Cloth wipes versus paper towels

Merlot wrote: »

I have this morning cut up old tea towels etc, but my question is to you all, how do I clean windows Old Style, I do not buy newspapers.

Another thing, what do you clean your loos with, I will not buy the wipes either.

Hi Merlot,

For cleaning windows (and all glass, mirrors etc) I use two microfibre cloths and water. The first I dampen and wipe over the window and the other I use dry to buff it up afterwards. I read this tip on here and must admit I was a bit sceptical about whether or not it would work but it does.

For the loos I keep a cloth in the bathrooms in an old lunchbox containing a bleach solution. When I wash the towels I thow it in too.

Pink

Ps I can recommend Penny's hand knitted dishcloths....she sent me two :A and they are fabulous! So good that I'm going to have a go at making them myself.

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

I'm going to be controversial here, but that's not the point There's loads of talk about recycling, but IMHO that's a red herring. We need to REDUCE (and REPAIR) what we use first

When my children were in nappies, I saw calculations for how over their lifecycle, washable nappies use less energy than disposables. Surely the same principle applies to disposable cloths

Penny. x

I agree but I don't chuck them out if they're less lovely, I just use them for jobs where their lovliness is less important to me (floors etc.) :rolleyes:. I just like nice, white ones for wiping down worktops, fridge etc. I don't replace them that often!

And while I don't throw away old cloths until they've served time in the DIY/decorating department, for those that go through six kitchen rolls a week, surely replacing a couple of dishcloths now and again is preferable?

powershopper wrote: »

I always use cloth dish-cloths, cut up old towels, cheepie packs of 5, face cloths, anything like that, use about 3 a day then just put them thru' the WM. But , and here's the rub, they got greyer and greyer. And then daylight dawned, trying to be Good To The Planet, I always wash at 30 degrees, and wondered why all my white towels, tea towels, wash cloths and favourite white blouse were going grey, so one day I bunged the lot in a HOT wash, (90 degrees) , lo and behold, everything came white again!!!!!
:T :T :T

I wash everything at 30deg EXCEPT my whites load (white shirts, towels, tea towels, cloths) which goes on at 90deg, sometimes a little lower. As I said, I was told by washing machine engineer that my machine will last twice as long and need fewer parts replacing if I do that so I do.

floyd wrote: »

See, logic says that all this is true, but in the head of an OCD sufferer its absolutely impossible for anything that has a mark on it to be clean:o This is also the reason I will never have kids, I am phobic of vomit and dirt :rolleyes:

Bear in mind, I clean the inside of ketchup bottle caps and don't like touching door handles so my disorder is pretty bad!

I do the same with the ketchup bottle and have a thing about door handles, maybe I have OCD. One of the reasons I use so much kitchen roll is because I can not bear to use a cloth to clean the loos, and cleaning the floors I use kitchen roll, I cannot have anything dirty hanging around the home...

I do have children though, but I have a thing about other peoples children using my toilets, I encourage outdoor play rather than indoor.

I can't help the way I am, it use to drive my OH nuts, but he is almost as bad as me now.

Does anyone else "face up" their tins in the kitchen cupboards and sort them into varieties, all the tomato soup has to be in a line as does the lentil etc. My parents couldn't believe this, when they visited recently.

Merlot wrote: »

I can't help the way I am, it use to drive my OH nuts, but he is almost as bad as me now.

OH thinks its hilarious most of the time, watching me subconsciously turning bottles and cans to face the same way, lining things by height order and putting things at right angles but he does get fed up when we leave the house and I have to go round and touch every window handle and the cooker knobs to make sure they are closed/off. Looking isn't enough and if I don't do it I feel very uncomfortable and uneasy