I sat down and did the math on paper towels one afternoon, and it genuinely annoyed me. A pack of the good ones costs around fifteen dollars, and my household was burning through a roll every week without thinking about it.

That is hundreds of dollars a year going into the trash. Switching to washable rags was easier than I expected, and I have not bought a paper towel roll in months.

How to make the switch

You do not need a special system. You need a stack of cloths and a place to toss the dirty ones.

• Cut up old t-shirts or towels you were going to throw out
• Buy a pack of cheap bar mops or microfiber cloths once
• Keep a small bin or basket in the kitchen for the used ones
• Toss them in with your regular laundry

The laundry basket for rags is the key. If there is nowhere obvious to drop a dirty cloth, you will fall back on paper out of convenience.

Where paper towels still earn their place

I am not a purist about it. For grease, raw meat, or anything truly gross, a paper towel is still worth it. The point is not to eliminate them completely, it is to stop using them for the hundred little wipe-ups that a cloth handles just as well.

Keep one roll on hand for the messy jobs, and let the rags take everything else. That single roll will now last you two or three months instead of a week.