Giving "paperless" a whole new meaning

I was talking with some friends the other day about cutting our grocery and household products budgets.  It's not easy to cut back on an already slim budget!  But I was reminded of ways that we have cut back over the past year.  We decided to go paperless as much as possible. It's not just for offices and bills anymore.

Napkins - If you set a pile of napkins out in your kitchen or dining room, they will disappear.  I was astonished at how many napkins my kids would use in a day.  So, I bought cloth napkins at Goodwill.  They were cheap and they didn't all match.  That's actually a good thing; so that everyone knows which napkin is theirs.  We use the napkins for more than one meal before tossing in the laundry (some kids need a new one sooner than others).  It was a cheap, one-time investment.  I still keep paper napkins on hand for guests or parties, but they are hidden.

Towels - Also hidden are the paper towels.  You know, before the invention of paper towels people actually used cloth.  Cloths to wipe up spills and towels to dry things.  So I hide the paper towels for when they are absolutely needed.  It made me realize how often I used to use paper towels - way too often.

One of the things we used paper napkins and paper towels for were snacks.  It was easy to grab a paper product for snack time, but we obviously aren't putting snacks on cloth napkins.  IKEA has the perfect solution (as always).  They have these small plastic bowls and plates that, though meant for small children, are perfect for snacks at any age.  They come in packs of 6 for $1.99, are dishwasher safe, and last forever.  Again, it was a cheap, one-time investment.


Doesn't it cost money to wash all of that cloth??  Well, yes and no.  I find that the small size of napkins, cloths, and towels don't make much difference in our laundry.  We just toss them in with the next load being run, rather than washing them separately.  We do wash more dishes, instead of tossing napkins after snacks.

In the end, going paperless has not only helped our family to go green by reducing the paper products we buy and reusing cloth and dishes, it has also saved us a lot of green.