Saturday, March 6, 2010

Less Paper Towels

My Jenny Girl (yikes- I know lots of Jenn, Jenny, Jennifers- which one could it be??) asked how I am using less paper towels. I had to figure out when I was using them the most and it was 1)cleaning 2)food prep 3)food serving. Those things just seemed much easier with paper towels but was it really that much easier? I decided to try out not using them and see if it made too much more work.

I grabbed my huge stack of microfiber towels that were generally only being used for car washing and started cleaning with them. Can I tell you- they scrub much better than paper towels! I use 1 or more in the kitchen a day and then toss them in the wash at the end of the day. We were using a lot of paper towels on cleaning day. Now I have the kids trained use 1 for each chore that they do. I love to see this: because then I know I have the family converted.

We always grabbed a paper towel to make a sandwich and whatever meal prepping we did through out the day and then threw them away after each use. Cutting boards were only used to cut on and they never stayed out. Now I take one out in the morning and it stays out all day or until it is dirty. Typically the food we are prepping only leaves crumbs that can be brushed off into the sink.

Lastly, when the kids at the counter they usually ate off a paper towel. Now they eat off a plate which is easy to just stick in the dishwasher. If you look at the next post's 1st picture you will see this in use.

These ideas are not even close to being a original. I think I was just stuck in a habit that I didn't want to change. Now I don't even think twice about it and we consume soooooo much less paper towels. I will add that the I only use them for uncooked meat and milk types of cleanups. Those are just too gross to have on a towel. Simeon actually grabbed one the other day when he had a bloody nose :)

5 comments:

Melissa said...

I love the cutting board idea. Thanks!

Molly said...

im using the cutting board idea too! thanks! you such a handy sister to have around..... I think I'll keep you.

Michelle said...

I thought about you today when I was washing my hands in a public restroom with no hand dryer. As I was drying my hands on several paper towels, I wondered if I shoulda dried em' on my jeans instead. :)

I'm kinda getting but for real I think your efforts are great. Sometimes I wonder if using more water (and maybe electricity) to wash more dishes is really better than using paper product. What do you think? I guess we have more water than trees available but I don't know much about the process that it takes to get clean water to my house and what kind of energy is used in that process. Do you? K I just convinced myself that dishes are better but I am still going to post this so you can giggle at me. :)

Jenn said...

Thanks for answering my question! I too really like the cutting board idea! And I have decided I need to buck up and buy some good cleaning cloths. A while back Jeff gave me a hard time for how many paper towels I use. My problem was that I never thought 1 would do the trick so I would automatically pulled down 2 or 3...to do every silly job. Oh, I am so ashamed of my wastefullness! I have been doing much better and I think these ideas will help too.

So I have a great idea for you, I will post it sometime this week! Love Ya!

Martha said...

Your greeness pretty much rules. I have a paper towel problem. I am addicted to the Target brand that you can tear off in smaller pieces. Then I just use a million of them. Silly.