If you’re like me, going paperless may initially make you feel a little grossed out. Think about all the things you do with paper towels……. Is it possible to become 100% cloth free and still keep a tidy kitchen? The answer is YES and here is how it’s done.
1. STOP buying paper towels & paper products. Just stop. If they aren’t there than you don’t use them.
2. Invest in some cloths. Feel free to use what you have on hand but I like to buy a variety and here’s why. In our kitchen we use certain cloth towels for certain kinds of messes. Cloths with stars are for our hands. And I mean it. Hands only. This way we avoid cross contaminating. Cloths with animal prints, faces and such are used for any pet messes we clean up and these go immediately into the dirty clothes bin. Dish cloths for drying clean dishes are all underwater themed cloths and cloths to wipe up spills and counter messes are in a dark purple. This may seem a little crazy but it makes a lot of sense when you get used to it. If your family uses a lot of paper products like plates and cups, go to places like IKEA where you can get a bundle of inexpensive plastic dishes and wash and re-use.
3. Put the cloths in an easy accessible location. If members of your family can’t get to them, than they won’t use them. Simple as that. I like to put my cloths in a cute container on the counter where people can get at them.
4. Create a spot where you can put a bin for all your dirty cloths. This is really important especially if you’ve cleaned up a puppy accident or anything relating to poultry. You will want to make sure these cloths don’t get left out and make it into your next laundry run.
5. Don’t get weirded out when guests come over. A lot of us feel like we need to supply our house guests with all sorts of paper items. People are smart, they get it. Just let them know what you’re doing and where supplies are kept and they will transition without much work.
Along with these steps being easy, there are a lot of really great reasons to go paperless in your kitchen. It is SO much better for the environment for starters. It really decreases excess. You also save a ton of space by not having to store economy size packs of paper towel. We used to have a section in our hall closet just for those large packages but now that space gets used for other things. Did I mention you save money?!?! Your budget becomes happier when you go paper free. I don’t know about you, but I LOVE that! And last but not least, you get to use really cute, fun cloth designs instead of those boring old white rolls. Get creative and get the kids involved!
