Last week, I brought you my organizing resolution about living more healthy and today I'm going to show you how I'm trying to be a little less wasteful -- even if it's just a little bit.
Being less wasteful is probably ridiculous to those who lived a hundred years ago. I know they used everything they could, never threw stuff away, and repaired everything they could. We could learn much from those before us. Unfortunately, we have disposable everything and have no idea what it means to truly be less wasteful. I'm taking baby steps in this area.
One area I decided to try this is my paper towel useage. I'm in no way ready to give them up completely - or my Hubby. But, I've decided to cut back on this area a bit, while maintaining some semblance of order, too.
I love the pack of terry towels you can pick up at Costco or online for about 50 cents each. The thing is, you can wash them over and over. They last years {well, mine have}. As you can see above, I've set up both the terry towels on one side, and then the paper towels on the other side of the sink.
I roll up the terry towels - it looks pretty, but isn't necessary. The basket I had laying around, but got it awhile back at Target on clearance. I have another one in the basement laundry area for the terry towels, as well.
We can wash our hands, grab a fresh towel and then hang it up on the hooks I've "installed" on the cabinets to dry. I usually re-use that towel several times during the day, but have a second hook so that if someone else uses a towel they can hang it on that one. By the end of the day, it's time to toss the towel into the washing pile.
But, my laundry room is downstairs and it's a pain to find a hamper anywhere near the kitchen or walk downstairs every time I toss a dirty towel in. So, I found this basket that used to be in my linen closet {and before that on the changing table in my daughter's room when she was a baby}. I took some zip ties {one of my favorite things to organize with} and threaded through the back of the basket.
You see, the door into the basement is right off the kitchen? So, I took the little "hallway" area and hung up that basket - high enough to reach it, but not too low so we smack our heads on it!
So, I put up two more of the sticky hooks and hung it by the zip ties to hold it up.
Now my aprons hang with the basket. The only trouble I have is when we have visitors. They aren't quite sure what to grab to use and wipe their hands off. Or, where to put them. My Hubby actually surprised me - Mr. Paper Towel Hand Wiper. He now prefers using the terry towels because they are so much more absorbant and actually hangs them up on the hook and everything, without me even asking him! Surprise! I'm thinking about doing something like this in our powder room, only I have to come up with some clever since there is virtually nowhere to put a basket of rolled up towels! So, there you have it - one less way I am being wasteful. And, yes, we still use paper towels. I use them for lots of things but I also really USE them for purposes that will last or over and over. We're going through a LOT less paper towels. How about you? What do you do to be less wasteful?
Being less wasteful is probably ridiculous to those who lived a hundred years ago. I know they used everything they could, never threw stuff away, and repaired everything they could. We could learn much from those before us. Unfortunately, we have disposable everything and have no idea what it means to truly be less wasteful. I'm taking baby steps in this area.
One area I decided to try this is my paper towel useage. I'm in no way ready to give them up completely - or my Hubby. But, I've decided to cut back on this area a bit, while maintaining some semblance of order, too.
I love the pack of terry towels you can pick up at Costco or online for about 50 cents each. The thing is, you can wash them over and over. They last years {well, mine have}. As you can see above, I've set up both the terry towels on one side, and then the paper towels on the other side of the sink.
I roll up the terry towels - it looks pretty, but isn't necessary. The basket I had laying around, but got it awhile back at Target on clearance. I have another one in the basement laundry area for the terry towels, as well.
We can wash our hands, grab a fresh towel and then hang it up on the hooks I've "installed" on the cabinets to dry. I usually re-use that towel several times during the day, but have a second hook so that if someone else uses a towel they can hang it on that one. By the end of the day, it's time to toss the towel into the washing pile.
But, my laundry room is downstairs and it's a pain to find a hamper anywhere near the kitchen or walk downstairs every time I toss a dirty towel in. So, I found this basket that used to be in my linen closet {and before that on the changing table in my daughter's room when she was a baby}. I took some zip ties {one of my favorite things to organize with} and threaded through the back of the basket.
You see, the door into the basement is right off the kitchen? So, I took the little "hallway" area and hung up that basket - high enough to reach it, but not too low so we smack our heads on it!
So, I put up two more of the sticky hooks and hung it by the zip ties to hold it up.
Now my aprons hang with the basket. The only trouble I have is when we have visitors. They aren't quite sure what to grab to use and wipe their hands off. Or, where to put them. My Hubby actually surprised me - Mr. Paper Towel Hand Wiper. He now prefers using the terry towels because they are so much more absorbant and actually hangs them up on the hook and everything, without me even asking him! Surprise! I'm thinking about doing something like this in our powder room, only I have to come up with some clever since there is virtually nowhere to put a basket of rolled up towels! So, there you have it - one less way I am being wasteful. And, yes, we still use paper towels. I use them for lots of things but I also really USE them for purposes that will last or over and over. We're going through a LOT less paper towels. How about you? What do you do to be less wasteful?
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