It’s easier than you think to replace paper with cloth in the kitchen. Here’s how my family stopped using paper towels and transitioned to a paperless kitchen!
Happy Earth Day! I thought today was the perfect day to tell you about my family’s transition to a paperless kitchen. Over the years, I’ve been on a slow journey towards a greener lifestyle. Certain things were easy, like ditching plastic water bottles, because not only was that a good choice for the Earth, but I also had a vested interest in my family’s health.
Eliminating paper in my kitchen seemed much more daunting. Paper towels and napkins have become so ingrained in our society as the standard, and reaching for them was second nature, making the task of getting rid of them overwhelming. Even though I knew it was a greener, less wasteful choice to get rid of paper products in my kitchen, I wasn’t sure I was ready to let go of the convenience factor.
Well, I’m here to tell you my fears were unfounded. Going paperless is so much easier than I anticipated! These are the steps I’ve taken to replace paper towels with cloth and transition to a paperless kitchen. If we can do it, so can you!
How to Stop Using Paper Towels and Go Paperless in the Kitchen
1. Set a timeline for going paperless.
When I decided once and for all I wanted to go paperless in our kitchen, I set a timeline in my head. I had large amounts of paper napkins and paper towels, but said that once they were gone we’d be completely paperless. I used that time when those products were running out to make the transition, so it wasn’t a cold turkey kind of thing. We started by using cloth napkins for dinner only, and would use the paper napkins other times of the day when we needed a napkin. I tried putting the roll of paper towel in a less convenient place so I wasn’t so used to grabbing a paper towel for every little thing. For us, a slow transition was key.
2. Stock up on enough cloths to replace napkins and paper towels.
You want to make sure you have enough cloths that you aren’t doing laundry everyday. I’m not doing more laundry than I was before. I just throw the cloths in with the rest of the towels I’m washing anyway. We have 20+ cloth napkins on hand. I didn’t buy them all at once. Some are from way back when we got married and registered for them and a whole bunch are random napkins I’ve picked up over the years for my pictures for this blog. We don’t care that they don’t all match, in fact I kind of love that they don’t. You can pick up cloth napkins whenever you see them on sale to start your collection. Great stores to get for great prices, especially if you find sales, are Target, Homegoods, Pier 1, and World Market.
You also want to have cloths for all the things you would normally use paper towels for: dish drying, hand drying, food drying, and wiping spills.
3. Have all your cloths in a convenient place.
Our cloth napkins are in a basket on our dining table. In my eyes, it looks fine for everyday use. If we are entertaining, it’s easy enough to put away and replace with a nice centerpiece.
I bought two cookie jars and put them by the sink, within arm’s reach. In one are the cloths designated for drying food, and in the other are the cloths designated for wiping up spills.
Wiping up spills is probably what you use paper towels for the most. Having these in a convenient place is key. You don’t want this process to be less convenient than using paper products.
If you want to know how to get rid of paper towels and made it stick, my answer is to make it EASY.
The two other types of cloths we have are for hand drying and dish drying. Those are kept on separate sides in a drawer by our sink. One hand drying cloth is kept on the dishwasher handle, used for drying clean hands, and is replaced each day. The dish-drying towels are kept in the drawer until needed.
4. Have a laundry bin close by.
The next part of this process if having a place to put the used cloths. Just like throwing away paper products in the trash was easy, this needs to be easy, too. We keep a metal bin in the pantry. You could use the space under your sink or on the edge of your counter. It just needs to be close so that it’s easy to throw the used cloths in there. The key to success is have a convenient system in place! I clean the kitchen cloths about two times per week, and just throw them in with the other towels I’m already washing.
5. Get who you live with on board.
Whether it’s your spouse, your kids, your roommate, or all of the above, going paperless in your kitchen will be a much smoother process if you have everyone on the same page. I’ll admit that Tim rolled his eyes at me a bit during this process. When he saw the cookie jars with rolled up cloths he asked, “What, are we opening a spa?!” You’ve got to love a husband with a sense of humor. In the end, he was on board because I had a system in place to stop using paper towels and keep the convenience level the same. I know I keep saying that, but only because it’s so important!
This process has been a lot easier than I ever imagined it would be. Once you have a system in place, you’ll wonder why you ever thought it was necessary to waste so much paper on a daily basis. Make the transition to a paperless kitchen and you’ll save money and not lose any convenience.
