Back in my childhood, paper towels were regarded as an expensive commodity, to be used rarely, if at all, and only on the most spectacular of spills. For a spill to be worthy of a paper towel, a Paper Towel Emergency had to be declared unanimously by all assembled. Otherwise, we were supposed to use the kitchen sponge or a dish cloth to wipe up the offending area.
Over the years, it’s been my opinion that our household has gotten way too lax in our use of both these items. Channeling my dad, I see the paper towels come and I see them go, and I think, how could we use so many paper towels? But we do. Same with kitchen sponges. I was raised in a two sponge household — one for disgusting messes and one for dishes. I am sorry to report that that this rule is not strictly followed in our house. Consequently, we go through more kitchen sponges than I consider appropriate, especially at the new going rate of a buck a sponge.
Well, times have changed. The coronavirus grocery shortages have put an end to the casual use of just about everything. We now have half a roll of paper towels and one, groty kitchen sponge to hold us until we find some more.
This makes things complicated. Just this morning, I was forced to decide whether the little pile of cat vomit that greeted me on waking justified a paper towel. After a brief debate, I decided it was too early for that nonsense, and used a single half sheet of paper towel along with a spatula to scrape up the remains.
Sometimes it’s the little things that bring it home to you — those moments when you realize, we’re not in Kansas anymore. Meanwhile, here at the homestead, not only are we starting to be out of things, we’re afraid to even go to the store to look for them!
