Very green of you. My number one hint is to just not have paper towels out within reach. I do use them occasionally on plates when draining bacon or similar, but keep them hidden.

Answers

1. I don't dry counters with towels. I use a very rung out sponge to wipe up excess water or whatever else accumulates. Haven't found a good place for hand towels to hang yet in the new kitchen that makes them accessible at both sinks, so right now it lives in the counter. I don't hand wash many dishes, but keep one of little DD's clean, dry washcloths next to the sink where I place washed knives or other small non-dishwasher items to dry. If my hand towel is new out of the drawer, I'll sometimes use it to dry my knife.

2. Never put much thought I to that. I used to buy towels that worked with my kitchen decor/colors. Sometimes I would inadvertently buy ones that didn't soak up water so I returned those. I haven't been towel shopping for my new kitchen yet. Never had luck in the past with flour sack type towels, but after reading so many glowing reviews here, I'm going to try them if I can find some reasonably priced.

3. Clean towels live in the second drawer down next to the cleanup sink. See #1 for my in-use towel location.

4. Back to my first statement. Just don't have them out. If they aren't there, they cant be used. Cold turkey. ;)

5. I've gotten lazy with changing out the towels. I used to hang that day's hand towel up at night on the range handle to dry out and then replace with a clean one in the morning. Will get back to that now that we're more settled. If I'm in a cooking marathon, my hand towel can get soaked easily from all my obsessive hand washing so I'll get out a dry one mid-cooking session. When a towel gets too wet it grosses me out. Again, the wet one goes on the range (now lower oven) handle to dry until I take it to the laundry room. Or, if I'm headed near the laundry room, I hang the wet towel up there to dry until washing. My house isn't huge, and it's all one level so the laundry room is never far away.

I probably go through about 10 towels and 10 washcloths in an average week.

Should mention that my usage of 10 washcloths is because I use one per day to clean DD's hands and face after every meal. Wee ones can be so messy.

Like Breezy, I keep paper towels out of easy reach. I also figured out the cost per towel including the environmental cost and whenever anyone used one, I noted the cost. That worked great in discouraging use.

1) I have 2 kinds of towels, vintage linen tea towels, and plaid woven cotton towels in dark colors. The dark towels are for handwashing/drying, the light colored linen towels for dishes. I use a bartenders white cotton terry cloth for dishwashing and counter washing. I rinse in hot soapy water, wring dry, wipe the counters.

2) I have a large assortment of vintage linen tea towels purchased on eBay. They are soft, lint-free, super absorbent and cute. Linen towels are simply the best for dish drying ever. My second choice would be cotton flour sack towels or plaid woven cotton towels, which after a few washes are not linty. All my towels are about the same size, about the size of a baking sheet.

3) I keep clean towels in a drawer near the sink. In-use towels hang on an over the cabinet towel rack near the sink, on a magnetic towel bar on the side of the range, or over the range handle. I change towels almost daily. Dirty towels go to the laundry room and hang to dry. When dry they go in the hamper or the wash. I never put damp towels in the hamper. I have a small enamel bucket in the laundry room I frequently use to soak the dishwashing cloths in oxyclean before washing.

4) No paper towels withing easy reach, and environmental guilt. "Elephants are suffering and will be extinct in your lifetime...."

5) I usually swap them out at night, or earlier if I'm doing laundry or they are especially wet, etc. I have more than I need, but ask for more linen towels every year for Christmas so I never run out i.e. hoard them. I've never actually thrown one of the linen towels out although one of my favorites is getting thin. But that makes it better for wineglasses...

I can't give you a good idea about numbers. I'm constantly pulling fresh dishcloths and towels out of the drawer--not because it's necessary, but because I love fresh ones and I have a large supply. I grab them up when I know I'm heading near the laundry room. I leave them on top of a counter in the laundry room so that they get plenty of air until they either dry or go in the washer (about once a week.)

I love flour sack towels. There was a recent thread here about them. I buy a lot of the cheap white ones (from Target) as hand towels for our powder room. That allows me to change them out often. I have some sturdier off-white organic ones and multi-color ones for our kitchen (also from Target). They are great for dishes and hands. I keep towels in a shallow top drawer in our peninsula. They are centrally located.

