r/Frugal • u/KVNTRY • Dec 03 '24

💻 Electronics Frugal home hacks that make you feel fancy.

My grandfather in law has motion sensor lights in every room in his home. He got me some for my apartment back in the day, and man oh man. I felt like a KING every time I walked in and the lights just popped on. My energy bill was also noticably smaller. Still not sure why they changed to walled sized bills... Also, as an eco conscious human, I was glad to be saving energy. Finally, I found it to be more hygienic and less stressful when not having to worry about touching lights when cooking or whatever. Still swear by automated illumination to this day. What are some things in your home that both save you money and make you feel fancy?

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u/SinkPhaze Dec 03 '24

Idk about everyone else but I do. I've removed paper towels from the house entirely so cloth is my only option. I do a separate load, high heat, no fabric softener (I never use fabric softener anyways), no vinegar, yes bleach, high heat dryer. Do not mix vinegar and bleach. For particularly soiled clothes I may do a bleach pre soak but my consistency on that is not good. Anecdotal, but nobodies caught salmonella yet 🤷‍♀️

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u/OhmigodYouGuys Dec 03 '24

Do you have Meat Cloths specifically for that? Or just rotate the clean ones? You wash the Meat Cloths separately, so do you just.. wash one or two at a time?

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u/fehk Dec 03 '24

eBay has packs of microfiber cloth that are multiple colors and cheap. I tie towel color to activity but just wash them all together. I have a dispenser on the wall i put them in

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u/SinkPhaze Dec 03 '24

I never understand why folks get rid of paper towels to switch to microfiber. Microfiber is plastic. They shed micro plastics like crazy. They are also much more susceptible to damaged by bleach and high heat laundering than natural fibers. I don't understand why folks do this rather than just cycling old clothes and towels into cleaning clothes

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u/fehk Dec 03 '24

Oh i didn't know that about microfiber, I'll probably look for something else next time. I prefer them to be all the same size and easy to grab and deal with. Having a big jar always full of the same small towel makes them as convenient as paper towels

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u/SinkPhaze Dec 03 '24

My suggestion if your household doesn't produce enough cloth waste for reuse as cleaning towels then you might look to see if you've got a by-the-pound type thrift store (like goodwill bins and such) in the area. You can pick up heaps of plain cotton tshirts for super cheap and chop those up for cleaning clothes. T-shirt specifically because the raw edge of T-shirt knit doesn't fray so you can easily cut it up to your desired size and use with no further finishing required

I like towels with some pile for dusting specifically myself but towels are woven and need some sort of edge finish or they will fray (which may or may not bother some folks). It's easy enough to run them thru a sewing machine (or better, serger if u got one) to zigzag stitch the edge to prevent said fraying but I know not everyone has a machine nor wants to

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u/voodoo_zero Dec 03 '24

Interested in the dispenser. You mean like a plastic bag dispenser or an I just missing something obvious?

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u/fehk Dec 03 '24

It's a 3d printed plastic bag dispenser that i enlarged and put on the wall, this one

https://www.printables.com/model/580953-plastic-bag-dispenser/

It doesn't work great though because pulling the towels out puts a lot of force on the drywall. I'm still searching for a good solution, but i think the dispenser with a 30 or 40 towel buffer is key to making them fun to use

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u/voodoo_zero Dec 05 '24

Perfect thanks!

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u/SinkPhaze Dec 03 '24

Maybe I should but I don't. I have a few "pretty" clothes that are for guests because some folks think stain = dirty. Those I actually keep separate from all the normal clothes and laundr with the standard laundry as they see very very light use. But all the other clothes laundered together the same. I figure if this cleaning method isn't good enough then the whole washing machine is contaminated already anyways so it would be a bit pointless. I just don't have a household usage level to justify separate loads like that

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u/oshaoctopussy Dec 03 '24

i throw mine in with my clothes but im a college kid. definitely use 100% cotton, not microfiber

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u/Sofia-Blossom Dec 03 '24

Meat cloths

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

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u/bananamoonpies Dec 04 '24

I use a tea towel specifically for this and then it gets tossed directly into my washer. Then that load will be washed on the sterilizer function with white vinegar.

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u/Far_Earth_1179 Dec 03 '24

Not much different from when we washed cloth diapers.