OT-Paper towels or Dish towels

[PrincessSuzanne]

Okay, I am going to start this because of the re-using bath towels thread. How many of you only use Dish Towles, paper towels, or both and how many?

I use both, depends on what I am doing or what I am wiping. I ues at least 2 or 3 dish towels a day and probably 2 to 3 rolls of paper towels a week

So, come on, how much do you use?

Suzanne

 

[ToddyLu]

OK, I'll bite. I use a dish towel a couple of days before it goes in the laundry. We go through one or two rolls of paper towels weekly. My DH just loves them and I buy the family/jumbo pack. We do not have children so I know we are the culprits for killing trees. He is more obsessive than I am about paper towels. I can only buy the plain white ones though. The ones with colorful designs are creepy IMO. Go figure He also uses a clean towel each and every time he showers--never reuses a towel. I do on the other hand because I am the one doing laundry.

 

[WantToGoNow]

I don't own a dish towel. Seriously, the dishes are dry when they come out of dishwasher. We use paper towels (and Clorox wipes) for everything else.

 

[nosy parker]

Oh, I'm sooo lazy and love the convenience of paper towels! Use 1 - 2 rolls a week. Dish towels are not for anything but wiping my hands on in the kitchen (and even then I usually grab a paper towel instead). I rarely wash anything by hand - if it doesn't go in the dishwasher, I don't want to own it. So when I do, I will dry it with a dish towel. But you know how when you open the dishwasher there is always water collected on the base of glasses/mugs and lots of other places (especially tupperware/plastic containers), I dry all that up with paper towels. Spills on the floor- paper towels.

And I love the plushy thick paper towels that rip into half-sheets. Deluxe!

Geez, between this and the towel thread I seriously feel like an environmental threat!

 

[Julylady]

I'll play! I never use the heat cycle on my dishwasher so when I unload the dishes I need a dishtowel to wipe off the drips. (I am saving the electricity to run my dryer since I don't reuse towels )

I start a new dishtowel each morning and throw it in the laundry each evening when I am done in the kitchen. I only use paper towels for messy spills. A roll probably lasts me about 2-3 weeks. I also wipe down the counters with Clorox wipes about every other day.

A side note: About a year ago I bought a bunch of cloth napkins at Kohls on clearance. We keep them in a basket on the counter. I find that we go through far less paper towels and napkins since we started using them.

Donna

 

[puffkin]

What in the WORLD are you using that many paper towels on? We got through 1 roll maybe every 2-3 weeks or so. I use a dish towel to dry the dishes when they come out of the dishwasher (we save money by not using the heat setting) and I use a dish cloth to wipe up the table, kids, etc. That gets thrown in the wash every few days.

I have a dog, cat and a messy 2 year old and I don't really see why you would need to use so many paper towels unless you are cleaning windows or something.

 

[LadyShea]

At some point I consciously switched to using dish towels, and rags made from cut up old towels. Now, instead of 2-4 rolls of paper towels a week (yes we used a lot on silly things like several to wipe our hands while cooking) we use 2-4 rolls a month.

 

[irene_dsc]

I made a conscious effort when we moved and re-did our kitchen to add lots of drawers, so I'd have room for dishrags & dishtowels. So, I do try to use dish towels most of the time for cleaning up messes, drying hands, etc. I also use a dishdrainer for dishes we wash by hand, but I do use the dry setting on our dishwasher. I still use some paper towels, but not nearly as many as I used to - I'm not sure exactly how long it takes us sto go through a roll, and it definitely depends on messes.

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

Wow, didn't imagine I would get this many responses. I use alot of paper towels, we don't buy napkins and use PT for napkins, spills, drying hands. I buy them in bulk, I use Sparkle and they have to have a pretty print. I am a fanatic about washing my hands, I can't use that gel crap, nasty.

I DO NOT have a dishwasher, because of the age of the house and because we aren't on city sewage, we can't have one, so all dishes have to be washed by hand, so I lay towels on the drainer and counter to pile dishes on, that usually takes 2 dish towels and I use a dish rag to wipe down the counter tops.

Suzanne

 

[nosy parker]

I'll play! I never use the heat cycle on my dishwasher so when I unload the dishes I need a dishtowel to wipe off the drips. (I am saving the electricity to run my dryer since I don't reuse towels )

 

[K and K's Mommy]

I am trying to be better! I used to use a lot of paper towels, but now I probably use one roll a week.

My son has a friend who doesn't buy them at all! I am just not there yet. I use them for spills and drying my hands. I use a towel for drying dishes.

 

[mom2aredhead]

I don't own a dish towel. Seriously, the dishes are dry when they come out of dishwasher. We use paper towels (and Clorox wipes) for everything else.

Us too - and I go through almost 2 rolls/week. I'm getting better now that I bought the ones that she sheets are smaller, but we go through a lot of paper towels.

 

[arielsleepingbeauty]

We go through 1-2 each week. I use a dish towel to dry my hands sometimes. I like paper towels better.They seem more sanitary. Plus i dont know if my girls have touched the dishtowels so who knows what could be on them. They usually go for the paper towels. I let my dishes drip dry. I have never wiped them down. I do buy the paper towels that you can pick what size you want. This definatley does svae us money and the towels dont get wasted from just drying our hands.

 

[goofyisinphilly]

We rarely use paper towels. Only for wiping down the table with disinfectant spray or for drips in the floor. Other wise I use a dishrag for washing dishes and dishtowel for drying those that need dried. For hand drying there is a seperate hand towel.

I use one dishrag per day but a dish towel or hand towel can last 2 unless I was being really sloppy while cooking.

 

[PattnFmly]

Well, I do use both. Paper towel use is about a roll every couple of weeks. We hang a hand towel on the fridge handle for drying hands and change that like twice a week. The dishes I wash stay in the drainer until dry (I usually wash after supper so they're there until after work the next day .. always dry!) and if we run the dishwasher after supper, I usually open the door overnight so the extra moisture evaporates into the house rather than using the heating cycle. As for paper towels ... we will put sandwiches or toast on them rather than dirtying plates. But our biggest usage of paper towels is yucky stuff ... like cat barf or something. I'm not washing that out of a rag!

 

[Rootskate]

I don't have any dish towels but I do go through paper towels like a mad woman. Probably 2-3 rolls a week.