Cloth wipes versus paper towels

thriftlady_2

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

Penny. x

:T :T Absolutely -Reduce, Reuse and Recycle -in that order. There is far too much emphasis on the last one IMO. Reduce first, and that applies to everything including car use. I watched a programme recently which explored various fuel-conserving ways of driving your car, but there was hardly any mention of using it less.

LouiseV

I use cloth and have loads, they get washed in the dishwasher - i use a peg to clip them to the side of the basket. Everything comes up lovely!!

Yategirl

I use cloths too - I recycle old clothing into cloths for all jobs around the house (if an item is not good enough to pass on to another child then it gets cut up, my clothes are worn to death lol!). As previously said, I use 2/3/4/5 a day and store them in my mop bucket which lives next to the WM ready to go in on the next hot wash. I am currently replacing stained/worn/tatty teatowels - some will go to dh's rag bag for car jobs / decorating jobs and some will be cut up into cleaning cloths. I am also very slowly knitting some "proper" dishcloths.

champys

Since setting eyes on this thread, I now approach the kitchen roll with the thought 'can it be done with a cloth?' first. I am not a bad kitchen roll user, but could be better - I probably didn't feel too bad about it because the rolls we use are from recycled paper, and the used ones end up either on the compost heap or in the open fire. But I guess even recycled kitchen rolls use energy in production! OH is the biggest user because he treats them as hankies - he will be confronted with cotton ones this winter, and I will do the same. But this morning the cat was sick, and I used some kitchen roll to clean it up! I will be more careful with the stuff from now on :-)

floyd

Well I have just got back from Abakhan with 2 balls of craft cotton and a pair of size 6 needles so I can have a go at making some simple garter stitch cloths for the grand sum of £4.16.
Now if I can just remember how to cast on............Videojug will tell me

pigpen

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!

From someone who has lived with OCD sufferers I would absolutely state that something that takes over your life to the point of robbing you of the joys of actually living should have some kind of help. I don't want to sound patronising or judgemental because I don't mean to I just think it is very sad that people live with these things and receive no acknowledgement of how inhibiting they are. Have you not had any kind of help to try to overcome these things?

I have the vomit phobia as well.. excessive alcohol consumption helps cure that one!! I can now cope with being ick myself but cannot clean anyone else. Thankfully my children know they are banned from being ill.. and to shout for dad if they are because I won't be coming!!! lol I can manage to change bedding if I have to but he has to deal with the rest lol.

How about dyeing them???

I have some microfibre cloths which get chucked in with the normal laundry as and when (as I feel like it and when I remember!!) and when they get skanky they get dyed..

exlibris

I do have kitchen towels and was trying to think what I use them for. Their main use is when heating smoked mackerel in the microwave Use 2 sheet one under the fish and one patted down on top to soak up excess oil. I know the oil is full of Omega whatsits but too much grease is too much.

They are also used for the odd spill but the old cloths are mainly used for that. I am currently using dusters inherited from my aunt who died in 1987 as cloths. She made these from cotton dresses that had worn out. Is that a recyling record?

scrivette

I use microfibre cloths for most things (with vinegar in a spray bottle for cleaning windows). I recently bought a couple of large white ones from Poundland and have chopped them up to make smaller ones for different things.

I use old socks for cleaning the floors, dusting.

I only use kitchen roll for grease, although I have found that the more expensive kitchen roll is better as they mop up more. I even end up cutting bits of kitchen roll if I only need a small bit!

Chell

I stopped buying kitchen roll recently as we used so much. I don't think it has been missed though. I didn't tell DH that I wasn't buying it any more and he hasn't mentioned it. He used to be terrible for using far more sheets than was needed!

I thought I would really miss it since we have two young messy children but I just use clothes more and shove them into the machine. I've had to make sure I save the free newspapers that come through the door for cleaning windows.

floyd

pigpen wrote: »

Have you not had any kind of help to try to overcome these things?

Totally agree with you about it being largely ignored, apparently mine isn't severe enough to qualify for cognitive therapy on the NHS as I can still function day to day albeit to a disciplined set pattern of behaviour. I looked into it privately and it was prohibitively expensive so I just have to cope with it.
The vomit phobia bothers me more than the OCD. I burst into tears on a crowded bus once and started shaking because somebody was sick on the stairs and I knew I would have to walk past it to get off its a completely irrational fear. More than being scared of the stuff itself, I am scared what I would do to someone if they did it on me. Very strange eh?