Unpaper Towels – Do they Save Money and Time?
I couldn’t decide whether to name this article Unpaper Towels, Learning How to Think or “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?
I discovered a new thing yesterday called unpaper towels and I am still shaking my head over it and trying to decide what is this world coming to? But, before I get ahead of myself, let me explain what an unpaper towel is for those of you who like me hadn’t heard about them.
An unpaper towel is a rag to use in place of paper towels, which is supposed to save you time, money, energy and the environment.
Sounds like a winner, huh? Ahh, but read on. Like so many other simple things and ideas of times past, leave it to this generation to make it as difficult, complicated and expensive as can be and then slap the phrase it will save the environment on to it to insure it’s success. With that “winning” combination, before you know it, everyone is jumping on the band wagon singing its praises.
One of the things I have always tried to do on this website is to help our readers to learn to think for yourselves and not to have a herd mentality. I will often say, “Don’t do exactly like I do it but adjust or change it to fit your needs. Think about things. Ask yourself ‘Does this really make sense?’ before you do something.”
Let’s do this with unpaper towels and compare them to using rags as I suggest in our article on How to Save on Paper Towels.
“They” say you save money, time, energy and the environment by using unpaper towels. Let’s see what you think.
Saves money
Regular rags – Zero expense because you use old clothing and linen that would be tossed in the trash anyway and, because of that, if you get something gooey or greasy on it you don’t mind just throwing it away as you would a paper towel.
When you need to replace rags it costs nothing because you just use more old clothes.
Unpaper towels – You buy 2 yards ($6-$10) of fabric for 9 of them and, of course, thread. Those who recommend unpaper towels also suggest you can buy snaps to put on them to hook them together and some people buy special items to make a cone to put them on. If you get something gooey or greasy on them, don’t worry! Use lots of hot water to rinse them before before washing. You now add gas and water costs to the expense.
After a certain period of time you have to replace them, which means you have to spend money again.
Saves Time
Regular rags - 60 seconds or less to cut up one t shirt into about 9 rags.
Unpaper towels – I don’t have an exact time on this but I think you will get the idea by the time I am through.
- You make a trip to the fabric store to get fabric – for me this would take at least an hour with driving and everything.
- Cutting and sewing – 45 minutes to an hour. Depending on your skill and different things.
- Once the unpaper towels are sewed, you need to add in the time it takes for you to rinse grease out of them by hand after they are used and then wash them.
Saves Energy
After reading the above paragraphs I think you can see it takes way more energy to make and care for unpaper towels than rags. In fact, part of the reason for using regular paper towels was to save energy. If energy and less work is why you use paper towels then you may want to keep using paper towels or rags. Unpaper towels, themselves, make work for you.
Save the Environment
You know me when it comes to saving the environment. I don’t worry about it a bit but probably save it 10 times more than the most die hard environmentalist because I am careful with what I have and use up what I have on hand.
An environmentalist often reminds me of a little child who wants to make the play room clean and better for mom. He picks up each individual toy and makes trip after trip one toy at a time placing them in his toy basket instead of bringing the basket to the toys or carrying an armload at a time to make things easier. He takes the longest and hardest way to pick them up. He then stacks them so high without thinking that they all come crashing down and makes a bigger mess for mom to clean up than he started out with.
It seems that so many people come up with these great ideas to make things easier, to save money and the environment without thinking it through or looking at the long term and practicality of it.
Rags – You use items you already have on hand and will be throwing away anyway.
Unpaper towels – you use gas to go to the fabric store. Consider all of the energy the factories use to make the fabric and the energy the fabric store uses. I could go into more detail but I think you get the idea.
In Closing
One of the reasons people like to use unpaper towels is that they look pretty, which is fine, but most of the time they are stored in a drawer out of sight so for the expense and work, is it really worth it? If you want something pretty, why go through all that work? Just go to the Dollar Tree and buy a package of washrags or something similar for just a few cents.
Let’s put our thinking caps on. If you have a lot of time on your hands or like fun craft projects then the unpaper towels may work for you but if your goal is to save time, energy, money and the environment, go with good old simple rags.
P.S. I may go back to using paper towels, though, if that handsome Paul Bunyan dude will show up at my door the way the commercials say he will.
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photo by: faungg
I aam a paper towel junkie. Use them for everything BUT that being said I have started cutting up old Tshirts for rags. Did it to keep my husband from wearing them.
Actually made him use his knife to cut them since that was easier for me.
I also use happy foot socks that get a hole in the ankle or heel. Haven’t figured out a way to stitch them up without a lump so out they go.
I rarely use them twice since I am cleaning up cat messes from both ends so they go right into the garbage.
Anyway thanks for the tips. The only thing I would buy to purposely buy for rags would be a dozen cloth diapers. Had them for years until they fell apart.
“PS. I may go back to using paper towels though if that handsome Paul Bunyan dude will show up at my door the way the commercials say he will.”
