Thrifty Thursday - Cloth "Paper-towels"

Daniel eats his breakfast on his way to work every morning. And that means he gets an egg sandwich - every morning. He likes something wrapped around it while he carries it to his work van, and for a long time that was a paper-towel or napkin. I bought the very cheapest kind because that's all we used paper towels for, and he threw them away anyway.

Ta-da!! Over time we accumulated some of his worn out, stained or ripped work shirts (T-shirt style) that weren't wearable anymore. I thought "ok, most of this material is still good material, I don't want to just throw them away!" (you can't give them to thrift stores, donate them, etc - company policy, and that makes sense - it'd be like a Dr. giving his badge to Jo-Schmoe), so I scratched my head and came up with this:

You bet! A nice stack of "paper-towels!" I laid the shirts out on the table, and cut the sleeves off right along the shoulder seams, then cut the sleeves open along the bottom seam. Then I basically cut the main body up both sides and across the top shoulder seams, then each front/back half I cut straight up the middle, and straight across the middle.

They are not meant to be beautiful, but they are meant to be serviceable, and they are VERY serviceable. He now gets one of these around his breakfast sandwich each morning. When the pile starts to run low, I let him know, and he brings me a grocery bag full of dirty ones that have collected in his truck. They get thrown in the washer with his load of laundry, and I have a clean stack of them again.

They also double as napkins at our dinner table (unless we have company, then I do pull out real, paper napkins that are a LITTLE nicer! :) ), rags to wash the floor, rags to wipe up spills, quick hankerchiefs (for Daniel who doesn't like my Puffs Plus With Lotion tissues), and anything else that a rag or paper towel comes in handy for.

And it saves us $$ from buying and throwing away paper towels!