So I realized the other day that we have not purchased paper towels or napkins in MONTHS. This made me kind of excited. I feel like a paper-free kitchen something to check off my hippie life list. I’ll be honest, though- this was really not a difficult thing to do. It was a gradual, painless transition, but I’m sure it’s saving us lots of dollars (and is definitely saving lots of paper waste) over the long haul.
We started using microfiber cloths for cleaning about 8 months ago and just bought fewer and fewer paper towels from that point, as we got used to doing everything with cloth. I clean the kitchen with them. I clean the bathroom. I clean mirrors and windows. I wipe spills. I stick them on my swiffer to clean the tile floors. They’re wonderful, and they really work SO much better than paper. I reccomend having a comfortable number in your house so there’s always one handy. If a cloth is what’s available when you need to reach for something in a hurry, it’s what you’ll use. If a roll of paper towels is what’s close at hand… well, you’ll probably use that. And use it and use it and then head to Sam’s for another 200 pack of paper towels.
Napkins are cloth around here too. I just ordered some new ones from a cute Etsy shop– I’ll post pictures when they arrive! They’re adorable! It’s amazing how far ONE piece of cloth will take you. Maybe I’m just messy, but I can go through a lot of paper napkins at a time if I’m eating with my hands… pizza, etc.
I’m guessing right now you’re either thinking, “Duh, C.O., of course this sounds great, I’ve been doing this since I was an infant and you should have been too” … OR you’re thinking, “Nice idea, but I hate laundry… so forget it.” All I can say is that cloth diapering… and honestly, just having a baby in general, now that I think about it… has really changed my perspective on laundry. I used to never do laundry. Like, put it off until I was wearing a bathing suit as underwear kind of NEVER. I was nervous about cloth diapering for this very reason. Well, now that Owen is around making messes contantly and I’m a stay at home mom running around cleaning up after him all the time, and if I don’t wash the diapers I HAVE TO SMELL THE POOP BAG ALL DAY, I have found that I do at least a little laundry pretty much every day. And if I miss a day or two, I can usually tell the difference. So with all this laundry going anyway, napkins and microfiber cloths are the least of my concerns. (They’re so tiny! And so poop-free!) That’s just my experience though. And one thing I’ve been learning is that NO ONE can do everything. So just do what you can do. No hippie judgment here, folks.
Now that we’re into the new year and I have NO excuses, I’m hoping to post at least once or twice a week for now and work my way up from there. If there are any topics you’d like to see discussed, please feel more than free to comment or send me an email at crunchyoklahoma at gmail dot com. I’m so sorry if I missed your comments while I was on my looong break. I do really appreciate all of them.
Thanks for reading!