Sunday, January 4, 2009

I have A LOT of Dishtowels!


Yesterday my mom gave me a bunch of her dishtowels/kitchen towels as she thinks she has too many! I took about 20 and added them to my even-larger-than-hers stash!

This may sound excessive. The truth is I go through A LOT of dishtowels.
I almost never buy paper towels. I use a clean one for each meal prep (usually 2 for the dinner prep/cleanup.) We also use almost all cloth napkins. Before you faint I'll tell you those napkins are clean and folded-They are not (nor will they ever be, ironed.)

That isn't to say I NEVER buy paper products. I usually do buy paper products for guests as our napkins are less than perfect at this point. I find when I do buy paper products we tend to go through them rather quickly and I feel like I'm throwing money in the garbage.

My dishtowels are less than perfect too but they are not meant to be a decoration. I pretty much use a dishtowel until it looks REALLY bad and then I use it to clean the bathroom or something before I toss it. I really and truly have a few that I KNOW I got right before I got married 11 years ago! Now that's frugal!

Another reason we use them is to avoid the waste/pollution created in the manufacturing process and the waste created in the disposal of such items. Not to mention remembering to stock up on said items when we run out.

We are only 3 people so all of these dishtowels/napkins only generate one load of laundry per week. I imagine if you were buying paper products for a lot of people it would still be cheaper to do say, 2 loads.

You can come by these almost for free-Ask you mom or your grandma-They probably have tons in a closet somewhere. Cut up old towels. DON'T go and buy 20 new rags! This past summer I got a bunch of napkins that looked brand new at a garage sale for $0.10 each. I recently knitted a few dishcloths for my mom from cotton yarn that I already had. There are about 100,000 of these patterns free online although at this point I have no need to make anymore for my mom or myself for a long time to come!

Don't worry if you visit, I still DO buy flushable toilet paper!

5 comments:

Karley Ziegler Mott said...

LOL. We use flushable TP, too. We don't use paper plates, cups, etc. Sometimes we use paper napkins because Ben is INCREDIBLY messy at dinner still, but generally use cloth.

I haven't bought a roll of paper towels in 2 years. Just thinking about how many paper plates and things we used to dispose of makes me cringe, but I know better now!

I like to find pretty vintage dishtowels and things at garage and estate sales, too :)

Believe it or not, my mom has maybe 1 dish towel :)

Christine said...

2 years! You beat me! That's great. As I said, I do buy them once in a while but mostly my cute rooster paper towel holder holds drying plastic bags!

I think estate sales are a GREAT place to find vintage towels/linens. Most people at estate sales are eBayers and the such and are looking for a great deal to resell-hardly anyone wants a dishtowel. This past summer I got an awesome set of pottery barn towels, hand towels, washcloths (6 in all) for $1.67 for ALL of them. These towels were a beautiful floral and looked brand new! I have them in my guest room dresser to keep them nice for visitors.

Teamcarbone said...

Okay I'm guilty I love my paper towel but I do use them sparingly but I just don't think I could give them up, especially for 2yrs. way to go Karley!

You've got me thinking though and I'll see if I can cut back in 2009. And BTW I’m going to have follow you around when you start your Garage Sale shopping!

Christine said...

Well that's one of the problems Kristin, we can't seem to use them sparingly around here. I think it's because we are so used to wiping a spill or something with a reusable towel and taking a new one that we do the same with paper towel!

Christine said...

and yes, the garage saleing thing-I'm becoming a master!!!