Reusable Cloth Station (Cut Down On Paper Towels | Environmentally Friendly Materials)

About two years ago we added a little towel station in our kitchen to try to cut down on paper towel usage (we were motivated by the paper towel shortage at the beginning of the pandemic, but it was something I always wanted to do to be more eco-friendly!). We started with some dollar store buckets and microfiber cloths, but ever since then I have been looking for a way to set up a more aesthetically pleasing version of it that wasn’t such an eye sore in our kitchen, and this week I finally did it!

We keep clean towels in the top basket and as we use them, we move them to the bottom basket. Then we can easily dump the dirty basket in the wash whenever it gets full (usually every two weeks or so).

The rolling cart is made of steel, which I liked as opposed to plastic, and the baskets are from The Container Store’s Renewable Materials section — really cool to see stores starting to care about that! They are gray and white cotton and look so pretty if you want a soft neutral look!

I also updated the towels. Previously we used these microfiber cloths, as microfiber was what was most recommended to me by others who have done this because they don’t leave any residual fuzz. I ended up not loving them for a couple of reasons: 1) Food gets really stuck in them, making them difficult to wash. Even on the heavy cycle, they would come out with dried up food stuck in them sometimes. 2) You’re not supposed to wash microfiber with other materials, so I had to give them their own load, and 3) Microfiber is not a good material for heat, from what I’ve heard and 4) It was hard to find microfiber in neutral colors for cheap and the bright colors did not match the aesthetic I was going for. I did love the small size of them, but so far I love these cotton towels instead. They are a bit large, so I’m considering cutting them each in half.

We still do use paper towels for some things, but this has helped reduce the amount we use! It’s a very easy swap if you’re looking for ways to start making your home a little more earth-friendly and reduce waste.

Shop everything below!