (btw in my household we mostly fry veggies) the food is dripping with excess oil. this is currently the main use of paper towles in our home. when our cat used to be alive we used a lot of paper towels. his last few months of living he was extremely gross. even though we used a lot of reusable towels to clean up his mess, after max. 2 days ALL our reusable towels would be used up. we would have had to wash all our dirty towels daily to have enough, which would have been worse for the environment and extremely time-intensive.
I realized that I use way too many paper towels and I thought what is even the purpose if I can just wash a cloth after I use it to clean something. So I just went out and bought some dish cloths and now I don’t use paper towels anymore. It’s so simple I don’t know why i didn’t see this idea sooner. Paper towels suck!
The only thing I buy paper towels (or 'kitchen roll' as its called in the UK) for is cat puke. I have 4 cats and sometimes it's too gross to just pick up and put in the wash, I will say though it's about 1 roll in 6 months and if I had a separate compost could be put straight in there (working on that). I can't understand why anyone would use them to wipe worktops or their hands or use paper napkins at home. My gran/parents have always used tea towels or rags for that type thing so I suppose I've never known any different! I also don't have separate rags, just use the same cloths for everything except the toilet. I'm also a big fan of just using vinegar for all cleaning, including worktops and floors; I raw feed my cats, eat off my worktops and haven't got a stomach bug in 35 years haha so don't think it's necessary to use paper towels and antibacterial spray or (shudder) bleach around the home. Your microbiome will thank you for the lack of 'hygiene' ;) Oh and I'm also a 'pants' hand dryer, denim works especially well!
I pretty much only use paper towels for gross stuff. Also, sometimes a half of a paper towel with my fruit, so it lasts longer. The ladder I could use a regular towel for. But I can't wrap my brain around using a towel for cat puke.
I only use paper towel or even a toilet paper to clean only for outside of toilets. Its only for toilet cleaning in my house. And i try to maximize each. For other surfaces, i use the good old rag and wash them after use
I swore I would never get rid of paper towels on day 1 of going zero waste. I was raised to believe I NEEDED them to be sanitary and safe in the kitchen. Since about 1998, my dad was convinced he needed clean paper towels EVERY time he washed his hands AT HOME. I KNEW this was ridiculous, but I myself still managed to use about 1 roll of paper towels each week. By day 3 of going zero waste, bam, paper towels and paper napkins gone from my life. I think I've only used them once, for absorbing bacon grease, not in the pan, I put that into a separate cup for my city's food waste collection service, but to dry the cooked bacon. On the 2nd batch of bacon, I just drip dried the bacon and skipped the paper towels👍😍😍. I don't have a washing machine, so I've been carefully shopping online for the perfect extra sets of sack flour towels (the best for cleaning, food prep and kitchen uses) and napkins, since I totally don't have enough from what household scraps I could gather around and from what I could DIY out of old tshirts and towels🤩🤩🤩
From the Guardian, "Multiple studies have shown synthetic fibers to make up the lion’s share of microplastics found in oceans, rivers and lakes, and clothes made from synthetics (polyester, nylon, and so on) are widely implicated as the source of that pollution. Microfibers, as the name implies, are tiny, so they can easily move through sewage treatment plants. Unlike natural fibers, such as cotton or wool, synthetic fibers do not biodegrade, and tend to bind with molecules of harmful chemical pollutants found in wastewater, such as pesticides or flame retardants."
I don't waste paper towels, I recycle them at the dump where they decompose over 10,000 years and eventually become soil. I use a roll of paper towels every week on average and they are great for napkins picking up waste and saving time. My time is so valuable. Plus it keeps tree growers and paper companies in business and helps the economy. It is also cheaper as it saves on electricity and water to wash them. Plus if you use them to drain bacon grease and save them they make great fire starters for bbq and fires. Which reminds me why am I even here. Paper towels rock.
This was great, I have been researching "how can i save paper in word" for a while now, and I think this has helped. Have you heard people talk about - Banraysarn Peculiar Builder - (should be on google have a look )? It is a great one of a kind guide for discovering how to replace paper towels and unwanted toxic cleaners minus the headache. Ive heard some super things about it and my cousin got amazing results with it.
no I wouldn't "break up" with paper towels but I am definitely for reducing my usage of them I have kids dogs and a cat😕... also I cannot bring myself to clean my toilet or around my toilet with a rag I always use a paper towel
This is funny. But please be kind - some folks need a bit of a nudge to get going, or they don't have the self-confidence to put their ideas into practice. How about you coming up with an original idea instead of being funny (ps: I did laugh at your comment, I admit!).
@@barbarahvilivitzky6747 But I do come up with original ideas and share them all the time. This was a small note in a video's comment section. If you look at it closely this simple sentence contains deep social commentary. Something that could take thousands of characters to explain was conveyed in a simple sentence. The despair a conscious, thinking, feeling human being perceives when contemplating the wastefulness of modern society. Criticism of an increasingly materialistic culture which bases its happiness on increasingly futile hedonistic values and much more was conveyed in one simple sentence. A video like this is a good indicator how disconnected modern humans are from reality and the environment which not only keeps them alive, but is an expression of their very nature. Yes I do believe we are fucked if people need to be "weaned" off of using paper towels, something which should be obvious to anyone with any inkling of wisdom, compassion and intelligence. Have a great day.
Drying meat is not necessary for crisping. The oven heat, or fry pan heat will do the job. As well, if you do want to use a rag, or a micro-fibre cloth just rinse out with hot water and spray with vinegar, rinse again and toss in the wash. We should not be so crazy about "meat" - the meat we get is clean and if handled with just a tiny bit of brain power we will be fine.
