I'm not sure at what point the habit became so ingrained in my daily life, but somewhere along the line I started using paper towels...for everything. They are my hand towel, dishrag, wet wipe, duster, carpet cleaner, napkin, cheesecloth, cast-iron-skillet-seasoner, cupboard liner, burp cloth, vegetable dehumidifier, and yes sometimes even kleenex if there is none within arm's reach. I have justified my unlimited use of them until now because they are compostable, but the best compost contains a balanced mix of carbon (brown/paper) and nitrogen (green/kitchen scraps)-rich items, and with each day the balance of our pile becomes tipped more and more heavily in favor of brown things solely due to my paper towel consumption. So in an effort to cut down on (NOT eliminate - simply impossible) our paper towel use, I have purchased a cheap 15-pack of white washcloths to keep in the kitchen (where I seem to use paper towels the most), along with a small laundry bin to throw them in when used. Of course, this will work only because I've already resigned myself to doing several loads of laundry daily anyway, what's another load, really? :)
UPDATE: See the results of Crunchy Challenge No. 3: Eat locally here. Also, look what I saw while shopping this weekend: the New Pioneer Co-op is hosting its own Eat Local Challenge the week of Aug 4-10! They are challenging people to consume 80% of their food locally. Pretty hardcore.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
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4 comments:
Interesting! How did eating locally go? Yes, I'm a crazy stalker when it comes to your blog! ;-)
I have found that having a good stash of cloth napkins saves a lot of paper towels as well. When I do use them, I get the kind that you can tear off as a half sheet so I'm using less. Congrats on so many green changes at your house!
Yes, the tear-off kind are great, they are what we use as well.
Okay, I am so pumped about this challenge that I decided to post a little early. I wasn't very optimistic in the beginning that I could break my paper towel addiction, but it really wasn't that bad at all.
The first few days were difficult because of my uncontrollable "reach for the paper towels" reflex, which is activated the second anything needs to be wiped or absorbed. I initially was storing the washcloths/rags on the opposite side of the kitchen in the bottom cupboard (they didn't fit anywhere else conveniently), so each time I automatically reached for a paper towel, I had to literally stop myself and think, "NO! Washcloth!", and then it seemed like a huge chore to stomp across the kitchen, open the cabinet, bend over, and grab a washcloth. So after a few days of this, we bought a wire shelf to store the cloths in, on TOP of the counter, in FRONT of the paper towels.
Big difference! Now I don't have to fight the reflex, I can just give in to it, and since the cloths are closer, it's easier to grab a washcloth than a paper towel. The step can works well as a laundry basket for them. I put it next to our recycling bins, and I only did two additional loads of laundry for the week.
Love the pictures. Can't say I use a whole lot of paper towels to begin with. I do use them for my homemade baby wipes. I did get some cloth ones to use when I use cloth diapers (which is about 30% of the time). Jacob really likes them, but I am not committed to them when we are out and about.
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