Stopped buying paper towels for most things and switched to a stack of old t-shirts cut into squares. Six months in and I think I’ve bought one roll total.

This is pretty standard frugal advice but I wanted to share because I kept seeing it recommended and kept thinking "that sounds like more effort than it's worth" and then actually tried it and it wasn't.

Here's what I did: I had a bag of old t-shirts I was going to donate but they were a bit worn so I cut them into roughly hand-sized squares instead. Didn't hem them or anything, just cut. Cotton t-shirt material doesn't fray much so they've held up fine. I keep a stack of them in a basket on the counter where the paper towels used to be, and a small bin with a lid next to the sink for used ones. When the bin fills up they go in with a regular laundry load.\

The things I still use paper towels for: draining bacon, anything involving raw meat cleanup. That's basically it. Everything else, wiping counters, spills, drying hands, cleaning up after the cat, the cloth squares handle fine. I buy paper towels maybe once every couple months now just to have a roll around, and even that roll lasts forever because I rarely reach for it.

The upfront effort was maybe 20 minutes of cutting one afternoon. I think I made about 40 squares from three old shirts. I haven't needed to make more since, the same squares are still going.

Not a dramatic change but it's one of those small frugal shifts where you do it once and then kind of forget it's even a thing becuase it just becomes normal.