Green, my 3 year son’s favorite color and also the ‘initiative’ that we kind-of sort-of took over. We do a fun ‘little’ thing with our trash cans. We have only the smaller models that easily take plastic bags from the store. Like so…
You might think it’s annoying to take out the trash 3-7 times a day, but the garage is pretty close, we never have stinky garbage around for long, and… we never buy garbage bags. Monthly savings… $15-$30. We also don’t buy large garage can bags and this is what it looks like with all those tiny bags!
Dirty and not very 'green', I know... I'm throwing this under the 'thrifty' category.
I heard somewhere about ‘going paperless’ and I took hold to the idea of using less consumable products. I heard from people who stopped buying paper towels, napkins, and tissues, but not toilet paper, obviously. Why obviously? This sparked the competitive side of me, and I started thinking… why not toilet paper?
The pioneer folk barely had paper to write on, let alone wipe their butts on. What did they do? I’ve never read about it in Little House on the Prairie but they must have used something… cloth! I started thinking through what we could use and the ‘how’ of using it. This is what I came up with! The picture below is my bathroom and it has the toilet-sized cloths that I use for mostly #1 and the actual toilet paper for #2. I decided to only rewash cloths that didn’t have #2 on it, but I suppose I could go the whole way one day!
I heard somewhere about ‘going paperless’ and I took hold to the idea of using less consumable products. I heard from people who stopped buying paper towels, napkins, and tissues, but not toilet paper, obviously. Why obviously? This sparked the competitive side of me, and I started thinking… why not toilet paper?
The pioneer folk barely had paper to write on, let alone wipe their butts on. What did they do? I’ve never read about it in Little House on the Prairie but they must have used something… cloth! I started thinking through what we could use and the ‘how’ of using it. This is what I came up with! The picture below is my bathroom and it has the toilet-sized cloths that I use for mostly #1 and the actual toilet paper for #2. I decided to only rewash cloths that didn’t have #2 on it, but I suppose I could go the whole way one day!
So now there’s the question of where to put these cloths? I bought tiny swivel top trash cans for each of our bathrooms and I wash these cloths with the towels each week. Honestly, I can’t distinguish an odor, but then again... it’s only #1 wipes. Guess how many times I took a picture of this trash can… 3. Yes, 3. I pushed the lid and then tried to quickly take the picture to show that the trash can does indeed have a swivel top. 3rd time’s the charm!
Turns out, when you’re drinking a lot of water, coffee, soda, tea, wine, milk... whoops gave up soda and milk, but when you’re drinking a lot of fluids (probably in that order) er… water, coffee, wine, tea (ok, ok… in that order), you mostly go #1 and that’s the main toilet paper usage- for a woman. I’ve suddenly had a large decrease in our toilet paper consumption. My 5 year old daughter is also on board, but it’s not mandatory for the kids. This was mostly an adult, individual experiment that I will be sticking with.
We did not stop at toilet paper, oh no! The easiest switches have been with the paper towels.
We did not stop at toilet paper, oh no! The easiest switches have been with the paper towels.
No, I don’t always roll the cloths around the paper towel roll. These are show towels. These towels let visitors know that they need to use these cloths instead of paper. My real stash is mostly folded and under the sink within easy reach.
The other easy change was for cloth napkins. I think we might have ‘real’ cloth napkins folded away in a trunk somewhere, but I needed everyday cloth napkins for kid use. So, we (I) cut the napkin sized cloths and just replaced the paper ones with cloth. I’m also not a fanatic, so I add store napkins to the pile whenever we bring them home from eating out. This is about being thrify as well as green!
The other easy change was for cloth napkins. I think we might have ‘real’ cloth napkins folded away in a trunk somewhere, but I needed everyday cloth napkins for kid use. So, we (I) cut the napkin sized cloths and just replaced the paper ones with cloth. I’m also not a fanatic, so I add store napkins to the pile whenever we bring them home from eating out. This is about being thrify as well as green!
Where did I get all the raw materials for my project? You know that pile of stuff that you have for Goodwill, and you’re embarrassed to even drop it off there? That’s the stuff you use. Old baby blankets, baby clothes, t-shirts are the best!
Just cut the cloth to the sizes that you like. I cut 3 basic sizes, paper towel size, napkin size, and toilet paper size. I show you my lovely foot to see my sizing. My foot is a ladies Size 9.
Trial and error tells me that there are cloth types that are not so great to use, cloths that need to be hemmed (who has the time for that!) and that I prefer a slightly larger toilet paper sized square. If you cut a cloth that doesn’t work, it ends up fraying all over or just not being very absorbent. T-shirts are the absolute best! Also, burp cloths are already hemmed and make great paper towel cloths, and baby washcloths are great napkins sized and hemmed already! By the way, cough cough, we just blow our noses on the toilet paper cloths… perfect size.
On my way back in, I noticed the mud that my bug-catching daughter had tracked in over the sliding door threshold. I lickity-split wet one of my paper towel cloths and wiped that mud up!
On my way back in, I noticed the mud that my bug-catching daughter had tracked in over the sliding door threshold. I lickity-split wet one of my paper towel cloths and wiped that mud up!
I tried to get an after shot, but my 12 month old has been trying to run away from home lately. Open a door and she’s there in a second. Here, you can clearly see that she’s estimating the time it will take her to make it out the doggy door.
Mommy's not crazy darling... just trying to save enough money to buy you some pants.
Total savings this month?
Garbage bags:
$15-$30
Toilet Paper:
$5-$10
Paper Towels:
$16-$25
Napkins:
$3-$5
Tissues (Family with allergies):
$8-$12
Total Savings:
$47-$82
*smile
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Total savings this month?
Garbage bags:
$15-$30
Toilet Paper:
$5-$10
Paper Towels:
$16-$25
Napkins:
$3-$5
Tissues (Family with allergies):
$8-$12
Total Savings:
$47-$82
*smile
PREVIOUS POST
NEXT POST