We switched to using reusable cloths in the kitchen a few years ago. I loved the convenience of using paper towels, but I didn’t like paying for them month after month! It took me a couple of tries to make it work for us. Mainly, I didn’t like how they left tiny specs of residue on mirrors and dark furniture (I’ll tell you how I deal with that below!).
But now that I have a mix of different types of cleaning cloths, I’m comfortable with our current system and don’t miss the disposables at all!
Have More than you Need
The reason most of us love using paper towels is because reaching for one is mindless and there are always plenty in supply! I think it’s best to approach switching to cloth the same way – have more than you need on-hand and it’ll be almost as easy!
If you’re constantly running out and having to wait until the laundry is done to clean something, it’ll start to feel like a chore! I recommend keeping at least 20 on-hand for kitchen/general cleaning purposes. I know it sounds like overkill, but if you’re anything like me, you’ll likely go through half of that in a day!
You can get started for free by cutting up old tee shirts, for about $5 by going the wash cloth route (18 to a pack at Walmart!) or go with microfiber cloths for about $20 (I use these, comes 36 to a pack and has three different colors so I don’t get the bathroom and kitchen ones mixed up!). I have wash cloths, dish cloths and microfiber cloths and I add to the stash every six months or so.
Have a System in Place
Where do you store ready-to-use cloths?
Where will you stash the dirty ones?
How often will you wash them?
Answer these questions before switching and it’ll make the process 10x easier!
I’ve gone through a few ways of doing it over the years. Currently, I keep my clean cloths in a basket on the counter and I keep an extra stack of under the kitchen sink. I toss my dirty cloths in a lingerie bag hanging from a kitchen cabinet (classy, I know). 
I wash them when I’m running low (not completely out!). I just toss them in with our towels (lingerie bag and all). Keeping them zipped in the lingerie bag while washing/drying makes it super simple to fetch them out of the dryer and quickly fold because you don’t have to sort through the laundry basket to find each one!
Separate their Uses
This may be just a personal preference but I don’t like the thought of cleaning my kitchen counters with something that has cleaned my bathroom! I recommend keeping separate stashes for different purposes. I have a stash for the kitchen. A stash for the bathroom. And a smaller stash for general house cleaning. I bought my microfiber cloths from Amazon and love them! I use the yellow ones in the kitchen, white ones around the house and the blue ones for the bathroom, so they’re easy to tell apart. I have also purchased great microfiber cloths from Home Depot (in store), but they were more expensive at $8 for three!
Know their Limits
If you have darker surfaces in your house, you may want to spring for microfiber cloths. Cut up tee shirts and wash cloths tend to leave tiny bits of lint behind. For mirrors, we actually use crumpled up newspaper from our junk mail. It’s free and if it was good enough for my grandmother, it’s good enough for me!
Buy Darker Cloths
If you use white cloths only, they will eventually get stained. I’m not too fussy about this, but I do recommend keeping some darker cloths on hand to handle tougher messes. I’m kind of a whiz at removing stains (I do use cloth pads, after all, so I’ve picked up a few tricks here and there!), but there are some things that I prefer not to use my reusable cloths to clean because I don’t wash them everyday, so they tend to stain with certain messes. If stains bother you, it may be best to keep a stash of dark cloths or even keep one lonely roll of paper towel for the occasional mess that calls for it.
If you use reusable cloths in your kitchen, please share your tips in the comments below!
Hi!
Ginny Collins is a passionate foodie and recipe creator of Savor and Savvy and Kitchenlaughter. Indoors she focuses on easy, quick recipes for busy families and kitchen basics. Outdoors, she focuses on backyard grilling and smoking to bring family and friends together. She is a lifelong learner who is always taking cooking classes on her travels overseas and stateside. Her work has been featured on MSN, Parade, Fox News, Yahoo, Cosmopolitan, Elle, and many local news outlets. She lives in Florida where you will find her outside on the water in her kayak, riding her bike on trails, and planning her next overseas adventure.