I've never been a big paper towel user so it was never a habit I had to break. The thing I find really useful is a handy drawer of rags (a narrow deep drawer to the left of our main sink.) I use a variety of rags including cloth diapers, retired face towels and a large automotive microfiber towel.

I also have a supply of microfiber cloths (from Solutions). They are great for cleaning and buffing dry counters, sinks, appliances, and windows. I also use them to get into the crevices of our beaded inset cabinets. I keep them with the dishcloths, in a shallow drawer on the right side of our main sink. Most of my cleaning needs are served by a damp microfiber cloth followed up by a dry one. I rarely have to use anything stronger than water (but I don't cook meat, poultry or fish so I don't have the same contamination worries that many have.)

I leave towels out on the counter or hang them over our oven door pull. Dish cloths either sit on the grid at the bottom of the sink or hang over the faucet. I had slide out towel bars (with prongs for 3 towels each) installed in the cabinets under both of our sinks but I found I didn't like them.

Since paper towels haven't been important, they have never had a prominent place in our kitchen. They are kept, free standing, in an appliance garage.

Reading the thread above, I love the few linen towels I have been given over the years.

I am not nearly as particular about what kind of towels I use probably more due to lack of knowledge about the differences then anything else. I do have paper towels out and reach for them all to frequently. I'm trying to re-train myself not to reach for them. I have a boatload of old towels collected over the years. They, along with pot holders are in 2 drawers to the left of my cooktop. I reach for them when I have to grab something out of the oven, dry my hands, and will use them to wipe the counters. Yesterday, while on a cooking marathon I went through 5 towels. I'll use one to do the final wipe down of the counters and just toss all right in the washer at the end of the night. Laundry is right next to the kitchen

Thanks for this post. I'm going to try out the microfiber and linen towels.

We're in transition right now, so I don't have a system at the moment. But in the previous house, I hid the paper towels in the pantry. (Drove my mom nuts when she came to visit). We had a handtowel hanging by the oven for general hand drying. I usually tuck one in my apron when I'm cooking to wipe my hands. And I usually have an old baby washcloth in the sink for wiping down spills on the counter. The laundry room/closet was a few steps from the kitchen, so I'd take those three towels (and any other I used for cleaning) to the laundry each night and hang them over a basket to dry. I kept a drawer full of all my towels that was convenient for even my toddler to reach when needed.

I bought a couple of big packs of those square white terry towels Sam's Club has. I now have a total of about 50 of them. They're kept in a shelf in my pantry, which is right in the kitchen and easy to reach. When cooking I stick one in the string of my apron for each hand-wiping. I use them for nearly everything in the kitchen except washing and drying dishes, and wash them all together. I use them once or twice in the kitchen and toss them in a laundry basket. Ones that happen to get gray or don't look fresh any more I add to the group of them I use for the bathrooms or other jobs.

For hands I have a towel hanging from the stove. I use paper towels rarely, usually only for crisping bacon.

My dishcloths, dishtowels, potholders, and aprons I keep in three narrow but deep drawers by the stove.

1) Freestanding black nylon laundry bin, about 7 inches by 7 inches and a few feet high, from Ikea, stands at the edge of the peninsula just under the edge of the overhang. Doesn't get moldy or wet. Wet cloths can hang over the edge until dry and then into the bottom (to avoid mildew etc.).

2) Pile of dishtowels in an upper cabinet on the bottom shelf right near the sink. One always hanging in the kitchen, used for drying dishes, messes on the floor-- once used on floor, into bin.

3) Pile of cheap cotton washcloths (about 25 in circulation) on the counter. First use of each one is to wipe DD's hands and face after a meal or snack, and the counter and chair. If also used to wipe the floor, straight into laundry. If not, becomes the sink rag and the old one to the laundry,.

4) A few microfiber cloths in sink tilt-out. Used for wiping and drying counter, then straight into laundry.

We only ever use paper towel for meat juices and mega-spills-- minimal use.

Put the cloth towels where they're easy to reach and the paper towels where they're less convenient and it's easy to switch.

I keep towels in a handy drawer in the kitchen: microfiber for rough cleaning, ikea towels for dishes, and the nice terry towels that coordinate with everything for hands and draining dishes after washing. (At least that's how it's supposed to work.) My laundry is right off the kitchen so after use a towel just goes right into the washer till it's time to run it. I don't usually eat meat at home, so that's not much of a problem. Extra clean towels that won't fit in the drawer are on the shelf in the laundry.