I must be the luckiest girl in the world! When my husband grows out his beard and puts on his black & red plaid flannel he looks JUST LIKE the paper towel guy! And, is it me, or has that guy gone on a diet and shaved his beard? I feel like years ago he was “brawny-er” and wore a beard….
Anyway, I digress. This was a great post. Personally, I use a combo of rags and paper towels. We re-purpose “holy” socks into sock puppets and the kids have fun filling them with toys, rocks, dirt, whatever they can get their little paws on.
It’s so true that people nowadays don’t have old-fashioned common sense and end up making simple things harder and more complicated. I see it every day in numerous ways. I don’t believe most people are smarter. Just because you know how to use Facebook, download music, and play games on a computer, and use a cell phone doesn’t make you smarter. People don’t have everyday life skills so therefore in my opinion aren’t smarter.
“Unpaper towels”? Seriously???? What a hoot! We only spend time hemming rags when they are old bath towels being remade into hand/dish towels or washcloths!!!
This is a new one for me also. I guess that I can now say that I have heard it all. I agree with you on this one. Just not seeing the savings of money, energy one even time on the unpaper towels. Thanks for this article. I also use rags and paper towels and think that I will stick with what I have.
i thought my eyes were plyaing tricks on me again when i was in the paper towel aisle at walmart .. but they have something similar to this (at least i think its similar) .. its a box of these “napkins/towels” from the people with the tissues (i cant think of the name) and it comes in a pretty box and u can just pull out this towel and wipe things clean!..
..
is this the same thing? .. all i know is that when i was in hte store last week, 2 ladies were getting them .. one of the ladies suggested to the other lady to get them bc they are new and its so easy to use..
and i thought to myself, well .. if u want paper towels just get a roll and pull at the perforated eges .. save lots of money and well if u want hand towels, do to the towel section of the store and save even more money .. or like jill suggests, rip up old t shirts and make rags (they even have bags of rags for sale in the auto section!) ..
what will they think of next! ..
and yes kristi.. i think ur right . that bunyyan guy on the roll of paper towels looks like he is on a diet!~ .. hehehee
and bea .. u r soooo right .. where has the common sense gone these days? ..
ugh . my spelling .. sorry . .hehee
Our hospital volunteers make money for the hospital extras by taking in old clothes and turning them into rags.
They sold them to the mines and the pulp mill here in town. The only type they wouldn’t take were jeans and baby clothes.
So even the big companies were trying to keep from using paper towels.
Rose, Nice to see your post. You and Grandma have been on this site for awhile and I always look for your posts.
awww thank u bea .. i appreciate the compliment .. thank u … i love coming to the site and well, i dont always post but i still come to visit ..
..
i love ur posts too ..
yes, i told my daughter about this, the unpaper towels, and she was quite surprised but wasnt at all shocked ..
she said “well mom, just goes to show you that ‘snowflake’ has to keep up with the ‘jones’ and not be like the ordinary people with common sense” ..
snowflake is her name for anyone/anything that she is making reference to…
the only thing she uses paper towels for is when she is walking her dog, tippy, and has to pik up his ‘doodies’ .. in her apt complex .. its a rule there but not everyone follows it ..
she got a bunch of what looks like washcloths from walmart for a cheap price, for rags, and if she does her mirrors and windows, she uses newspaper ..
just wanted to share ..
You’re welcome Rose. Have a nice day!
Unpaper towels… hmmmm. I think I heard about this on Pinterest, with a cute picture of cloth towels with buttons sewed on them to link them together and wrap around a paper towel holder. I repinned it when I first saw it because it was cute, but now, I think I’m much happier the way I do things now. My family used to go through about one large pack of paper towels each month, if not more. We used paper towels for napkins, wiping up messes, makeshift plates on pizza nights, the list goes on and on. I decided I wanted to save money, reduce the amount of trash we throw out each week, and a number of other things, but mostly save money! I paid for a handful of cloth napkins, and hid the remaining paper towels from the family about two months ago. I’ll admit, some of my nicer kitchen towels have been stained by a teenager who decided to wipe up spilled koolaid with whatever was closest, and my 10 year old has semi-reverted back to wiping hands on shirts… it’s definitely a work in progress, but we have made progress! I now only use paper towels for greasing my pans when cooking. I’m sure there is some other task that will be a job for paper towels, so I haven’t completely stopped buying them, but I am still on a roll that I bought over two months ago! I have old wash cloths, bath towels and different types of clothing that are used for cleaning anything and everything around the house- I don’t throw any rags away until they are beyond use. I have store-bought dish cloths that become cleaning rags once they are grungy enough, and I have towels in my kitchen specifically for drying the dishes I wash by hand and another for drying hands. I just recently found your site thanks to Pinterest, and am loving the new tidbits of info! Thanks for creating such useful and entertaining posts for us!
whoever thought of “unpaper towels” is a marketing king! that is the silliest ting Ive ever heard of. B
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