As a kid, I thought that paper towels were a thing that rich people had. My mother never bought them. Even though my grandfather (her father) worked his entire life in a paper factory that manufactured them, they were never a part of my childhood. 

Or my twenties. Or even my thirties.  

Did I occasionally buy paper towels for parties or use them for things like soaking up bacon grease? Yes, I did. But I treated them like they were semi-sacred. When I was a kid, my mother would never spend money on something like that. If you could just use a rag, why would you not? 

To me, that was really straight-forward. 

But I realize that's no everybody's experience. Many people then and now have grown up with paper towels as an essential item in their kitchens. 

I totally understand why. Paper towels are SO convenient! There they are just waiting to wipe up a mess or soak up that bacon grease or get the wet paint off the trim. Then, you can just throw them in the trash and you never have to think about it again. 

At least that's how it feels. 

But we do have to think about it. It IS waste. It IS taking a very valuable resource (trees) and using a lot of energy, water, and chemicals to turn those very valuable trees into, well, trash.

How long do you really use a paper towel before you trash it? Thirty seconds for cleaning up messes or drying your hands. Maybe thirty minutes if you're using it as a napkin at a meal. 

How long did it take that tree to grow? 

A lot longer than that.

I also totally understand that you can buy recycled ones or bamboo ones, but at the end of the day, it's still a resource that gets used very briefly and then goes to the landfill, incinerator, or (please no) the ocean. 

Paper towels also happen to be really easy (and cute!) to replace. 

So, how did I end up teaching when it was never my plan? 

The two brands I recommend the most are Earthly Co (available on Amazon) or Marley's Monsters (USA-based company in Oregon).

I get paid exactly $0 to promote them, but I recommend them to you anyway because I ordered several brands online and some of them were quite disappointing. Some are quite thin and not absorbent. Or, some are quite small. 

Earthly Co. has the largest, softest ones I've found so far. Marley's Monsters are smaller and a bit pricier, but they offer a crazy amount of variety in terms of patterns, colors, and prints. 

Now, will you save the planet by using "not" paper towels?

No, you won't. It's an action that helps, but is not a total solution (like every other action we take). 

So, why did I take the time to write about something so simple? 

Because it ripples! 

Once you have these in your home and you use them regularly, you really come to like them. And you start to look around your house (or the Marley's Monsters website) for more and more things you can replace with a reusable option. It's a bit addictive.

When I was in high school, teachers used to warn us not to smoke marijuana because it was a "gateway drug" that led to all kinds of other drug or substance abuse. Well, this is like a "gateway drug" for sustainability. But all the knock-on effects are awesome!

So, instead of giving you a cost and savings breakdown, I challenge you to just try these in your kitchen. See if they don't perk up your space and make using regular paper towels seem downright boring and outdated. 

See you in the next post!