I don't worry about making a towel last a whole day--a big bunch of them are still a small wash load, so I don't feel guilty about using a fresh one every time if I feel like it.

I only dry my hands on cloth towels which are hanging from either a hook or my range bar. I don't think it's particularly unsightly, since my kitchen is there to serve me. :) Paper towels are for draining fat from cooked bacon, wiping down the coffee maker after each use, cleaning the microwave door window, etc. The roll is out and visible.

I have the misfortune of having partnered with someone morally opposed to paper towels. We haven't bought paper towels in almost 4 years.

I have about 10 old thick absorbent cotton and flour sack towels from Lands End and Williams Sonoma. Otherwise, we use a huge stock of vintage towels from eBay; I buy a big lot about once a year or when I see a good deal. (We have maybe 40 or 50 of them currently?) These are cotton, linen, or a blend, and the average size is perfect.

I've found that the cheaper new bar towels and flour sacks just don't hold up to use, so go for the vintage ones whenever possible. Some of them are really lovely, and I love the quaint printed ones. We have one right now with elephants and umbrellas that's my current fave.

(nota bene: if you buy new flour sack towels, try to find thicker ones made in the USA, not the cheaper Indian cotton ones; in my experience those fall apart rather quickly. Don't let the fancy brand name sway you - always check the origin label.)

We keep them folded in squares in a big drawer next to the stove, along with hot pads and mitts. Grab one whenever we need it. Fresh ones live on the counter for a bit for general wiping up, then dirty ones go into a wire basket next to the door. We wash them about twice a week 'cause we really run through them.

For wet hands and dishes, I keep a separate stock of nicer towels (vintage Irish linen, amazing thick lint-free stuff) in my linen closet, and those live on the handle of the dishwasher next to the sink; they generally have a longer hanging life than the others. Anyone using those for blotting bacon or wiping espresso grounds is summarily banished to the couch for the night. Including myself.

Another lover of the Original flour sac towels. They don't leave any lint behind, and they dry quickly.

I'm not circuspeanut's SO, but am similarly stubborn about keeping paper out of the house entirely. If it isn't there, then you can't use it! I do make one exception - Thanksgiving Turkey. I use two rolls of PT then.

Those little 4"x4"strong absorbent cotton cloths sold as baby wipes are what I use for cooktop and countertop clean up and for some hand-washing of dishes too. Durable and can be washed in hot hot water. Sponges gross me out, they are like little petri dishes and I don't like having them in the house at all.

Circus: what search term do you use on ebay to find the vintage sacs, and the fancy Irish linen ones?? Too funny re being banished to the couch. Not bad punishment - I might deliberately wipe up a few coffee grounds then hang out on the couch with a fav book!

Dirties go downstairs semi-nightly to the laundry room. I do keep a small container under the sink and let them dry before piling them one on the other. But admit to occasionally forgetting and having to wash on 'sanitize' cycle to deal with the faint scent of mold.

1) Dish vs. hand towels: we don't really distinguish. When I think they need to be changed, I toss the old one over the edge of the utility sink in the garage where it hangs until I do some laundry.

2) Type: My favorite dish towels of all time were leftover baby diapers; however, since my youngest is 33, those are long since gone. I currently have the ones from Costco and they're fine. I am tempted by the flour sack towels though. My mom has some and they're good for dish drying as long as you have enough of them-they get wet fast.

3) Storage:
{{!gwi}}
Hot pads also live in that drawer.

4) Use vs. paper: We've never been big paper towels users (although my daughter certainly is at her house!). You can see they're there on the sink (in glare of light on counter directly above towel drawer), but they rarely get used for hand/counter/dish drying. Sometimes they get used for blotting up the extra water from washing fruit and then catch the drips as one eats the yummy peach or apple or grapes.

5) Scheduling changes: I'm terrible at routines, so I don't change the towels at a certain time. Any time I go for/use a towel and think, "This needs to go away," I toss it on the edge of the utility sink in the garage. That door and sink are only about 15' away from the kitchen sink, so that's easy. I go through maybe 5 a week, but there's only 2-1/2 of us here.

