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This is the question I get all the time… “how do I deal with having no paper towels?!”

I totally understand. I have a 3-year-old and a newborn, and I swear to you that when I had my first son, I was personally making up a large portion of the paper towel sales each month at Costco. I would use them for EVERYTHING. “Oh, I dropped a crumb, lemme just rip off four sheets of paper towels…”

When I started reading Zero Waste Home (start with this book, seriously. It explains everything, and it’s currently less than $10) I knew that the first step for me would be cutting way back on my paper towel consumption. This meant, I not only needed a way to clean my counters but something to wipe my toddler’s peanut butter face at breakfast, as well.

What did people DOOOO before paper towels?

How to go paperless in the kitchen

1. Napkins

I started off with what I thought would be easiest, switching from paper towels to cloth napkins. I went to the thrift store and bought every dark, solid-colored cloth napkin they had (for a whopping $4 total). I consciously chose dark colors so that if I did stain them, who cares! If thrift store napkins are not your thang, there are so many beautiful cloth napkins out there (get dark ones so that stains don’t show as easily.)

To make sure that we actually used them, instead of getting up to rip off a paper towel on autopilot, I put them folded in a cute little basket on our table.

This is key.

You have to find a system that works for you so that you actually use them. We can be a little lazy I guess, so I needed to put it right in front of our faces.

2. Paper Towels

True confessions: we still have a roll of paper towels in our kitchen. gasp SHAME!

Okay, but seriously, we have drastically cut back on the number of paper towels we use, and really only keep them there for super gross jobs like wiping out our cast iron pans.

So, what do we use?

Rags.

I remember growing up, my mom had a dishcloth that she used to wash the dishes, and we used a cloth to clean the counters, too.

When did using paper towels to clean EVERYTHING become such a thing?!

Basically, I went around my house and found any and all of the old cloths/washcloths/hand towels that were stained, and I designated a kitchen drawer for them alone, and said to them, “you are now deemed “unpaper towels”.

They took it fine.

If you want prettier “unpaper towels“, there are massive amounts out there to buy. Another amazing idea is cloth diaper prefolds if you cloth diapered and your babies are no longer babies. Reuse, baby!

So, you ask, where do I put the dirty rags once I’m done?

We have tried so many things.

Most days, I wind up and pitch the dirty rag down the stairs to the floor outside the laundry room. My very own laundry shoot.

BUT, the more sophisticated system is that I have a bucket on the floor in our pantry to leave the dirty rags, and I wash them all when the bucket is full.

It was so much easier to get into this new routine than I thought it would be. I hardly ever reach for the paper towels anymore, but when I flinch in their direction, I have made it a conscious choice to reach for the rag rather than give in “just this one time”.

3. Paper Plates, Bowls, and Cups

This is probably the easiest of them all! Just use dishes.

It may take more time to clean up at the end of a dinner party that you hosted, but you’re doing the earth a major solid, not to mention your wallet; it is less “stuff” you need to buy when you run out.

Tip: if someone offers to help you do dishes or clean up after dinner, let them!

Many hands make for light work. Or something like that…

This has been such a hard one for me to accept, myself. However, someone once said to me that the friends who don’t mind sticking around to help you clean up after, are your people for life. And couldn’t we all use more of those kinds of people in our life?

comment below: How are you reducing paper waste in your kitchen?

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