Last week I gave up Swiffer dusters. That was a big step for me. I LOVED my Swiffers. I had several handles (the kids love to help dust)and a box of Swiffer refills was always on the Costco list. I decided to go Swiffer-less for two reasons. A)We are creating less garbage. B)A one time purchase of a micro-fiber duster is a lot less expensive. Small changes, right?
That brought me to my next small change. We now use cloth napkins instead of paper. We’ll keep paper napkins on hand for things like school lunches. Right now my kids think the cloth napkins are pretty fancy. I just hope I can keep up on the laundry so this small change will be a keeper.
One more small change is real plates instead of paper. Usually when I’m feeding a boat load of kids, I’ll break out my paper products from Costco. Paper is quick and easy, but real plates mean less in the garbage and less out of my pocket. (By the way, this picture looks like I’m feeding my kids a ton of processed brownish orange food, but there really are fresh peaches and carrot sticks on their plates too.)
What small changes have you made recently?
The Comments
Angie@Echoes of Laughter
I am working on using cloth napkins at dinner time too! And I use IKEA plasttic dishes when I am feeding a boat load of kids since they are kid-sized and not breakable. I am also making litterless lunches for my children.
GrannySue
Those are great changes. I keep paper plates on hand, but use them rarely. Mostly for food prep. And I don't have paper napkins in the house. Since I seem to be doing laundry all the time anyway, throwing them in is no problem. I've even made napkins from old bedsheets (anyone else find that the fitted ones wear out and you end up with a top sheet?)
I am trying to cut down on tne swiffer dusters, but they are sure handy for a quick dust in a tight space.
I'm also trying to use re-usable plastic containers instead of zip lock bags.
Della Sparks
I have found that using the brush attachment on my vacuum to do a quick dust is more efficient anyway. I put it on the hose and run it across the surface of whatever needs dusting and the vacuum sucks it up instead of the dust just settling right back on the surface I had just cleaned.
Bette
I stopped buying paper towels, I used old tea towels and rags instead for all my cleaning, etc. I also switched my cleaning supplies to Shaklee, it is highly concentrated and I don't have to keep buying cleaning supplies. I love it so much that I became a distributor of it.
Diane at Perfectly Imperfect Life
We bought a bunch of cloth napkins from Goodwill in different colors – one color for each family member. That way, we know whose napkin is whose and we can reuse them throughout the day, so we cut down on laundry a bit.
I also switched a while back to making our own cleaners and I'm working on getting the supplies to make our own detergent for our new high efficiency washer.
Danielle
Ahhh, I love my swiffer duster but always forget to buy refills, so I have been using microfiber rags. I also gave up my swiffer mop and bought a steam mop. It's SO great to only use water – knowing that I'm sanitizing my floors and not using any chemicals. I really need to find a good solution for cutting down on my paper towel usage.
beeandboosmom
We are steam cleaning at our house today! No chemicals or cleaning supplies, just good ol' fashioned steam. I also use the Magic Eraser. It cleans so well and eventually dissolves.
Kristi
Good for you! We use cloth napkins and flour sacks in place of paper towels. I have plastic cups that the kids use. I don't buy any paper plates, napkins or cups anymore. It SIMPLIFIES your life! And once you get on a roll, you will see what ELSE you can go without! It's addicting! I just bought Dr Bronners "Sals Suds" it's highly concentrated and has MANY uses! You can get it at VItacost! I also make our laundry detergent and DW detergent. It's LIBERATING not to run to the store constantly 🙂
Kristi
Kristi
and when I said plastic cups, I mean hard plastic, not disposable 😉