Riches to Rags

In the past, I've written about my love-hate relationship with recycled paper towels. Although I know that paper towels use precious resources (not only trees for their production, but energy for transport, packaging materials, resources for disposal ... the list goes on and on) as a pet owner I've always kept a few paper towels around for ... ahem ... (insert your own indelicate mess here).

About a month ago, I realized that I was almost out of paper towels so I put them on the shopping list (yes, it's a paper list. I'm not perfect). I got to the store and ... I don't know ... a whim struck me.

I decided I was done with paper towels.

As I have also written before, being green involves a certain degree of organization. It should not be done whimfully. Yet, going off paper towels has proved to be hardship-free (luckily the cat hasn't cough! cough! on the furniture lately.) Previously, while cleaning my closet, I'd transformed a bunch of T-shirts into rags. I'd used them mostly for dusting. Now they are what I use for all of my general cleaning.

T-shirts, pillow cases, old towels -- all too grungy to be reused. Cut them into pieces and they can be used for all of your cleaning needs.

I've found that a nice, soft T-shirt works best for dusting and cleaning delicate items (and the TV screen), while a stiffer cotton is better for scrubbing.

This green experiment has worked out, but I have one paper towel left.

Just in case.