I never really realized the quantity of disposable products in my house until now. A brief scan of the kitchen and pantry has revealed the following: paper towels, paper napkins, disinfectant wipes, plastic cutlery, paper lunch bags, Ziploc baggies (quart-sized and gallon-sized), wax paper, parchment paper, plastic wrap, disposable Tupperware, grocery bags, and there are probably even more I didn't find! Wow...there's way too much.
The plan is to reduce my consumption of these items. Notice I said "reduce" - this will be gradual. Some of these items I may find alternatives for, others I might need to use every once and a while. My hope is that eventually I will be able to live without any of these, but for now it is wishful thinking.
As I mentioned in my last post, the first thing I wanted to remove from my life were paper towels. I am here to tell you that for the last 2 weeks I have successfully done so. Paper towels were a staple used in my house for things like drying hands, cleaning counters, carrying snacks, etc. We still do all these same activities, but now we are more responsible about how we do it. Since we have been successful in this endeavor, I have made additional changes to our use of "disposables" which my family has surprisingly not complained about yet. I've summarize these below...
Paper Towels - For cleaning counters and drying hands we have switches to microfiber towels. They are amazing! Microfiber is super absorbent and extremely soft to the touch. We try and use only one towel per day to wipe down counters to minimize our laundry. Hand towels are used for an entire week.
Ziploc Bags- Baggie usage for food storage has been replaced with BPA-free Tupperware. For children's lunches, we have purchased some reusable cloth/Velcro snack bags and sandwich circles that are machine washable. Wet lunch snacks are kept in stainless steel containers (i.e. cut apples, soup, etc).
Plastic Wrap - Plastic wrap is still a battle for me - I am occasionally using it to cover bowls of food that go in the refrigerator, with the understanding that eventually is will "go away" some day. I am still looking for an alternative...
Wax/Parchment Paper - These items are primarily used for baking in my house. I plan on replacing these with non-disposable silpat liners.
Disposable Tupperware - I stopped purchasing this years ago, but some how these items have still "hung around". Last weekend I went through and pulled them all from the cabinet and threw them in the plastic recycling can. Bye, Bye!
Disinfectant Wipes - I have a bunch of these from when I was a classroom teacher. I think I might donate them to my kiddo's school, because we rarely use these at home.
Plastic Cutlery - There is a giant open box of this in the pantry that is not getting used...wanna know why? We actually wash our plastic cutlery in the dish washer. So, the forks, spoons, and knives I originally took from this empty box have hung around for quite a while. I think I will eventually phase this product too, but for now I think we are pretty conservative with this one. One note: if you decide to eat "take out" decline the plastic ware...it just starts collecting in your house over time and makes clutter.
Paper Lunch Bags - We do not use these at all. My kiddos carry their lunches in reusable cloth lunch bags. I think I purchased them for the one time my son had a field trip...maybe the art teacher at school could use them??
Grocery Bags - I got rid of these and they keep coming back!!! Why?? Because I forget to put my cloth grocery sacks in the car. Always keep them in the car...AND...you don't just have to use them for groceries. Bring reusable sacks with you any time you shop!
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