one person's trash...

last fall we stopped using paper towels as part of the Ditch the Disposables challenge. before that, i'd taken for granted that paper towels were just what you used and never considered doing without, but it turned out it wasn't a big deal at all. we just use kitchen towels, wash cloths, and rags for cleaning up and wiping hands. making the switch to cloth napkins was similarly easy. it seemed silly to save them for some kind of special occasion. honestly, wiping baby faces is so much easier with cloth that i often travel with a cloth napkin in my diaper bag. they also tie on easily as a bib.

what's funny, is that dylan LOVES having a cloth napkin to wipe her face and hands on. hopefully, we're not raising a little OCD baby;)

we still have a paper towel roll in the pantry from last september that we'll pull out for bacon grease or pet messes, but otherwise, we use cloth. i don't miss spending money on paper, i like throwing less away, and it hasn't really generated much more laundry. overall, it's been an easy switch.

i wanted to try something else this year. we don't really have a lot of "disposable-ness" in our lives, (although buying food on-the-go can be a weakness...) what i realized, though, is that we still generate a lot of waste from buying packaged snacks. we recycle the cardboard boxes, but that still consumes a great deal of energy, and wrappers mostly go in the trash. reducing consumption/waste and reusing/repurposing stuff is certainly better from an energy standpoint than recycling, (which is also why we've been saving and reusing glass containers.)

this year, for the challenge (sept-oct), i decided to not buy snacks like crackers and granola bars. my goal is to to try baking my own, but honestly, that hasn't happened yet. we had a bunch in the pantry when september started, and life has been busy, but in the next few weeks i plan to bake granola bars, crackers, and graham crackers. if you have a tried and true recipe for any of those items, i'd love to hear it. i figure this is a good way not only to cut down on our household waste but also to save money and eat more healthfully.

in the spirit of paring down (and i suppose "nesting"), we tagged along with camp's garage sale this past weeked. it was exhausting since we had it open friday and saturday, but it was worth it. we got rid of lots of lots of stuff and made a decent amount of money. one of the best parts was that we had a free table where i put out weird stuff i didn't want: toiletries, cleaning supplies, little happy meal-type toys, half-burned candles, and all sorts of randomness i wanted out of my house but didn't want to throw away or even give to the thrift store. people LOVED the free table, and stuff moved. it was awesome.