The Practicality of Tissues and Paper Towels

I grew up in a family that didn’t purchase tissues or paper towels. If there was a mess, we grabbed a bunch of towels, older ones for messier messes and if someone was sick and had a cold, we used toilet paper or all of the napkins. And it was fine, I didn’t notice any issue, and for the first 3 years after I moved out, I didn’t purchase tissues or paper towels either.

During my years at college, I just didn’t make many messes, and I was exceedinly lucky with my roommates because we had a bucket for dirty towels and rags that we would run through the laundry every week. One of my roommates had paper towels, but I think she had the same roll for most of the semester.

Then Covid hit and I lived the next year at home where we again didn’t have any paper towels or tissues.

Then during my final year at my graduate program, I had some very difficult roommates and I finally bought some paper towels after my hand towels were always soaking wet. It solved a problem.

After graduation, but before I moved into my apartment, I intentionally thrifted a paper towel holder and when I moved in, I bought some paper towels, despite not having messy roommates. I don’t use them all the time, I still have my hand towels on the stove that I reach for first when drying hands, and I have napkins that I use when I sit down to eat. But, when one of my cats makes a mess, or something I don’t want to stain my towels spills, I reach for the paper towels. I go through them slowly, but, they’re great for picking up messes and spills.

Sometimes, I wonder if I should stop buying them, but what would I use instead when my cats make a mess. I’d use my napkins and it’d be a harder clean up. So I’ll keep on using them. I think that they are a great resource to have, but only when paired with more reusable options.

I’ve thought about some alternatives. The reusable paper towels seem great, and I could make them myself, but I’m not sure I’d go through them quickly enough to get a full load of rags and towels each week so I think they’d start to smell. Also, what about when I have a real mess? I do intend to eventually switch over to reusable options, but maybe when I have more space. I’d also like to get a bucket again and when I finally get in-unit laundry, I’m going to be switching to cloth napkins, swapping them out as the seasons change.

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Onto tissues, these were a rather foreign concept to me growing up. Why not just use toilet paper or a napkin? Why are people spending so much on thin pieces of paper? Then, I had some guests over and I realized that while I believe my layout is intuitive, my guests often don’t think the same. So before the next hangout, I bought a box of tissues for $1. And when it was empty, I bought another. It started out as a way for guests to have a way to clean things in the bathroom if something spilled, but eventually, I started using them too.

Every day, I’ll grab one and wipe down my sink and counters, and if something spills, I can quickly grab a couple without having to deal with an unwinding roll of toilet paper.

But the real epiphany happened when I got sick this year. Now, previously, I’d use a handkerchief or toilet paper while dealing with a cold, but this year, I had tissues on hand paired with a very long cold, and my nose was becoming irritated. I noticed that my nose wasn’t as irritated with the tissues, which I had understood theoretically but also never put much thought into. However, when my nose become exceedingly irritated, I ordered some Kleenex, with lotion in them. I can’t really describe the feeling I had when I first used them except to say there was relief. A day later, I was fine, except for the lingering cold.

However, I ran into a different issue. Suddenly, because it wasn’t painful to blow my nose, I was using them more regularly, and I found myself running through a 4 pack in only a couple of days. Then I went through my second 4-pack, and a third. And while not exceedingly expensive, they cost about $6-$10 per 4-pack which seemed like a lot when the cost of toilet paper is essentially free. However, before I bought my second 4-pack, I tried using toilet paper again and realized I couldn’t go back. It was too painful.

However, I have now made the switch, even if buying these paper products does increase my budget slightly, and it seems frivolous sometimes, I will always have a roll of paper towels in my home, even if it’s not the first thing I reach for, and I’ll always have a box of tissues in my bathroom for my guests and myself. I do intend to have reusable options for paper towels and napkins, with some paper backups but I haven’t found any real alternatives to tissues yet. I’ll let you know when I do.