Helpful Products for a Paperless Kitchen
You can purchase products from my affiliate links to help get your kitchen ready to go paperless! Thank you for supporting Happy Healthy Mama and my mission.
I got my wire basket that I hold my napkins in at Target. Click here to shop wire baskets and find the perfect napkin storage for your kitchen!]
Glass storage jars like these make a pretty display for white cloths.
Stock up on white cloths so you’ll have plenty between loads of laundry.
Find some cute and colorful napkins that you’ll love displaying in your kitchen.
Edited to add: It’s been almost two three years now since we went paperless in our kitchen and it’s still going well! I love our paperless kitchen and hope I’ve inspired you to take the plunge, too.
‘m trying really hard to make this happen in my home. Every post I read that has great ideas and tips rejuvinates my spirit and pushes me to do better. It’s difficult getting family on board but my little girl loved the pictures in this post is is at this moment trying to recreate some of them in our kitchen. Thank you very much for this post. 🙂
So good to start being aware of how much paper we use and that there are truly ways to reduce the amount we consume.
Creativity, how to keep the towel neat, clean and scientific
Instead of buying new towels and cloths, you can recycle old bath towels — cut them to size, hem the edges. Old shirts and sheets also make great kitchen cloths and napkins.
That’s a great idea! Thank you!
Thanks for sharing! Do you think you do a lot more laundry or a little more laundry with this switch?
Just a little more. Probably one more load per week. It’s not terrible!
These are great ideas! I love the pretty jars and baskets. It is much more motivating!
Thank you!
When I worked for my room and board at a community House in the “olden day’s” ,we lived on the third floor..students. A displaced person cooked our meals. In the evening, we had assigned seats around a large table . The director was at the head of table and served our dinner plate to each of us. We started every week with a large dinner napkin in a napkin holder. We used the same one all week and a clean one on Monday. Dinner was the same time ev7ery day and in a somewhat formal elegant way.
Sunday, we did our own in the kitchen. But those linen napkins lasted the week.
what do you use to clean up greasy messes like cast iron frying pans? it’s held me up from going completely paperless.
I have a stash of old, stained towels that I use for this. I keep them under the sink. That’s something I had to learn as I go and that’s what we’ve done!
Maryea, i see responses to your original post, almost 3 1/2 yr ago, are still active. You are motivating me to do better. Good resource. Love reading all the responses since 2015. Thank you.
You’re welcome! I’m so glad this motivates you. 🙂
It’s great seeing these ideas to help people go paperless. I’ve been there for years – I use colorful bandanas for napkins I’ve picked up here and there, and one of my sisters brings me dish and hand towels from their travels, so I stay well stocked! I use wash cloths and a scrub brush for dishes. I do have paper towels in the pantry to use for draining things when I (rarely) fry things. Between that and composting, and feeding scraps to my hens, I only put out garbage for pickup once or occasionally twice a month…. and that’s with three indoor cats and their litter boxes! Thanks for sharing so others can learn!
Couldn’t agree more with what you are encouraging people to do! Love this site and am sharing it for others. Love the idea you have for the glass jars. They look beautiful too. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks so much, Hannah!
Thank you for the great ideas! I love bringing back the cloth napkin! The pretty displays also make it an appealing transition.
Thank you, Suzanne! 🙂
With 3 adults in the house we use less than a roll of paper towels a week. I buy the half size towels and often tear off just a small portion for a job. Also reuse a towel for progressively dirtier jobs. example: dry clean hands, faucet, counter, trash can lid, floor spill. I use cloth dish towels but will use paper for cast iron or aluminum. Let it dry and use again. One and done is wasteful whether cloth or paper. Unless you’re wiping up from raw meat or eggs the germs on surfaces are the same as on your plates, silverware, and anything else that you have touched. Nothing is germ free and it helps your immune system.
I love how you made organizing your cleaning cloths look so pretty!! I have taken the first step in a paperless kitchen by replacing our napkins a few months ago. We love our cloth napkins! Never going back! Next step, cleaning cloths.Question….kitchen messes are…well…dirty with food stuff, you don’t put them in a separate container than your dirty towels or clothes ? Help! This is the part that bothers me most.
I’ve been using cloth napkins and tablecloths for every meal for years! Here’s a hint to go even more sustainable…use a clothes line! Hanging linens out in the sunshine not only makes them smell marvelous, but it’s like they’ve been ironed! Of course there’s also the beauty in watching them blow in the breeze, quite calming like watching the waves at the beach.
