5 Unexpected Uses for Paper Towels

With 6 kids at my house, you can imagine we have our fair share of messes. We keep lots of paper towels on hand so when Viva® invited me to check out their Viva® Vantage® towels at an event in L.A. I knew I had to be there, especially since my 3 year old daughter thinks every surface of the house should be colored on. True story: My husband asked her if she wanted to go to preschool so she could color on their paper instead of our walls. Her response? “But Dad, they have walls too.” Duh. Viva® challenged me to participate in a 7-Day Switch Up where I replaced my regular paper towels with Viva® Vantage® and I wish I could say we’ve had a super clean week and haven’t needed to clean up any messes but, alas, that never happens around here. I usually grab whatever paper towels are on sale but I have to admit, I’m pretty impressed with Viva® Vantage®. They are very cloth-like and can stand up to just about anything.They were actually just named a 2015 Product of the Year so they must be doing something right. During my 7-Day Switch Up I’ve discovered some, slightly unexpected, ways to use paper towels.

Here are a few of my favorite (unexpected) paper towel uses:

Cleaning mushrooms – You don’t want much water on mushrooms or they get all gummy but they definitely need to be wiped clean. Viva® Vantage® paper towels do a great job of cleaning mushrooms. I can use one towel for all my mushrooms and it holds up just fine. Stopping Drips – How often have you gone to pour salad dressing or sauce and had it drip all down the side of the bottle? My kids do this all the time and then put the bottle back in the fridge. Ugh. Wrap a paper towel around the mouth of the bottle before you pour and it will catch any drips. Genius.

Washing grapes – I have never thought of using a paper towel to rinse fruit but this is so easy. My strainer takes up so much space in my dishwasher so I hate to pull it out unless I have to. One or two Viva® Vantage® paper towels replace the strainer and I couldn’t believe how its stretchy-strength held up even after being soaked with water.

Keeping salad fresh – I’ve used this trick for a while but it’s one of my favorites. Fold a paper towel in half and store it inside a sealed container of salad in your fridge. The paper towel will absorb extra moisture and keep your salad crisp.

Drying glassware – Viva® Vantage® paper towels don’t leave any lint behind so you can use them to dry your glassware. We aren’t fancy at my house so I have very few things I hand dry but I do pull out the fancy glasses for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Regular towels leave streaks so I love the idea of paper towels to dry them.

Can you think of any fun ways you can switch your regular paper towels for Viva® Vantage®? I love finding time saving ideas in the kitchen (and the rest of their house). You can take your own 7-Day Switch Up challenge with Viva® Vantage®. You’ll have the chance to win a $100 gift card for sharing your thoughts at the end of your switch. Go here for details and to print a Viva® Vantage® coupon to get you started.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Viva® Vantage®.