Isn’t it funny how when you start thinking about something it just pops up in your life? We are very good about not wasting paper towels in my family. They are a last resort and one roll lasts us a very long time, but I’ve been wondering how we could do even better, so thanks for these tips, they’ve really inspired me. I also realized that my excessive use of cotton rounds to remove my makeup with micellar water is wasteful. I feel bad that it didn’t dawn on me earlier, but I’ll now be switching to cheap black washcloths, that way they won’t be grossly stained. I think I might cut them into smaller squares and sew around the edges.
I’m slowly switching to a more environmentally friendly lifestyle. I already use microfibre cloths but am concerned about their impact on the environment because they shed tiny particles which get into the water systems when washed and can’t be filtered.
What fabrics would you recommend instead?
Thanks
I haven’t used paper towels in 5 years or more. Old sheets, towels, socks, tee shirts and diapers along with any other material that is no longer usable. Free leftover tag sale give a ways. A lot are one time use and put in the garbage from cat indigestion. Other are washed and I knitted washcloths, I love trees and hope I helped save some majestic beauties.
I recently cut up the perfect towel (for this purpose), serged the ends and am using them for our table napkins. The ones that I had previously (egyptian cotton that I bought at a garage sale 6 years ago) are now my cleaning cloths. They are very different and no one uses them for their mouth anymore (eck). I’ve only recently started to separate them for washing as well as. Not sure why I didn’t in the past. I do not use clothes for the toilet. I use 1-2 half sheets a week and I’m okay with that.
Looking forward to reading your other tips.
Besos, Sarah
Journeys of The Zoo
Love the storage suggestions and places to keep so they are within reach! We switched from paper towels when our kid count hit three. Too much storage taken up and the fear of running out with sticky hands was too much. ha ha. Have you ever heard of Norwex? We use those now and can keep even less cloths on hand. Thanks for the post.
Norwex sounds intriguing, will be looking them up!
Try Melaleuca, I did. Never looked back. Message back for more information 🙂
Nice article! I like the lingerie net idea!
With my husband we dont separate our rags out: since they come in like 10 different colors per pack that would be difficult. We do have 2 separate bags for rag laundry though: one for normal-dirty (warm load) like kitchen towels, rags with small messes like cleaning the countertop etc, and one for very dirty (very hot load) for stuff like cat oopsies or toilet cleaning rags. Goes in the wash on sanitizing mode at about boiling temp.
They are good for cleaning although they do leave some lint and sometimes push dust around. It’s alright if I rinse them a lot to get rid of the dust though.
Our preschool uses old washcloths as hand towels. I love it! Just pop them in the wash at the end of the day. They are so easy to use and we use the “dirty” ones for cleaning water spills in our classroom. We have a water cooler and reusable cups with their names on them. The children fill their own cups but sometimes accidents happen.
Just curious… If you use separate rags for kitchen and bathroom use, but wash them all together with your bath and kitchen towels…don’t the bathroom germs infiltrate all the towels?
I have washed the bathroom ones with the kitchen ones and it was fine, but it DID have me asking the same question. Since writing this article, I now keep a pack of clorox wipes around to clean the toilet, but that’s about it. That way I’m totally comfortable just washing the bathroom ones (that have only cleaned the counter/sink area) with all the cleaning cloths for the house.
I also keep a small basket from the dollar store under my kitchen sink. When I get worn out socks, t-shirts and the likes I cut them up as needed and use them for REALLY yucky jobs and then toss them.
Several years ago, I purchased a bundle of inexpensive face cloths at Costco. They turned out to be rougher than we like for bathing so they’ve been languishing in the linen closet ever since. They’re white so they can be bleached and washed in hot water. Perfect for cleanups — thanks for the reminder.
I use cloth and paper towels in my kitchen. I tend to use the cloth ones more often, because these are reusable. I have many cloth towels and I have no issues washing them. They are just small and don’t take much space in my washer. I have noticed I save a lot when I don’t use paper towels.
We switched to cloth napkins ages ago and never looked back. Plus it looks pretty impressive when company comes over. They feel like they’re getting the “good dishes” treatment even though for us, it’s a normal everyday thing to use cloth.
