Of Towels and Infomercials
You’ve seen the Sham-Wow commercials, right? There’s this coked-out guy wearing a headset who’s trying everything possible to convince you that you’re an idiot for not wanting to buy a couple of synthetic chamois. “C’mon,” he sneers, “you’re just going to spend $25 a month on paper towels anyway.”
Wait… what? Do people actually do that? Last time I checked, paper towels cost about a dollar a roll, so this guy is telling me that it’s conceivable for a family to use a whole roll a day. That’s nuts.
I’ll freely admit that I like to keep paper towels on hand for cleaning up cat barf and other really gross things, but that adds up to about 3 rolls of paper towels a year, total. No kidding. The rest of the time, I reach for my trusty pile of kitchen towels. I spent those 25 bucks once about 10 years ago on a huge pile of towels at a sale somewhere, and they’ve served me well, even through five years of catering. They wash dishes, they dry dishes, they polish silver, they handle hot things out of the oven, they wipe things up off the floor, they scrub dirty shoes, they do everything — and they look it. They smell kinda funny, and they have holes and stains and ratty edges, but it’s not like I put them out as napkins for company, either.
If you’re in the market for reusables, or want to bone up a bit on the subject, be sure to check out this excellent article on paper vs. reusable towels by Tara of Handmade in PA.
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