Tree-Hugging Change

I don't know about you all, but one of my family's biggest problems is the number of paper towels we go through.  With two young children, we are always in need of a towel to quickly mop up spills or wipe sticky mouths and hands.  And it doesn't help that Doug grabs one to wipe off the smallest of water messes on the counter tops.  I use them frequently to cover food that's put in the microwave, two every night to dry off fruit for lunches, and multiple a day to wipe up spills on the floor.  On average, we use at least one roll of paper towels per week--and that's usually using the smaller "select-a-size" towel.  I have tried to cut down the use of these convenient, disposable towels but let's face it...they are a pretty great invention!  However, after thinking about the number of towels we throw into the landfill every year (6,496!), I decided it was time to make a change.  I picked up three different types of towels and some Command adhesive hooks and began my tree-saving journey.  The white ones pictured are flour sacks (not really sacks at all) that I use to lay my fruit on to dry.  Yes, the berries stain them, but who cares?  The plaid washcloths are used for floor spills and the colorful ones are for, you guessed it, sticky, munchkin mouths and hands (of course the girls love them!)  

I placed the hooks on the inside of the cabinet door, under the sink.  The ones I use for the floor are placed inside the cabinet away from the other two.  I also keep a dishrag draped over the sink to wipe down countertops.  Is this adding to my laundry load?  Nope.  We never have a maxed out load of towels, so they just join the rest of their linty friends. 

I have to say that I don't miss the paper towels at all!  We still have some, because let's face it, why would I use my towels to pat chicken or fish dry? Yuck!  But, I do find myself reaching for one quite often--creature of habit.  I ended up placing a clean dishrag over the paper towel holder as a reminder to reach for a real towel first.  In the last week we have used roughly one small sheet a day! That's is big news in our house.  Do I dare switch over to cloth napkins??

Anyone else up for banishing their paper towel addiction?