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Saturday, July 23, 2011

Frugal in France: Rags

If you're trying to save up for your trip to France--or wherever--try this French tip: use rags. I have been in 3 French homes and have seen not a single paper towel or napkin. Chez Daniele and Jacques, there are at least 10 piles of neatly folded rags. Well, some are napkins. Others are dishtowels. The most threadbare are bonafide rags.

As a connoisseur of dishtowels, I love the assortment. My favorites are the old raggedy linen towels.

Wait! In our clean-up before leaving, we spot a roll of paper towels. It was under stuff in the kitchen drawer. We dare not use it. I wonder what Daniele and Jacques use it for.

How much money could you save using rags I wonder.

4 comments:

Duchesse said...

We use rags, mostly because I insist on linen dishtowels. To justify the expense, they are made into rags once holes appear. (Reading your post, news to me that people use so many paper towels.) That's the influence of my super-frugal Depression-era mother.

Susan B said...

We use rags too. We do have paper towels for things like cooking bacon in the microwave, but I much prefer using rags to clean. We also never buy paper napkins, just save the unused ones we get when we eat take out (Ok, maybe that's not so frugal, but a necessity sometimes.) When we actually sit down to eat with the table set (not often due to our divergent schedules) I use cloth napkins.

Shelley said...

Same here. Terry cloth and linen t-towels, cotton or linen napkins clean up spills or dry dishes. Polishing cloths are old socks or t-shirts. Really old rags wash the car or other outdoor items. Paper napkins (from McDonalds) or paper towels - maybe purchased once a year if that - are for draining greasy foods. I don't even use Kleenex or the like; we wash and iron handkerchiefs. Toilet paper, that we use!

the gold digger said...

We use rags. Paper towels are for cleanups so nasty that I don't want to put stuff in my washer. When the cats throw up, I use paper towels.

I also use paper towels for windows because rags don't seem to do such a good job.

We use cloth napkins. More elegant, less wasteful. My husband's mother, who used to be an environmental activist, didn't like that we use cloth. She uses paper. She also thought I was a big cheapie because I wash and re-use some ziplock bags. Fine. If she wants to waste her money on paper napkins and ziplocks, that's her decision. I'd rather spend my money traveling.