I have an admission to make. I actually have a roll of paper towels in my place. Granted, they are the 100% recycled kind, but I am still guilty of something I do not really believe in.

My roll is almost ½ way gone, and truth be told, I believe I purchased them in early 2007. That tells you how little I have used them, and mostly for emergencies. Like the time my buddy brought his dog over, and the pooch left me a little ‘gift’ on my carpeting. I may have used 3 or 4 to clean that up. Or when the neighborhood kid tried to do a grind on the railing, but he face planted on my concrete porch instead. I thought it prudent to send a couple of paper towels along with his teeth inside as he rode in the ambulance. In my opinion, those were emergencies.

For just about everything else though, I use a cloth. For washing dishes: a cloth. For wiping up spills: a cloth. For napkins, cleaning my stove, wiping down appliances, washing windows, I use a cloth. And, I alternate these cloths to wash dishes with, so I never have to use extra soap and water to keep them clean.

That’s how I’ve done away with paper towels and the whole pollution laden manufacturing process while keeping them out of the landfills, and you can do it too! We can all find ways to replace paper towels with more environmentally friendly ways of cleaning and drying.