Love it!
This’s been on my mind for ever; I am partly doing it, especially for bigger spills, but I need to put this in action more, like you said set a timeline.
Good luck Kay! It’s so doable!!
How do you get the grease out of a fry pan? It is illegal to wash it down the drain or the cloth, sending grease down the drain. Newspaper is also paper. I use already used paper towels or newspaper, junk mail etc.. Putting the greasy washed cloth in the dryer is a good way to blow the wall off the house.
Well, this isn’t a waste-free way of doing it, but if we have a lot of grease (like from bacon), I line a bowl with foil, let it harden, and then throw it away. My dad would die knowing I don’t put that grease into a bowl and reuse it, but I don’t. Other than that, we don’t have a whole lot of grease in our pans after cooking. If there’s just a small amount, I rinse it. I have never heard anything about it being illegal to do so. Where do you live?
I use a throw away container, such as a yogurt or butter tub or a tin can to pour grease in after the pan has cooled. But then I use a paper towel to wipe the remaining grease from the pan. I guess if I didn’t have any paper towels at all I would save the advertisement papers, that come from the mail, to wipe the pan free of grease. After I clean it well with soapy hot water.
I’ve slipped back into using paper towels. With four small kids at home, I use them constantly. Do you have small children, and if so, do you miss them?
Yes, I have small children (5 and 8) and yes, I do sometimes miss the paper towels. I’m mostly just used to it, though. 🙂
What do you do about greasy spills. That will ruin your cloths. Or draining greasy off things like bacon etc.
I use my oldest cloths for those tasks. 🙂
It’s a double edge sword isn’t it. I grew up with out all the paper and it wasn’t till the later 1960’s that paper towels began to show up in my Mom’s kitchen but not often because they were a bit costly for her budget. But when I had children I started using them a lot. They were cheaper then and convenient. I say it is a double edge sword because if you use a lot of cloth you have more laundry to do and cleaning supplies to buy. So is the extra water and electrical energy used to wash them really a planet saver more than using paper towels? Many paper towels come from fields of trees that were grown for the purpose of being used to make furniture and then their waste products ie bits of wood and saw dust going on to make other things, possibly paper towels, or getting paper towels that have been made from recycled products. Which is more of a saver of this planet? I have not heard from anyone on this subject but I would like to know the answer. Wouldn’t you. Myself I like cloth more than paper towels and find myself going back to their use more and more. I love the ideas you have posted here.
I finally found an answer to my question: http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/green-life/2014/03/hey-mr-green-it-more-ecofriendly-use-rags-or-paper-towels
Going paperless in the kitchen… I started this path in 1992 when my kid was a babe in arms.
I was using cloth diapers and wipes, and one day I reached for a paper towel and thought, “why this? This is easier to replace than paper diapers, and I refused to use those. Why do I do this?”
I started with washcloths as napkins, and we graduated to proper napkins, well, with a stop for bandannas, about three years later.
I started with a bag of red shop rags for cleaning of anything on a surface, and a dozen tea towels for hands and dishes.
I buy one roll of paper towels a year. About half get used in latke season, over some local alternative newspapers, and the rest on stuff I never want in my laundry. I use warm, not hot water, and no bleach, so I have to be a bit aware. I will put the questionable towels in the sun for a day.
Sometime in 2007-08, ecloth sent me a sampler pack. I was an environmental issues reporter (as well as everything else aside from sports). It’s one of two “green” products I still use. The same three ecloths, and three nylon mesh produce bags.
I still use my first grocery tote, acquired in 1989. Canvas does last much longer than nylon, but Chico bags pack small for daily carry.
Napkins live in a basket. Towels have a drawer. Rags are in a basket under the sink. I keep the ecloth separate and just hand wash them and hang dry. Same with eyeglasses and computer screen cloths.
I hang towels, napkins and rags on the edge of the office sized trash bin that holds them for laundering.
One load a week suffices, in that the flat weave things go with my clothing and the terry cloth rags go with my partner’s terry cloth towels. My towels are flat weave from Turkey. My laundering is all about lint control. 😉
This year, I’m culling the worst of the rags and towels that are too tattered to clean even the floor.
It will be my second big replacement since I started 20+ years ago.
I’m always looking for ways to streamline my process.