I will say that we haven't solved where is a good place to keep the in-use towels, or maybe we have. Right now there's a towel hanging on the bottom-freezer door handle, but sometimes there are also towels hanging on the stove and/or dishwasher handles. I also got a little towel from Krauss when we bought the sink which has a grommet in the corner and a keyhole-shaped clip. I keep hanging it on the pantry knob and thinking, "This is a terrible idea," but still, there it is. It is rather handy.

I use cloth in my kitchen. Like other posters I have paper in an out of reach area(I actually have to get a step stool to reach them, so...) for bacon and such that doesn't happen often.
I have an array of kitchen towels-mainly Christmas presents from over the years. For counters, I got a big pack of cheap washcloths at Big Lots. If they stain, I don't care. I keep them in the drawer right by the sink. They were across the room, but kind of stupid to try to get a dry towel with wet hands while you are dripping water on the floor all over the kitchen, so I moved them.
They live on the oven handle or draped over the middle of our double sink during the day. Each night after dinner clean up, I put them in the laundry room in a small plastic bin with holes in the sides that is "normally" used for a closet organizer type deal, but works great as a mini hamper. The airflow must be good b/c I've never had an issue with mold, even after the stuff sits a week.

I use a lot of cloth towels in my kitchen.

Most meals are started by plonking a stack of the various kinds out on the counter so I can grab as needed.

I use a fresh terry towel for hand drying for every meal larger than a banana and a yogurt cup as I am a hand-washing during food prep zealot and they get damp quickly. If it's a simple meal, I might use only one, but for a big project or meal with more than one cook there's at least one at the faucet and usually one tucked into my apron tie. When I add a prep sink, I already plan on adding another towel there. Right now I'm going through about 15-25/week.

Then there's my cooking/food towels which are cotton huck, or bird's eye. These are the things you drain grapes on or dry off produce with. I set out a couple for most meals, but can use many more if required. These are often used for one task and then off to be laundered (for instance if I use them to drain and pat dry rinsed chicken). I make them myself every few years and usually have at least a gross in circulation at any one time. In a week I generally use at least 3 to 4 dozen.

For dish drying, I use 1 - 3 linen cloths/day depending on the amount of hand-dried dishes and the season. I don't use a DW, but don't hand-dry everything as I let most of stuff air dry after a very hot rinse. But flatware, knives, and delicate items need to be dried and put away.

I have a drawer full of counter and sink cleaning and wiping cloths. These are generally "retired" towels from other uses. I use them for spill catching and wiping down counter surfaces prior to starting a meal (9 cats live with me, 'nuff said) and as the last step in putting the kitchen to rights after a meal. I usually use the previous meal's wipe-to-dry counter towel to do the next meal's "clean the counter first" regimen. (That extra step is required even though my cats are "trained" to stay off the counters - at least when I'm there to see them!) Use is 30-40/week. These are identified by a small colored tag which I sew on them, but most are clearly, um, well-used.

Over all I use at least 75 to 100+ items per week, but it's rarely more than one load in my smaller Euro-style FL machines. I wash them at 185-205F (depending on which machine is used), toss briefly in the dryer and hang them to dry. Just recently I have been able to capture the laundry cost: 38 cents for power (water and sewer are free for me here in the country), and less than 4 cents for the detergent. I figure that this replaces at least two rolls of paper towels, so I'm good.

I dry the towels between meals and overnight on one of those old-fashioned, folding, umbrella-ribbed dryers mounted on the wall. Often the first chore of the day is clearing off the dryer and dumping the previous day's towels into the hamper to await washing.

HTH,

L.

I also have a small sub-set of these that are laundered but terminally stained which I reserve for staining tasks.

1) Towel Categories: How do you distinguish between dish drying towels, hand drying towels and counter wiping towels? Do you use dish rying towels for hand drying as well?
Colored Terry towels for used for hands, counters, and wiping out the sink. White towels are only ever used to dry clean dishes, thus hopefully they stay white.

2) What kind of towels (size/ fabric) work best for dish wiping.
I know it isn't the white ones I hurriedly picked up at WM, just wanting something new. I'll be shopping for something better...using the nice suggestions above.

3) Towel storage: Where do clean towels live, where do you keep in-use towels?
The 'in use' colored cotton terry hand towel hangs in easy reach on a whimsical, (some say ugly) ceramic cow head towel holder, mounted to the wall. The white (clean dry dishes only) towel is hung to dry and for possible reuse, on a 'inside the door' towel rack. That saves the 'dishes' only towel from being grabbed in error and used for anything other than dishes.

