Cloth wipes versus paper towels

Penelope_Penguin

floyd wrote: »

Does anyone know where I can get really good cotton string cloths and how to keep them pristine?

You knit your own then soak in borax or bleach

Penny. x

Penelope_Penguin

AussieLass wrote: »

How very MSE. :money:

What a brilliant MS idea - the Aussies are first again :rolleyes:

floyd

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

You knit your own then soak in borax or bleach

Penny. x

I haven't knitted anything since I was about 9 but am willing to give it a whirl. What size needles are best for something like this?

Magentasue

My latest dishcloths are Tesco bamboo ones and they wash very well, still lovely and white. I change them very frequently and boil wash them.

Older, stained cloths become floor wipers/decorating rags etc. Those beyond hope are used to blacken the fireplaces and thrown away.

abaxas

Recycle your y-fronts!

Sadly I cant do it anymore as I wear boxers...:<

thriftlady_2

Surely a stain isn't going to make anything dirty -it wouldn't be a stain if it did would it? Stains by definition don't wash out, so they're hardly going to transfer themselves onto anything else. Things do not have to be pure white to be clean;)

Just think of all the stuff small babies and toddlers put in their mouths -they always seem to survive it.

Merlot

I must say Pen Pen, you have got me thinking, I use at least 6 rolls a week, I use it for cleaning windows, wiping spills up, cleaning the loos (I have 3, and all are cleaned daily) etc etc and it simply cannot continue.

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.

I have got to admit before reading Pen Pen post yesterday I never gave it a thought on not using kitchen paper, but I am prepared to change that as from today if someone can tell me how to get my windows sparkling without the need of kitchen roll (my mother uses KR to clean her windows, so I blame her:D ).

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

Merlot.x.

p.s. I must add, it is recycled kitchen paper, I do try, but obviously not hard enough....I have stated my defence!

Magentasue

I use those e-cloths for cleaning windows and mirrors.

I agree, thriftlady, about stains but, hey, dishcloths are cheap enough to replace them when they look dingy. These little things please me! I grade my cloths and always pick the clean white ones for kitchen and the less lovely for dirty jobs. I like nice looking tea towels too and old ones get relegated to yogurt and wine strainers.

powershopper

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

Penelope_Penguin

Magentasue wrote: »

I use those e-cloths for cleaning windows and mirrors.

I agree, thriftlady, about stains but, hey, dishcloths are cheap enough to replace them when they look dingy. These little things please me! I grade my cloths and always pick the clean white ones for kitchen and the less lovely for dirty jobs. I like nice looking tea towels too and old ones get relegated to yogurt and wine strainers.

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