Elementary School, Science Fairs and Paper Towels...Oh My! {Review/Giveaway}

Did you have an elementary school science fair?

We did in both 5th and 6th grade and it was a BIG deal in our school. They shut down the gymnasium for a few days to display everyone's work of art science. We got to miss a few classes each day to show our parents and other interested parties our work and explain our science.

Every year there were always the kids who fed plants water, orange juice, and milk and evaluated which was the best "beverage" for growing plants.

The kids who did the volcano with baking soda and vinegar--some jazzing it up by adding a bit of food coloring to the mix to enhance the explosive ooze.

Not me.

Know what I did?

I did a project comparing and contrasting the absorbancy and durability of a variety of brands of paper towels -- and I took second place. (I kid you not.)

My project was then selected be entered into the regional science fair. Zing!

So when Brawny approached me 20+ years later to do a review of their paper towels I was all in. It didn't hurt that it was in the middle of my Vintage Me photo series and the representative for the brand sent me an "old school" photo of herself!

Now on to these bad boys....

I have to admit that pre-review I wasn't overly familiar with the Brawny brand. I knew their trademark "Brawny Man" and could have easily picked him and their packaging out of a line-up but I wasn't familiar with these incredible paper towels in the way that I clearly should have been.

In our house we eat tons of fruit, especially in the summer. It seems that every weekend Liam and I are out at the Pick-Your-Own farm harvesting some kind of berry or fruit. And, I have found that often if we don't wash the fruit and have it out on display it will go bad before we really have a chance to dig in. So, I like to wash the berries and lay them flat on paper towels to dry them. This allows them to fully dry and keeps them out on the counter for healthy snacking.

When I first did this with the Brawny paper towels I was shocked at how absorbent these little guys are. Normally two layers of paper towels still leaves our counters marked with all sorts of juice stains, but not this time. I think I could have easily just used a single layer and it would have kept the berries dry and the counters free of stains. I love any product that keeps me using less (better for the environment and my pocketbook), especially when it does an even better job than when I was using more of another product.

One of the other things that I love about this product is that with just a simple tug the paper towels easily separate at the perforation. With a toddler around "helping" me in the kitchen I often find myself grabbing for a paper towel with a single hand and often this leads to partial tearing of the next towel on the roll. Sometimes it's a big tear, sometimes small--but, inconvenient any way you look at it and messy on my countertop too. I loved that these towels were sturdy enough to withstand a good tug and perforated well enough to tear right where they are supposed to.

Lastly, I love that in addition to some really adorable designs these paper towels also come in white. We are a house of pretty clean design and often it's a challenge to find paper towels and paper napkins that don't have all sorts of "flair" on them. I love that these paper towels come in simple white for the most modern and clean or elegant of spaces. They also make a fabulous canvas for crafts (just check Google for a million and one great paper towel crafts). Many of the craft ideas you'll find are just the perfect way to incorporate your little one into the upcoming fall and winter holiday festivities.

Want to win a year's supply of Brawny Paper Towels (52 rolls) AND $100 VISA gift card?

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To Enter: (Please note bundling comments will only give you one entry to win. Please leave separate comments for each item to increase your chances of winning.)

1) Leave a comment.

2) "Like" Brawny on Facebook.
 
3) Follow Brawny_Towels on Twitter.

Winner will be selected at random on September 2, 2011 at 11:59pm. Winners have 48 hours to claim their prize. If not claimed a new winner will be selected. Tell your friends, tell your family—spread the word. Good Luck!

Disclosure: This review was made possible by Brawny. Brawny provided me with a $100 Visa gift card and a year's worth of paper Towels for test/review purposes and agreed to provide the same to one lucky reader as well. The opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone and were in no way influenced by Brawny.