4) How do you train the family.. make it more easy/ intuitive to reach for cloth towels?
Not much family here to train, but I have been known to take the paper towels down from the rack and make then less accessible when 'certain' family comes. I'll bet a certain loved one must go through a roll a day at her own home if she uses them like she used to use them here.

5) Finally how many towels do you need for an average week (assuming I launder weekly).
eh, it just depends on how much cooking, and clean up there is in any given week.

Oh...I'd like to know. Is my cow holder ugly, whimsical, or both?...see link in text above. Please be honest. As I said above, I've already been told that it was ugly.

Sue

Here is a link that might be useful: a blog about kitchen towel storage.

The cow holder:

1) I love that whoever is selling that on Etsy has used a quilting ruler to show the size

2) Whether it's whimsical or ugly probably depends on what part of the country you live in and your circle of friends. Personally, I'm not fond of it, but I don't live at your house. This is probably the place to mention that I abhore the similar animal heads that David Bromstad keeps putting on people's walls by the dozen. I could live with your cow head, but not with all the deer, bull, and whatever heads on a wall.

"Personally, I'm not fond of it, but I don't live at your house."
Thanks...I understand. I forgot to add that I jokingly refer to my style as being "Early Salvation Army", though it is really just an eclectic mix of things that are comfortable and functional and work for me.

Not meaning to highjack, but years ago a gf acquired her grandmother's cow towel holder. She liked and cared for it, remembering seeing it in use in her grandmother's kitchen, but her husband didn't like it and wouldn't hang it for her. I told her I loved it and I would hang it for her myself, if she wanted me too. Shortly after that, her DH hung it for her, since I had made over it and thought it was so cool/cute. To this day, he still doesn't like it, but tolerates it and constantly hangs the towel over the whole thing, so it can't be seen, just as I do when the towel is damp and needs to dry out. I always quietly chuckle whenever I see him cover the cow.

My extended dish towel report is in this thread. I think ACS has discontinued the birdseye towels, which is a major shame. Made in the Red Barn, which I learned about on Rhome410's blog (there's a link on the side), makes "unpaper" towels, approx. 10" square, out of a thinner birdseye. They also make "towel houses" which are square pillars, made of wood, with an opening in the front so you can just grab one. I just got some to give as a gift, so got some for myself too. They're great!

Pre-unpaper towels:
I always leave the towel I dry dishes with out. That becomes the hand towel. I take a new towel, different color, out for drying and use a different one. It'll stay part folded, or otherwise neat looking, if it's just been used to dry a knife or one or two little things. It's obviously the dishes towel. By the time it progresses to a crumpled state, the previous hand towel has been tossed in the laundry room (I don't need a basket--I keep the door open and fling. It's not very adult, but it's fun). Counters are wiped with rags, not good towels. Towels live in the bottom dry by the sink, and are folded and organized by type.

Add in the unpaper towels, and I'm grabbing them to dry my hands on. I used one to dry a puddle I'd made on the counter. The real test is when something messy comes up.

I mostly use paper towels for grease, to keep as much as possible out of the pipes. I don't have much grease that needs to be mopped up. If I'm entertaining and need to dry a bunch of vegetables, I'll also sometimes lay out paper, lest I run out of towels, but often I'll find a secondary use for the paper before I have to throw it out. The unpaper towels aren't ever going to be thrown out full of grease. :) I suppose I could use rags for that, but then I'd probably need to *gasp* buy rags.

Well, she does have a bit of a blank stare. Maybe she looks a little more "with it" when she has a towel draped around her neck.

What wonderful advice!.. The biggest a-ha is to make the paper towel more elusive. I was planning a permanent holder for it but will now hold off to see if we can make the cloth towel stick. I also think I need to get off the minimize laundry bandwagon. Seems simpler to have enough fresh towels and change them out often enough so that the towels feel fresh and just do a separate linens laundry every week.

mabeldingeldine --> Are these the type of linen towels from ebay?

Zelmar --> I will look up the microfiber towels from solutions. Is that a website? I like the automotive microfiber cloths from Costco. They are very absorbant. Just wished they came in some other color than flourescent yellow so that I can use them in the kitchen as well.

I have to dig up the flour sack towel thread.

