Posted by
Thanks to KP who uploaded her super colorful and quite eco-friendly paper towel roll photo into our Flickr pool, I learned what an unpaper towel roll is. We talked about going toilet paper free. But would you ditch your paper towels?
KP explains:
A couple of years ago, my dude and I had committed to ridding our house of paper towels. We just decided that they were expensive, and wasteful, and really- how much extra effort does it take to throw a cloth in the wash? Since moving to our current place, we have fallen off the bandwagon. The ability to store bulk items in our pantry had us in disposable paper product heaven.…After roaming about on Pinterest for a while, I came across a picture of “unpaper towels” — snappable homemade cloths that fit on a regular paper towel roll. Brilliant! It was just the push I needed to recommit to cloth. They looked easy enough to make, so I decided to go for it!
Here they are all lined up, snapped together, and ready to be rolled up and used.
…And here they are rolled up and at home on KP’s counter.
If you’re interested in making one of these eco-friendly unpaper towel rolls, you can find the full tutorial over on KP’s blog. So… do you think YOU could make the switch?
This is cute and I like the idea of it out on the counter being all cute, but I know myself well enough to realize that I’m too lazy to make it and too cheap to buy one someone else made. We only use paper products for cat messes, especially our one old miserable drain circling cat who can’t seem to poop in the box anymore. Because I’m lazy and I want to just wrap and flush. Otherwise, I use unsightly but wonderful bar rags/Goodwill towels for cleaning and cheap Ikea dishcloths as napkins, and find they work better than paper and are so much cheaper.
Kudos for cute and innovative, though.
Beautiful color palette. I just don’t find it practical for our family. I do use cloth. I just use auto rags. They suck up water like no other business and clean faces and if they stain I’m not out designer fabric cuteness because I didn’t invest in the first place. Adorable idea but I wouldn’t do it. I’d have to bleach, iron, and snap it all back and I acknowledge I’m lazy.
After seeing this post I immediately went to Etsy and bought myself a roll and I am glad to say that I LOVE them! I ordered them from HappiestCrafts and they are beautiful, well made, and awesome. The craftswoman, Stacy, sent them the very next day along with a handmade note. Also if you add the code “HAPPYFRIENDS” before checkout you will get 10% off!
that’s a lot of knives, man. distracted… anyway, i use regular bar mops for cleaning and only use paper towels for shh i don’t want in my face cloths. toilet and uncooked meat juice. i get that you wash it out, i wash it out of my hands everyday (potty training ftw!) but for real, i’m not chancing salmonella soaked terry wipes in my machine daily with two small kids in the house. if i go completely vegetarian maybe, when my kids are older, we’ll revisit. but for now paper towels have a small but important role in my life, next to the clorox wipes. just bein’ real.
When you wash them does the towel Lin get on the front of the fabric? Where did you buy the snaps? How are they holding up?
They’ve held up really well! I have a heavy duty snap press now, and would like to make a new batch with recycled thick towels instead of the flimsy terry cloth from Joann’s, but that’s my only complaint. No issues with lint getting on the front of the fabric.
I am working on cutting down on paper products. I try to use reusable cloths or sponges and brushes for cleaning. That has dramatically cut down on buying paper towels but we still use them for some messes. My husband uses a handkerchief so we use less tissues. And I swapped my paper lady products for a diva cup and Luna pads. Our neighborhood also makes recycling paper we do use easy so that helps.
Little steps add up majorly over time! I make my own cloth pads and they are amaaaaaaazing. My endometriosis has gotten so bad that I can’t use the Diva Cup anymore due to cramps, but am hoping to be able to again after a surgery in April. There’s something that feels great about not spending $$ on something that’s meant to be thrown away- be it paper towels or lady products! 🙂
I really want to make the switch, but my fiancee and I are reluctant since we live in an apartment complex and pay $1.50 to wash a load of laundry. Once we get our own place and laundry is a bit more convenient, I’m soooo ditching the paper. As of right now, I’m trying to make the switch to reusable Swiffer Wet-Jet pads and reusable cotton makeup remover pads. I’ve been eyeing them on Etsy and my trigger finger is getting itchy.
Love love this! They are sooo incredibly cute!
But, I’m sure it would fall under the “maybe one day if I get a sewing machine and get around to do it” type of projects… They look awesome, but I’m not quite sure how much they will help, except for the prettiness.
I use washclothes for almost anything, and my paper towel roll lasts ages! ( I probably only use it for things like putting around bacon or potatoes before putting in the microwave)
Gorgeous! Love this idea for making a distinct difference for floor cloths and surface cloths. The two will never be confused again!
I would love to do something like this, but I will have to wait until we move somewhere with a washing machine. Right now we do laundry about once every 3-4 weeks, and I cannot imagine adding food & spill related dirty cloth napkins to our monster pile of dirty laundry.
I like the idea of this, but would probably just put them in a drawer. My parents used to have these white rags that they used. Not as cute, but they worked. However, I live in an apartment without a washer or dryer, which means we do our laundry once a month. This means that anything that adds to our laundry size and cost is not going to happen. Additionally, our kitchen is so small that there wouldn’t be drawer space for them and there is no way I would take the time to snap these together after each trip to the laundry.