You probably use and throw away a lot of paper towels. I know I used to. "In the U.S. we currently use more than 13 billion pounds of paper towels each year and that number is growing steadily. This means that every day more than 3,000 tons of paper towels are wasted in the U.S. alone," (source).
As an eco-minimalist (someone who limits their consumption in order to help the planet) and as someone on a tight budget, I decided to experiment with different methods for reducing my paper towel usage, and it has PAID OFF. Not just financially, but it has also made a big impact on my kitchen waste and how I think about single use items in general.
If you want to save money, do your part to help reduce waste to help the environment, and stop carrying awkwardly massive bags of paper towels home, get ready for these life changing strategies!
5 Tips to Reduce Your Paper Towel Usage
1. Get kitchen towels for drying clean hands and dishes.
If you don't have them already, buy (or thrift if you can) kitchen towels and hang one or two in your kitchen near the sink. My personal preference is to use one for hand drying and one for dish drying. I own 3 gray hand drying towels and 3 white dish drying towels.
ORGANIZING TIP: I keep the extra clean ones folded under the kitchen sink and when I throw the current ones in the dirty hamper, I pull out a new clean pair.
If you are in the habit of drying things with a paper towel, having these new towels in the kitchen may not immediately knock your habit. However tip 2 should help with that...
2. Move your paper towel roll out of sight.
Move your paper towel roll from your counter or table and put it in a cupboard. I keep mine under my kitchen sink. This tip alone will help you reduce your paper towel use. Plus it helps reduce visual clutter.
However, you might be thinking, "When my hands are disgusting, how will it get a paper towel without making a mess?" Firstly, you can always clean up the cupboard handle or floor after you get the paper towel. Secondly, read step 3....
3. Get reusable cloth napkins and kitchen rags.
Buy or thrift a set of cloth napkins and a set of small rags. The cloth napkins being for using while and after eating to wipe hands and faces and the rags to clean the kitchen surfaces and floor.
So, rather than drying or cleaning with paper towels you now have reusable products to do all of these functions.
4. Designate a convenient spot in your kitchen for rags and cloth napkins.
To keep things organized and make you WANT to use your reusable options over paper towels, be sure to give everything a logical home.
I keep my clean reusable napkins folded in a basket near the dining table so they are closer than the paper towels under the sink. I keep clean rags in a basket under the sink. But if you want them handier you could put them in a basket on the kitchen counter. I put hooks on the back of my under the kitchen sink cupboard door to hang slightly wet and/or slightly used rags that I want to reuse again. I put all dirty rags in my laundry hamper near the kitchen. But you could also use a small trash can or basket under the kitchen sink to put dirty napkins and rags so it's more convenient.
5. Stop using paper towels completely OR only reach for paper towels when you are cleaning something particularly gross.
Now that you've set up all the systems to make it so you don't NEED single use paper towels, why even have paper towels? Well you could decide to use up your last rolls and be done with them forever. But that might not be your preference.
I personally still use paper towels occasionally. When I have guests over sometimes they feel more comfortable using those, and if I am wiping out an oily pan, cleaning up spilled beet juice, or cleaning something really disgusting, I like to be able to just throw it away.
BUT, that is the exception.
When I wipe my fingers after a meal I use my pretty green cloth napkins. When I clean up the dirty stove top I use a sponge or rag. When I dry my hands I use my trusty gray hand towel.
I used to buy paper towels once a month or every two months. Now I buy them once or twice a year. And instead of buying a back of six rolls, I buy a pack of two.
You may discover after implementing these tips that you start to only reach for a paper towel once a week or stop using them all together and just keep a roll on hand just in case. But either way, you'll be spending WAY less money on paper towels, helping reduce your waste, and helping the planet.
Thank you so much for caring about this important issue and I can't wait to hear your learnings and WOW moments in the comments below.
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