Pages

Friday, August 22, 2008

Eco Friendly Fridays

I have decided to share with you guys once a week different ways that we have been making our home more eco friendly. Most of my friends knew that we were already "green" before Christophe arrived but having a baby puts a whole new perspective on making sure the planet is there for our kids and because of this I am always looking for small ways to be kinder to our planet.

This weeks topic is eliminating some paper products. We no longer buy paper napkins or paper towels; instead I have a bag of rags and a pile of cloth napkins. Both of these we already had but just never used.

To keep my systems working I have a bag hanging in my broom closet labeled rags and in here goes any old towels, dish cloths, clothing ect. that make good rags. I then have 2 other bags hanging in the corridor to the laundry room labeled laundry and rag laundry. The "Laundry" bag is for our napkins, dish towels, and dish cloths. The "Rag Laundry" is for the rags. When you wash your rags you do not want to wash them with the rest of the laundry for sanitary reasons. At the end of the week I do a load of laundry for each bag, to ensure the germs and smell are all gone I add a cup of vinegar during the rinse cycle.

We have now been doing this for a few months now and I do not miss either the paper towels or the paper napkins.

3 comments:

Danielle said...

great suggestions. I am also trying to break my paper towel habit. I have been using some micrfiber rags and they are wonderful! i have also been dusting with old socks who lost thier mate. Great ideas! Thanks

Kim said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rosie : ) said...

Very good ideas. :) We use natural cleaning products, so the rags are not toxic, which is great for laundering.

The paper towels are a hard habit to break, but it seems that we don't use that many. The kitchen dish rag cleans up spills on the table and on chairs. Paper towels are mostly for disinfecting (tea tree oil, vinegar or lemon products) certain areas. Maybe soon I will break this habit?