My Challenge to Stop Using Paper Towels Completely

My husband isn’t convinced that we can go fully paper towel free. And I’m not sure either, but we’re going for it. We started yesterday and hit bumps already. “Ah! What do I place over the food in the microwave?” When making a salad for lunch, I reached for my paper towel roll… but it was gone! (They’re easily findable under the sink, but don’t tell!)

As you may or may not know, I’m kicking up my dedication to wasting less around the house in 2019. We have come a long way already, but I think we can go further.

The Current Waste State of The Freemans, Who Have Come So Far

Why Do We Have So Much Plastic?

Holy crap, we have more plastic containers, cups, plates, and bowls than I imagined possible for one family to own. And it’s somehow mostly for the kids. Did you all get the KIDS NEED ALL THE PLASTIC CONTAINERS AND SNACK CUPS memo too, or was it just me? Anyway, I feel like I’m coming out of a kind of fog as my youngest child is approaching 4 and I’m like, “Why do we have TWO full cabinets dedicated to plastic-ware for kids?” During some long stretch of desperation I clearly bought into the idea that kids’ plasticware would solve all my problems. Yuck. Spoiler alert: that stuff didn’t solve anything.

Oh, Look More Plastic!

In addition to all the kid-containers, we have a normal amount of plastic food storage containers and plastic baggies for freezing foods. I think my husband is still using plastic baggies to take food to work because I see a box in our plastic bag drawer, but I stopped using those completely in 2017 maybe? I use my pen&thimble snack bags for dry snacks (for me and the kids) and these Stashers brand for wet snacks now.

No Paper Plates or Napkins

2007 is probably when we realized that we were buying paper plates but had regular plates in our cupboards at no extra cost. Sadly, our lack of paper plates means I can’t do any of the hundreds of paper plate crafts on Pinterest with the kids. Aaaand I’m OK with that.

We stopped using paper napkins years ago, but we first replaced them with pieces of paper towel (same diff) and then we switched to pen&thimble napkins (shameless plug again, but seriously this is what we use).

Reusable Stuff

We have a healthy amount of travel mugs, water bottles, and stainless steel straws. I could do a better job of having a coffee mug handy for those unexpected trips to the coffee shop. But that will be my challenge for another time.

We don’t buy bottled water and have one of those water filter pitchers that I read recently are awful too. But I don’t remember why or what I’m supposed to do instead. I’m taking it one step at a time over here.

When the last of our paper straws ran out last year, I switched to these stainless steel straws and we USUALLY use them when we’re out-and-about too. If we don’t have them handy, we don’t use straws. But my kids are still learning how to drink like humans and I have sensitive teeth, so I try to bring our own straws. The straws I purchased from Amazon come in two sizes (short cups and tall) and two shapes (slight bend and straight) Why the switch? I saw a video of a sea turtle having a plastic straw tweezed from its bleeding nostril and it was enough for me to swear off plastic straws.

Back To The Paper Towel Ban

But we still use paper towels and I want to stop. My husband, who does the shopping and restocking, says we use one roll in about 2 months or so, which is greatly reduced use for us, but I’m ready to go ALL THE WAY paper towel free.

Paper Towel Alternatives:

We have a crap-ton of kitchen linens and cleaning cloths that I’ve made and collected over the years — tea towels, dish rags, cloth diapers. A nearly-endless supply, really.

The Plan:

Hide the paper towels and stop using them.

Use washing machine when our nearly-endless supply of cleaning linens start to disappear.

Develop our system. The hardest part about a new habit for me is making a new system. Everything seems so much harder when you have to think about what to do next. Especially when the alternative is SO CONVENIENT! We already have a wet bag hanging on one of the cupboards for used/dirty napkins and kitchen towels. I’m thinking we’re going to need a bigger bag. Someone on Instagram who is already a few steps ahead of me on going paper towel free, said that she has a reusable shopping bag under the sink that her family fills with kitchen linens as they are used. We will probably start doing the same. Thanks for the tips, people! Keep them coming!

So Let’s Do This!

I’ll be back here on the blog at the end of the month to share how our Paper Towel Ban went. I’ll also be sharing how things are going in real time with the hashtag #wastefreecurious on Instagram. Did you know you can follow hashtags? You can! So definitely let’s connect there and you’ll be one of the first to use the hashtag. I would like this tag to be a no-judgement zone for people in all the stages of waste-free life — pros, newbies, and the curious who don’t know where to start. I’m somewhere between newbie and curious-but-don’t-know-where-to-start.