The Top Line:

Given how much of a waste paper towels can be, we tried to curb our usage for them and become more eco-friendly by picking up zero-waste DII Swedish Dishcloths. We loved that lemon pattern gave our kitchen a little bit of zing, that they can be sanitized, and of course the cheap cost per year. You can save at least $64/year by switching to these dishcloths. Did we mention that they can be composted? They are a BUY.

The Breakdown:

• Cost & Products: $15 for 3 dishcloths

• How ‘Clean’ Is This? Pretty clean - it’s made of cellulose and cotton, which is compostable at home

• Packaging: Minimal

• Purchasing & Shipping: Amazon…

• Good to Know: We love the design of the lemon dishcloths, but we would probably aim for an even more multi-colored set next time, to better hide stains. They have so many cute options.

• Coupons: Amazon…

• Whats Your Impact? Using compostable products means nothing goes in the waste when the dishcloth is no longer usable. Stats say that one person uses, on average, 84 rolls per year!

The Efficacy

We have prefered dish towels and sponges, while +1 uses paper towels (ugh, we know). So in order to try to get him to go toward reusables, we got these fun wipes!

• It does absorb a lot of water — more than my dish towels

• Feels pretty weighted when wiping down countertops

• Keeps my sponge doing sponge-things, not cleaning counter tops.

• Less waste in the trash from fewer paper towel rolls!

• Very happy this can be thrown in the dishwasher, microwave, or laundry to clean or sanitize

• Does get dirty if cleaning up messes - we kind of wish they were patterned on both sides

• Made of eco-friendly cellulose which can be composted at home!

The Cost

The estimates suggest that people use about 1.5 rolls of paper towel PER WEEK, per PERSON, which is about 80 rolls. That is a bit nuts to us, so we are going to assume 50 rolls per year instead

Even during Quarantine-2020, with two people + a dog, who wanted to keep things extra sanitary, we were running 1 roll every ~10 days, so around 12 rolls per year. Each dishcloth lasts ~6 months.

• DII Swedish Dishcloth: $16 | Yearly cost: $11

• Target Double Rolls 6pk $9 | Yearly cost: $75

• Bounty 12pk $24 | Yearly cost: $100

• Marcal 6pl $16 | Yearly cost: $133

Money Thoughts: DII Dishcloths are such a cheap option! If you were to replace your paper towel 1-for-1, you’d save at least $64/year. (We don’t think it’s likely - you still probably need both, but you can severely cut down on your paper towel expensive with this reusable/compostable option!)

The Good:

✔ Looks super cute

✔ Absorbent

✔ Can sanitize by throwing in the washing machine

✔ Really cheap way to supplement paper towels

The Bad:

✗ Can see stains, overtime this can really build up

Our Recommendation:

We thought the DII DIshcloths (ours is lemon, but they have festive ones!) were an excellent buy. We are going to keep our paper towel rolls for now, but we are going to rely pretty heavily on the Swedish Dishcloths — BUY.

We're on a mission to reduce our personal carbon footprint with small, hopefully easy, changes in our home to fight against climate change. This means we're looking for products that may be all natural, ideally zero waste, reusable or compostable -- while still being affordable!