We’ve also been using throwaway rags for bathroom cleaning. I have no desire to keep something that swirled around my toilet bowl. And we use kitchen only washcloths in the kitchen for most spills. Even with a 2 year old and a baby – with all the spills we have – I almost never need paper towels. We mainly use those for fix-it projects where we’re dealing with glues, oils, caulk or other goopy things that will ruin a washcloth.
I eliminated paper towels about 3 months ago, and I can see a difference in both my bank account and my trash bag!! 🙂 I also eliminated paper napkins, for even more savings-both financially, and environmentally. I do keep a roll on hand-for pet messes-but that’s it. Newspapers are great for mirrors/glass and is also an alternative when draining fried foods-especially bacon. Some of your hints are things I’d never thought of doing, and am going to incorporate them into my frugal lifestyle….thanks for all your great ideas!!!
Love this! I recently switched to cloth pads (so glad I did)… And I’m hoping I can get my roomie to start using everything reusable as well! I think I’ve pretty well cured her of using water bottles, plastic utensils and paper plates, but we shall see…. 🙂
Yay! I’m with you on the cloth pads – they’re so great! I think you can bring her on board with more reusable things by trying to make the switch as easy as using the disposables!
I also use cloth pads. Now that I’m in menopause, I’ll keep them around as incontinence pads. I also make my own reusable wipes.
This sounds like a great idea! My one issue would be the messes my animals make. Just too gross and stinky for me to keep the towels around.
Just curious on others thoughts on this & whether anyone has tried it?
I don’t have any pets myself, but I would likely keep one roll of paper towels around only to deal with pet-related messes. Just keeping their use to that one specific thing will still save loads over using them for everything around the house!
I cut up old t-shirts to use for pet messes – I have lots of pet messes! I keep clean pet rags in their own container and the soiled pet rags are also kept in their own container. I bleach and wash the rags with blankets and pet bedding so as not to mix them with my regular wash. For stools, I pick up with toilet paper and drop in the toilet.
We use flour sack towels from walmart! Super cheap, large, and super absorbent!! Love the idea of a “dirties” bag in the kitchen, beats having a pile on the laundry room floor:)
I really like the flour sack towel idea. Will have to look into those!
I am the same way! My mom always kept white towels for all messes – because they can be bleached clean – and I buy the flour sacks and wash cloth bundles from Walmart. My linen closet consists, almost entirely, out of these for cleaning.
I have a wire mesh, small, trash bin that I store under my kitchen sink for the dirty rags – they hang on the side while they’re damp and go into the bin when they’re dry until laundry day on Sunday.
I just recently made the decision to stop using paper towels for all our messes. They are too expensive. I do still use them for pet messes. My dogs are elderly and more prone to have accidents. But I use cleaning cloths, made from my old flannel sheets, and I love it! I cleaned out a junk drawer in my kitchen and filled it with cleaning cloths. They do a great job and I save money.
I stopped using paper towels about 3 years ago and never looked back. I have different towels for different things: tea towels for drying/wiping my hands, bar towels for cleaning counters, sack cloths for bigger messes, small cotton crocheted cloths for cleaning dishes and small messes, and microfiber cloths stuck under the sink because I hate them. My husband is still confused but really, just grab which ever cloth you’re feeling at the time. I hang them from a tension rod over the sink till dry, then drop them into their own hamper and wash with the cloth napkins and tablecloths.
Newspaper is good for this.
I use paper towels for animal messes. The smell never goes away. Even if you segregate the rags for the animals—and I do, I even wash them separately–there are just some things that won’t come out. I keep a roll of paper towels on hand for that.
I compromise by springing for RECYCLED FIBER paper towels.
Hi, I keep junk mail and used newspapers for pet messes. I’ll throw away the bit I used to pick it up with, but then I’ll scrub with another with diluted vinegar and that one I’ll put in my compost. I don’t know if it will work for you, but it’s been doing it for me. 🙂
I am responding to this three years after your post. I am curious to know what you decided to do, regarding pet mess’s. I have to deal with pet messes, too, and didn’t know what would be best. I was thinking about using cloth diapers for the clean ups. Thoughts?