I can't even find a decent selection of facial tissue on the shelves anymore.  What's up with that?  From what I've heard and read, a runny nose isn't even a COVID symptom.  Then again, I guess the runs isn't either, so go figure.

If then, there is no reason that anyone into washing machines needs paper towels, If you don't have enough cloth towels go to some place like Target or Ikea and buy 30-50 wash clothes and you will be set for the next ten years or more.

I do not buy paper napkins or facial tissue or plastic trash bags or even vacuum bags either again it is cheaper to use reusable cloth and both central vacs do not use bags, I just dump the dirt out in the woods to fertilize the trees.

Don't worry I do buy toilet tissue, LOL and it is recycled into mulch here in the city and in the country home it becomes fertilizer for the trees in the yard from the septic system.

John L.

I won't even entertain the idea of using -- and re-using -- a handkerchief.  I'm mindful about my footprint, but have my limits.  I also don't have a wooded dumping ground handy.

We’ve been married for 39 years and have used cloth napkins for dinner every night for dinner.  But David is addicted to paper towels and insists on having them for the cleaning, and since he does most of the cleaning its his call.  I use paper towels for draining the occasional fried food, like bacon about once a month. I’ll also pull off a 1/2 sheet for the random cleaning of a mess spill that I don’t want to soil the dish cloth with.

But back when paper grocery bags were used by all the stores I saved them and used them for draining fried foods.  My grandparents would have never bought paper towels for cleaning.  They had bushels of cleaning rags that were used of all cleaning, washed and hung on the clothesline to dry.  We use old tee shirts for washing and drying the car, and wash and dry them.

But I like having a box of Kleenex out in the bathrooms.  It’s a luxury that I allow myself, I say luxury, because when I was growing up thats what my Mom considered them to be.

Eddie

Before the pandemic hit, I was well stocked with paper products. Toilet paper, personal wipes, paper towels, tissue and napkins I usually buy in bulk at BJ's or Costco. And I can forget about it for a few months. Because I'm always well stocked, I didn't go through the horrors of finding no paper products, although I certainly documented it. By the time I was running low, BJ's had almost everything back in stock and online delivery had begun to stabilize. So the brands are all Berkley & Jensen or Members Mark. BTW, BJ's has Clorox disinfecting wipes again.

Flash: MSNBC just announced that Clorox disinfecting wipes will continue to be in short supply until at least 2021.

Matt, Walmart online has several choices of cotton dishcloths.  I use dishcloths for washing the dishes and my favorites are the cotton ones that have nylon netting on the reverse side which make cleaning stuck on food easy, even the broiler pan.  

I like dishcloths for wiping down the counter tops and stove after I finish doing the dishes, hot soapy water and a good dishcloth clean these surfaces very well, and make it easy to keep everything in the kitchen clean as a whistle all the time.

Eddie

I buy the terry cloth workshop/car wash towels at Walmart or Harbor Freight to use for all sorts of messes around the house.  Throw them in the Miele with the other whites and a little clorox  and all is well.  Cheap and useful.

I have noticed a shortage of regular paper napkins of late. I used to find large packages of 800+ and they have vanished. Now it's 250 if anything at all. BJ's and Costco have plenty of the far more expensive "dinner" napkins and party napkins. One thing I have to mention about online shopping apps., the variety offered is far less than what the actual store carries and they tend to steer you towards the more expensive brands. I bet the manufacturers are paying a premium to be featured.

I don't use an excess of paper towels, especially since those half-sheet rolls work so well. But I've wiped up, picked up and mopped up things that I'd never use a reusable cloth on and then throw it in the washer...regardless of how much rinsing I did beforehand. Very old geezers like me still use handkerchiefs, not at home where there's Kleenex around, but I find them appropriate if I'm out in public. Blowing your nose on a paper napkin in a restaurant is uncouth. I'm picky about a lot of things, behavior inherited from my mother. For instance, I would never put my dog's food bowl in the dishwasher...more uncouthness. 

For me it is not just the environmental thing, Paper products without exception just do not work as well as cloth, or real dishes etc.

You can't scrub floors and countertops with paper, a paper towel will not even pickup a spill of coffee or ketchup from a counter top, it just smears it around, a fresh damp cloth works many times better and faster.

It took many years for marketing executives to get Americans to accept inferior performance from paper products, and swifters etc.

Paper facial tissue just tears up you nose compared to a nice cloth wash cloth or handkerchief.

Remember when they told us as kids that we would all be wearing throwaway paper clothing someday, well we know how that turned out.

John L.