We're in the middle of an experiment. A week or two ago, I finally got up the gumption to suggest to my husband that we switch from paper towels to reusable rags. His response? "Thank you. I've been wanting to do that forever but don't know where the rags are." I ignored that last part since they've always been located in the same place in the closet under the stairs and just focused on how easy it was to get him on my side.
I figured that if this was going to work, the rags need to be just as convenient to grab as paper towels. So, I neatly folded a stack and placed them in a small plastic bin right under our paper towel holder. Next, we needed a convenient place to toss the dirty rags. Our laundry is on the third floor of our house, so no just tossing them down to the laundry room. I installed a hook under a low eating counter near the rags and hung a small cloth bucket.
Voila! We haven't yet gotten rid of the paper towels, but so far, we've not really used any since the switch. We have plenty of rags - I always cut old t-shirts or flannel sheets into rags when their first life is over. I wish we had done this eons ago. Talk about ecological and economical. I'm probably years behind the times, but step by step we're simplifying.
And step by step it's working.
We just started trying to go paperless in the kitchen this past weekend too! Except that we have a stockpile of napkins and a few rolls of paper towels that we had moved over from the U.S., so we are using those for the little one. So far, so good!
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