This was the point where my zero waste journey crossed the threshold of
"mild discomfort."
"mild discomfort."
THE...
LAST...
PAPER...
TOWEL!!!!!!
One American mother goes through these things like drinking water in a Sahara Desert! This was the one product that produced the most trash in my home. Only the Bounty brand would do, because it absorbs the most messes with the least amount of paper towel. As I inched closer to the last one in my house, 4, 3, 2....It was time to act, and to act QUICKLY if I was going to be serious about changing my life. If I was never going to buy another paper towel roll, not only did I have to construct the perfect substitute, but a system needed to be in place as well to store and clean them.
Pinterest is the greatest thing since sliced bread (and I've been making sliced bread! More on that in a minute!). It is the place I love to go and snag ideas from the most creative of minds, and replicate it. In searching pinterest, I got a vague idea of what needed to happen to make these. Flannel, a serger (so I could get through it quickly, but you can use a sewing machine with a zigzag stitch), and towels I could re-purpose. Some people used snaps to put their towels together into a roll, but I didn't want to purchase another "thing" for a project. A basket to hold them in will do just fine, and I will get rid of my paper towel holder for good.
It was a painful week, because I hate sitting and doing sewing projects that are monotonous, even while listening to movies. It also was painful because I broke my sewing machine! Don't know what happened, but a metal piece came out, and now the feed dogs stopped gliding the fabric through. I suppose I'd sewn a little too much over the last 10 years! But thankfully I got done what needed to get done. Finally, here are my "reusable paper towels":
I chose cute flannel so it would make my children and I happy to use them. Megan is obsessed with foxes, Caleb picked out the sharks, and we love kitties. They are the same size as a "pick a size" short bounty paper towel. I sewed a huge X across each towel to keep the two fabrics together. I like that one side is soft for wiping dirty faces and skin, and the towel side is rough enough to scrub off counters. The best part I found is that these babies hold a LOT MORE WATER than my bounty paper towels! I was amazed at the ease, and they work fantastic!
For those that can't sew, there are so many wonderful options of reusable towels you can purchase for your own home, and they are in such tasteful and cool colors, you may never want to buy another lame white paper towel again! Check some of them out HERE!
Now for the "system" to make it all work. Once the towels were used, we needed a place to put them until the next wash. I was going to make THIS CUTE BAG, but because I was burnt out with all the paper towel sewing, and sad my machine broke, I thought I'd make a wise purchase instead. Maybe in the future I'll make that bag. I chose a can with a lid and a step that could open the lid without touching it. So I bought two of THESE which happen to have a 10 year warranty! One will go in the bathroom for the wet wipes I made, and one in the kitchen for the paper towels. They are small so I can be encouraged to do laundry more often.
Inside the rubbish bins were samples of plastic bags that they said were "the perfect size for their can." It was actually the perfect size to use as a template for a REUSABLE LINER! So I threw some together out of an old white bed sheet. It will be so perfect when I need to wash them, because I can throw the entire bag into the wash with it. This makes me so happy :D
So there you have it! My new system! No more buying paper towels!!
YIPEEEEEE!
The next change that has happened is that I have shaken the dust from my bread machine and have been making bread. (This has not been good for my waistline, because the waft of bread goodness filling my house, and I cannot help myself...) I need my life to be simple, and throwing ingredients into a can and pressing "start" sounds simple if I want to make bread without purchasing all the plastic around them all the time...Or Spending $5.00 a pop at the wholefoods fresh bakery for sourdough bread... In a Costco run I purchased their largest bag of flour, as well as sugar. I haven't been able to master multigrain or wheat bread yet, but the white bread has so far been phenomenal. here is the recipe I've been using:
If anyone has some amazing wheat, yeast starter, or multigrain bread machine recipes, please let us know in the comments! Whole Foods Bread can't be impossible to make, right?
Just like the paper towels though, there needed to be a system with preventing bread from going stale. A blog I looked at a while ago suggested I put the bread into an old metal popcorn tin. So I made a request on facebook to the town where I lived if anyone had an extra one lying around, and................ I GOT ONE!!
After trying this tin out for a week, and wrapping the bread up in something like cloth or the plastic bags I had left, it has indeed kept some of its freshness for longer. I suppose that's what the bread boxes must have been for way back in the day...Yes, I'm a millennial...
That's enough chit chat for today. On to the next zero-waste project!!
Cheers!
Laura
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