DIY Cloth Paper Towels

I’m kind of mad at Pinterest.

No really.

It’s this love-hate thing. You could scroll for hours, pinning all of the ideas you’d love to have but never end up taking action on.

But really, when I first looked into paper towel replacements I kept seeing such perfect, snap paper towel replacements and put it on the back burner for YEARS!

SO DUMB!

I mean, this version of paper towels is realistically, way more intense and fancy than I need. But I thought this was the only paper towel replacement option. *cue eye roll*

Such a life lesson in over complicating things and making them harder than they have to be in a quest for looking perfect. LIFE ISN’T PERFECT!

It isn’t meant to be and hell, it’s such a waste of enjoyment trying to be.

If it’s quick, easy, and saves me time or money while still meeting health and environmental goals, sign me up!

These snap paper towels? Nopety nope.

We go through so many paper towels!  They’re the catch-all for everything, right?  Food on the floor, yuck on the counter, vomit, bodily fluids, drool, spills, greasy things, as napkins – you name it, paper towels have been our go-to over the years even though I KNOW it’s such a wasteful item.  It’s just so darn easy to grab and toss.

Well no more!  My mom came up with a no-muss, no-fuss quick and easy replacement that will cost you pennies or can even be free.

Our paper towel use seriously decreased when we started using cloth napkins but we still go through a roll every 9-12 months.  That may not seem like a lot, but really, paper towels are completely UNNECESSARY and if you can save time, money, and environmental impact, that small, seemingly insignificant change adds up.

Supplies

• Old dish or face cloth
• or a Towel

Can be new or old, doesn’t matter. My mom chose old towel from Sally Ann, I ended up with new one from the dollar bin.

Directions

Dish cloth: cut into 2-4 pieces.
Face cloth: you’re done!
Hand Towel: Cut into dish cloth sized squares or rectangles.  No need to be exact, just cut. I got 8.

Now, if you want finished edges or edges that don’t fray, you can stitch a line along each edge and then continue to pull out and trim the threads until they’re gone, or add a ribbon binding to the edge.  But really, who cares?  We all know paper towels are NOT for fancy things.

Using Your Cloth Paper Towels

Cut ‘em up, throw them into a drawer or fold them right onto the counter for easy access.

Last step but the most important: put your paper towels in an unseen or not normally used place.  Out of sight, out of mind! I hid ours in a cupboard.

I love using that trick – I mentally can’t stand to throw things away, especially if I don’t know if my new fix is going to work for us, but I often can’t bring myself to use something again once I *know* the difference the change would make. This is especially true of toxic household products.

Switching to Cloth Paper Towels

My husband was not too keen on switching to cloth paper towels but after he used them once, it’s like he completely forgot we still had actual paper towels! 

They’re so simple to throw into the laundry (we have a laundry basket in our pantry) and they don’t add anything to our wash routine.

And let me tell you too, we only have six, with three people in the house and one being a toddler. Six has been just fine for us! I do plan on making more at some point but by having them it’s actually had us thinking about what we use them for. Most of the time we now grab for a cloth, except when cleaning up a floor mess.

*UPDATE*

Thanks to Facebook memories, I now know it’s been a year since we switched to paperless paper towels. I honestly hadn’t realized it’d been that long and my husband thought we’d been using them for much longer. Win-win!

It’s been 100% no-second-thoughts transition. We grab and wipe without thinking from day one.  We still do have paper towels in the house for those times you do need them (bacon grease) but still haven’t needed to buy another pack.

So for those looking for a cheap, easy way to replace paper towels in literally a minute, here’s a new pin for you that you can actually do!