I am just beginning to think about cabinet hardware. I am thinking of making the drawer handles near the sinks and the cooktop long enough to hang a towel flat. Good idea this one. Yet another not matched function over form decision. DH is finicky about symetery and this will drive him nuts. Looks like I need to include towel storage near point of use (I need more drawers :(

Chemocurl --> I love the cow towel holder.. I have to find myself something whimsical like that for my 2 sinks.

I agree with you-- if you want to commit away from paper towels, you're going to do more laundry, and that's not the end of the world. We have a toddler so we're always doing laundry anyway. I regularly do a kitchen linens load on its own, though, so I can do it on hot with a tiny bit of bleach.

Like many others, I love floursack. I bought mine from Gaiam and they are no longer on the website. They are still wonderful. They are actually from India and being Gaiam, I am pretty sure they were organic cotton. I agree they get wet through fairly quickly; that is because they absorb so well.

We use terry for hand-drying to distinguish from the flour-sack dish towels.

My MIL has a phobia about mixing towels with clothing in the laundry. I don't worry about that. Really dirty garden or running clothes are washed separately. Otherwise, it's like colors and similar fabrics.

I've done the same as the OP proposes. Paper towels are out and within easy reach, but I rarely use them...only for things like meat juices or dog accidents. :) Dish towels are dedicated totally to drying dishes. I use microfiber cloths as dish cloths...I cut them in half and there is no raveling. I use at least one a day and sometimes more. I use bar mops to drain dishes on the counter (some plastics, etc that aren't washed in the dishwasher). I go through one dish towel a day and all goes in the laundry.

We're currently in mid-construction, but in our old kitchen we limited our paper towel usage to the bare minimum - when we wanted a towel to take out of the house, or when the dog or cat left surprises around.

1) Towel Categories: I didn't handwash much, but we had a small wooden peg rack similar to this:

It was attached to the side of the upper cabinet next to the sink, and there was a specific order to it: 1st was hand towels, 2nd dishes, 3rd wiping up the floor, etc.

2) I've had all kinds - I like thicker ones for drying hands and wiping up spills. I'd like to try the floursack towels for dishes.

3) Towel storage: Had a drawer specifically for towels, see above for current use.

4) As others have said, let everyone know what and why you're moving to cloth, explain when it's appropriate to use paper, and make paper inconvenient to grab.

5) The towels tended to make their way down the dirt hierarchy: I'd get a new one for dishes, take the old dish towel and make it the hand towel, take the old hand towel and make it the floor towel. If any towel got too wet, I'd pitch it into the laundry and get a new one. Towels are cheap, so I keep a bunch around.

I have a variety of towels in my kitchen drawer--terry cloth, linen, and flour sack. When I'm working in the kitchen, I have a terrycloth towel over my shoulder or hooked in my apron tie to dry my hands on. I don't usually dry my dishes since they're rinsed in very hot water and air dry quickly. If I do have to dry something, I usually grab a linen or flour sack towel. I don't dry my counters since they dry quickly enough on their own (CO has very low humidity).

Paper towel holder is kept on the island in easy reach. I use them for drying meat/poultry/fish and cleaning big spills. Never for drying hands or dishes. Occasionally for pet accidents.

Any towel used for drying dishes is hung on the oven handle. My hand drying towel goes into the laundry once dinner or whatever is cooked. There's usually another hand drying towel laying on a counter. All towels and dishcloths that haven't been deposited in the laundry during the course of the day are collected before I go to bed and deposited onto of the washer. By morning they're dry and go into a hamper to await washing (once/week).

I wash dishtowels and dishcloths separately from any other clothes/linens. Hot water, detergent, and bleach. No fabric softener because it makes them less absorbent. I use probably 2-3 dozen towels/week and 10 or so dishcloths.

I have few drawers in my kitchen (we're pre-reno). :( Dishcloths are kept in a drawer by the sink. Towels are on a pullout in the cupboard below and replenished from a larger stack in the laundry room.

No paper towels in my kitchen.

I knew from the get-go that there was insufficient space for drying towels.

I've got one 15 inch bar mounted prominently. Also have a magnet bar on side of refrig. We use the two handles on oven for drying. And I pull out drawer a bit and hang wet towel on it if I'm cramped for drying space.

Still need a peg for apron somewhere in the room.

