No, I'm not talking about money, although seeing a little more of that couldn't hurt ;)
I'm talking about being more "green" - you know, eco-friendly, non-wasteful, "crunchy", and so forth. As you know, (or at least you will know now), I already use cloth diapers, cloth wipes, and mama cloth. (We do not currently use "family cloth" a.k.a. cloth toilet paper, and we may never get to that point.) And I typically don't buy or use paper towels or napkins, my husband does. I usually use a kitchen towel or microfiber cloth to clean up messes and such. But recently, I have come across a lot of info about using "un-paper towels" and cloth napkins.
My mom has always used a lot of cloth napkins (she still does!), even when I was younger. Most times, they were just for special occasions (we had a lot of special occasions. Every birthday, holiday, big accomplishments, etc. was a special occasion at our house). Every now and then we would use them for a regular meal. But I definitely have always associated the use of cloth napkins with either a special occasion or a fancy shmancy restaurant. It never occurred to me to use cloth napkins for every meal at home. But I think it's a great idea!
The only time I never used paper towels in a kitchen was when I worked at Chick-fil-A (yum!). We used regular, washable, reusable kitchen towels for clean ups in the kitchen. Of course, we had paper towels to dry our hands with. But in the kitchen I grew up with at home, we always used paper towels for clean ups and even for drying hands many times. Now thinking back, I was so wasteful! Even in recent years, living in my own places, I have used paper towels for everything! Any kind of kitchen clean up for sure, windows, mirrors, cleaning the inside of my car, dusting, wiping down counter tops and tables, drying hands, cleaning little hands and faces, etc. Never really thought about using a reusable towel for cleaning up until more recently. So, when I started seeing "un-paper towels" all over the internet, I thought that it made complete sense. Especially since I am already using a lot of cloth in the kitchen these days.
So, I came across a couple of blogs (I can't remember them now, and I didn't save them so I can't refer back to them - sorry!), and these ladies had goals of making cloth napkins and un-paper towels for their families to use. One lady had a goal of making 30 - I think she was mostly referring to unpaper towels. Another lady had a goal of 40 - I think she was making 20 unpaper towels and 20 cloth napkins (5 napkins per person in her household). I really like this idea a lot, and I am also going to make a goal for myself to make my family some of these money-savers. (I hate buying paper towels and napkins, so this is going to be fantastic!)
My goal is to start off by making 10 un-paper towels and 12 cloth napkins by the end of April. That gives me 2 months to get it done. I am giving myself plenty of time so that this is a realistic and attainable goal for me to accomplish. Hopefully, I will have them done a whole lot sooner than this, but at least I have set a time limit for myself to complete it, since I am a huge procrastinator. If we need more, or I have finished earlier than April, then I will just make more!
Of course, I will be posting pictures of my completed work - I may even post a quick and easy tutorial later on during my progress :)
Do any of you use cloth napkins and/or un-paper towels? How did you find out about it? Did you make them yourself or did you purchase them already made? What fabrics do you like for your cloth usage?
~ Jessica
