9 Things One Old Towel Replaces in a Japanese Home

📖 Get Emiko's Cleaning Book, the whole house written down, every mix and every minute: Link in bio or scan QR code on the video. Take the oldest towel out of your linen closet, the thin one with the bleach spot, and cut one square from it. Tonight, after the last person has brushed their teeth, wipe the bathroom faucet and the rim of the sink until there is not one drop left. Tomorrow morning, look at it in the first light, and then look at the kitchen faucet you did not touch. You were never wasteful, my dear. You were only told that new means clean. In my mother's house in Japan, a towel was never thrown out while it could still hold water. WHAT AN OLD TOWEL IS: Thousands of cotton loops, and the fibers in them are hollow, so cotton drinks water instead of pushing it around. After a few hundred washes the factory finish and softener are gone, and it drinks faster than new. It drinks, it holds what it lifts, and it never scratches. THE NINE JOBS: 1. THE FAUCET. Every night, a dry square over the faucet and the sink rim. A drop that dries by itself leaves its minerals behind. A drop you lift takes them into the towel. NOT A SPRAY. DRY. 2. THE FLOOR. Fold a towel in four, stitch the edge, wet it, wring it hard, and wipe with your palm flat. One room at a time, a second folded towel under your knees. 3. THE DUST ON HIGH PLACES. A square wrung until it is only damp. Dust sticks to the water in the loops instead of flying. One drop of dish soap for the top of the refrigerator. DAMP, NEVER WET. 4. THE GLASS. Warm water with a little dish soap, then dry right behind yourself with the old towel. NEVER IN FULL SUN. Work on the shady side or on a gray day. 5. THE BURNED RING ON THE COOKTOP. Cold cooktop only. 3 tablespoons baking soda with about 1 tablespoon water as a paste, a towel soaked in hot tap water and wrung out on top, fifteen minutes, then rub, and the cooktop razor held flat for what stays. 6. UNDER THE DISHES. An old towel under the dish rack instead of the grooved mat, hung open every night, a fresh one every day. Once a month, boil the kitchen squares with 1 tablespoon baking soda per quart of water, NEVER IN ALUMINUM. 7. THE BATH MAT. A towel folded in half, hung over the tub after the bath, washed every two days, dried in the sun. 8. THE BOTTOM OF THE WINDOW IN WINTER. A towel rolled along the bottom of the glass to drink the water that runs down. WRING IT AND CHANGE IT EVERY MORNING, or it becomes the mold. 9. THE WHITE RING ON THE WOODEN TABLE. A thin dry towel over the ring, the iron on low, NO WATER, NO STEAM, ten seconds at a time, three or four presses. White rings only. THE HONEST PART: An old towel does not kill germs: after raw chicken, disinfect and send the square to the wash. Never lift a hot pan with a wet towel, never leave a towel on the stovetop. The iron works on white rings only; a dark ring is in the wood and needs a refinisher. Floor squares never come up to the counter. When a towel tears as you wring it, let it go and cut the next one. WHY NOBODY TOLD YOU: Paper towels ($25), mop pads ($13), duster refills ($9), glass spray ($4), cooktop cream ($9), a silicone drying mat ($14), a memory foam bath mat ($22), window moisture tubs ($12), and a water ring remover ($10). One hundred and eighteen dollars, most of it in the trash by the end of the season, against one old towel you already own. A cloth gets better at its work every time it is washed. Tonight: cut your square from the oldest towel in the closet and dry the bathroom faucet after the last person has used it. Then tell me in the comments one number, how many old towels are in your house right now, and how old your house is. Not one of them goes unread.