I have about 20 white terry cloth hand towels bought from Ikea. They were 50 cents each. They were bought from the bath section rather than the kitchen section, but they are rather thin terry cotton and seem to be fine for cleaning counters. I use these towels only to do things like wiping down the counter or sink. I keep them folded in a cabinet. They get one use, and then they go in the laundry bin. My washer and dryer are in a closet in the kitchen, so I just put them in a basket there. Generally, I don't use all 20 in a week, but when I am entertaining or having a big holiday meal, I find that I will use more. I used to go through tons of paper towels, but since I switched to the Ikea towels, I have found the paper towels really last a long time.

My dish towels and hand towels are various colors so they don't get mixed up with the white counter towels. They are usually hung up after use with the dish towel being hung on the handle of the oven and the hand towel hanging by the sink. I also have a pretty large stash of dish towels and often will pull out a clean one every day or two.

Does anyone have any source they'd recommend for the bar towels or flour sack towels in a big bundle? I've been talking about trying to elminate the paper towel crutch, but I'll need a LOT of them to start with. I have some bar towels on Amazon in the basket, but I've been hesitant to finalize the purchase even though the reviews were decent. I also investigated plain terry hand towels from wallyworld but I wasn't thrilled about the amount of lint they put off right there in the store. I can only imagine after a few washings.

ACS.

Sorry, I seem to have moved that photo from wherever it was before:

I stayed at a Youth Hostel in San Diego over the summer and there were no paper towels available. Around 50 people per day used the facility. The Kitchen had a large island and there were two wicker baskets on the island (about 12"x15"). They were packed with blue and white checkered dish towels for kitchen use. The bathrooms had the same set up but with lavender colored terry hand towels. I came back determined to put this practice to work.. still working on getting off the paper.

greenhouse: we stayed at the same hostel when we finished our cross country cycling trip in April 2010 !! It is in a great location in the Gaslamp district. How did you like the cooking facilities ? Lots of folks were making yummy things to eat when we were there. How long did you stay ? c

I stayed at Point Loma location which is the sister site of the Gaslamp hostel, and nearer to where my Daughter lives. There were often up to 6 groups of people cooking in the kitchen at once. I stayed 2 weeks as my Daughter was recovering from surgery. I spent my days preparing soups and nutritious meals for her when she came out of hospital. I enjoyed it so much I went back at Thanksgiving.

This Youth Hostel provided more than any hotel could at a fraction of the price and you get to spend time with people from all over the world.

wow...that is so great. I am glad you had the experience and it sounds as though it was wonderful. The one in Gaslamp has a time limit/stay limit per year, I believe so I am glad you were able to stay so long there. We needed to be close to the train station as that is how I got back to AL after the bike ride. If I ever get back I will have to look into the Point Loma location...I know where it is. Thanks for the response. c

I don't even buy paper towels unless there's a puppy in the house. I use dish (tea) towels, and a lot of microfiber cloths (from Walmart auto department). Dish towels are in a drawer in the kitchen. Microfibers are in a cabinet in the laundry area. They usually just get tossed into the dirty laundry bucket I keep in the laundry room.

I use the paper towels to dry fish and meats after washing them. That is about all I use the paper towels for. I also use them for pet accidents... I simply cannot stomach the idea of wet bloddy towels sitting in my laundry until I can get to them.

I have loads of them and this is how I grew up. I don't even think about it. My mom was an environmentalist even before they were aware of these issues. Mostly because we were not well to do and she was very frugal :) We washed the plastic baggies and reused them. We folded brown lunch bags and reused them. We used the grocery bags to line our garbage bags. you name it, we did it. They did not use the DW because they thought that it used too much electricity. I finally convinced them it used less hot water and thus less electricity.

I don't dry my counter. I wipe with sponge and let it air dry.

I'm still considering this for us, and still uncertain how it would work to have so many damp/dirty towels around the kitchen, as we collect quite a few even though we still use paper... I could try to keep certain towels for certain uses, but it's a battle I don't choose to undertake... Consequently, none of my towels seem to be their original color. ;-)

BUT, I do know the person who makes the towels and dispensers for the Etsy shop, Made in the Red Barn, that Plllog mentioned above, designed the holder so that it takes the same amount of space as a vertical paper towel holder on the counter... And is kept in the same handy spot, so super convenient, and for easy family training. (She has 5 homeschooled kids of her own and was realistic about such things.) The clean towels just shove back in the top, one at a time, for easy grabbing of one at a time out the front opening... No opening drawers or cabinets to retrieve one, not a large container sitting around on the counter, and no special folding or anything that kids (and busy moms) would tire of.

