Cleanup, aisle 1

When you're raising kids, or puppies, part of the game is having to deal with various spills. Pee, vomit, juice and mud are part of daily life. For years, I used standard kitchen towels, but as my dog grew old and started peeing on my carpets twice a day, I got weary of the costs of burning through a roll a day.

What I figured out is that what's good enough for the public toilet in the mall is good enough for me! The companies that sell the huge industrial dispensers to stores offer their stuff online too, and so after some research, I found that the paper rolls by Georgia-Pacific are very economic. Instead of paying $15 for 8 paper towel rolls (which are 56 feet per roll), these babies cost $7.77 for a 400 feet roll (usually in a pack of 6). Yup, that's 42% cheaper, not to mention that the 400 feet rolls last for a very long time.

The rolls can be used as is, but the company also sells a "trial kit", which has the dispenser and two rolls for $20 (with free shipping). That’s like paying $4.5 for the dispenser.

You can also buy the “brown” variety of paper, which is even cheaper (around 8.8 cent per foot, or about 55% less than the white paper and 73% cheaper than traditional paper towels). Honestly, this type of industrial paper (both brown and white) is thinner than regular kitchen towels, and absorbs less, but it’s still a lot more economic when dealing with the kind of frequent accidents that living with pets or kids includes.

Now all I need to do is figure out dealing with the smell...