A few months ago I set out to find ways to save my family money in every way possible. The first thing I tackled was paper towels. I did this by replacing my paper towels with Reusable Kitchen Towels.
We are a one-income family, I am in school full time and my kids enjoy pricey extracurricular activities. **Cough Cough CHEER** I started looking at the things that we didn’t buy all the time but when we did they tended to come with a large price tag, but also easy swaps I could make around the house. Nothing life-changing over here…
While I wasn’t buying paper towels every time I went to the store, I noticed I was buying the smaller packs because I could get an HEB brand two pack for $4.00, however, we would go through them quickly. If I went ahead and purchased a larger pack it could end up adding $15-20 to our total and right now, for our budget, that extra $20 hurts. I started looking into options and had seen these small towels that came with a roll just like your paper towels but they were cloth, so you could unroll them, use them like a paper towel, then wash and reuse them. I took to Amazon and bought a pack…. Unfortunately, the first pack I bought didn’t come with the roll I had anticipated, so I did have to buy a second set.
These are the two sets I purchased :
I also purchased a small trashcan to live in my kitchen for all the dirty towels to collect so that I could wash them and would end up with towels everywhere. So all in all I spent around $50 one time in June and have not bought paper towels since.
My Thoughts After Four Months In Use
The Pros: They do work well, they fit on the paper towel holder I already had in my kitchen, they can be used more than once, you can buy a color or pattern that matches your kitchen decor, better for the environment (less paper waste) and since I am not buying paper towels, after 4 months they have paid for themselves and are saving me money each month.
The Cons: They stain and can start to look dingy after a while, even with my dirty towel system I find towels migrate to other areas of the house and end up in the regular laundry, you have to wash them and re-roll them at least once every couple weeks (more laundry), it is a little awkward when friends or family is over for dinner and all you have to offer them is cloth napkins, cleaning with them around the house feels strange and took some getting used to, and the amount of money saved is small, it is not car payment money.
I do not regret my decision at all and am committed to sticking with my reusable kitchen towels. But I have had to find a few ways to overcome what I feel are the cons to reusable kitchen towels. One thing I did was break down and buy a stash of paper napkins ($2.00) for when we have friends or family over for dinner because I was self-conscious about offering people my cloth napkins. I am also still trying to get into a groove of washing and re-rolling so they don’t end up as piles of clutter on the counter. I have also asked my family to help me by returning the migrated kitchen towels back at the end of the night.
What do you think of reusable kitchen towels? Do you already have these in your house? Do you have the same pros and cons list as me? Does this post make you more or less likely to try them for yourself?? Please tell us in the comments!