I'm not trying to advertise, just describe what I think was some tremendous design planning on her part that might work for those making the transition.

From WebMD:
Kitchen sponges are the No. 1 source of germs in the whole house. Why? The moist, micro-crevices that make a sponge such an effective cleaning device also make it a cozy home for germs and more difficult to disinfect. Wiping your counters or dishes with a dirty sponge will only transfer the bacteria from one item to another. "Wet your sponge and then pop it in the microwave for two minutes to eliminate the germs that lurk inside the crevices," says Neil Schachter, MD, medical director of respiratory care at Mount Sinai in New York City, and the author of The Good Doctor's Guide to Colds and Flu.

Practice good dishrag etiquette.
Your dish rags are really no better than your sponges. And like sponges, using a dirty dish rag to clean a kitchen countertop will only spread germs. Your best bet is to replace rags about once a week. "Allow them to dry out between uses because most bacteria thrive only in moistness," Schachter says. In fact, they can only survive a few hours on dry surfaces. "Rags should be washed in the washing machine and then dried on high heat," he says.

I have about 200 kitchen towels now. I usually buy them whenever william sonoma gets rid of colored towels from the last season. Over the 5-6 years that I have stopped using paper towels. I have had to replace about 10 of towels due to idiotic behavior on my part. Did anyone know that cotton and open flames don't go together? I am still learning that lesson:-)
I use my clothes like I would paper towels. They are rarely used more than once or twice. When I am cooking, I go through about 4 kitchen clothes at a time. I have an ikea bucket under the sink and all the towels go in there. I wash a load of kitchen towels every three days at 190F and they are still pretty white towels. I also use the william sonoma dishcloths as wash rags. Each was rag is replaced with a new one daily at a minimum, more if I am washing the butcher block that has meat/poultry on it. I purchase an 8 pack of Viva yearly and usually have about 4 rolls left at the end of the year. Paper towels are mainly used by my guests and after a day of staying here, they start using the cloth towels also.

Homepro01

Kitchen towels are only in white and therefore you don't have to worry about anything matching or needing to bleach anything or using the "wrong" towel for anything. They're all the same. I buy cheap 100% cotton terry Doctor Joe automobile polishing towels and use them in the kitchen and garage. Once they get a bit stained from kitchen use, they become garage towels.

If you buy in bulk cheaply and have plenty on hand, you won't be searching for one when you need it. Group some by the sink, and others by the prep area and yet others in the laundry area. Yes, I use them for cleaning up cat puke. The yuck goes down the toilet and the towel goes in the laundry with bleach. About 2 dozen is a good starting number for the average household. If you have a large household, then maybe double that. I use an old bucket that cat litter came in as the "hamper" in the pantry. If I'm doing a project that requires a lot of them and they're too many to just drape over the side and air out behind closed doors, I usually put them on a baking sheet and place them in the oven as it's cooling down. Use that "lost heat" for something!

Do you want to talk about bottled water? We switched to a filter pitcher several years ago and bought a case of bottled water annually and just refilled the bottles as we drank the original water. But they were difficult to sanitize properly and after a recent bout with a nasty GI bug that the other half blamed on a water bottle, I received a dozen plain stainless steel water bottles as a holiday present. So far, they've been a lot easier to clean and fill and I'm really glad we switched.

Greendesign,
Regarding bottled water, I did the same thing about four years ago. I have a Everpure system at the sink. I purchased Voss bottled water because they came in glass containers and fit in my cup holder in the car. They also wash up wonderfully in the dishwasher. I purchased a 36 bottle pack at Cost Plus or something for about $2 a bottle. I currently have 20 bottles. Stuff happens and this is glass of course. I suspect my sister has also siphoned some off every time she visits. You can also sterilize the glass bottles in hot water on the stove. Unfortunately, I can taste steel and aluminum and don't like the sensation of drinking from these bottles. Glass can be a challenge in the winter as I have to remember to remove the bottles from my car to prevent them from freezing and exploding.

Every little change helps!
Homepro01