Wiping the Slate Clean

I’ve had a few slip-ups this week, but I feel like this “week without” has kept a lot of waste out of the trash!

I’m a creature of habit, so I had to hide my Kleenex box from my desk. I stowed the napkins and paper towels away in the kitchen cupboards. I brought a hankie and a towel to work, and those have worked…except for a couple times when I habitually grabbed a paper towel after washing my hands. When I ate fast food this week, I (mostly) remembered to save the napkins and not use them. To be honest, I’m still a little grossed out by re-using the same cloth over & over to blow my nose. I’ve only used it a couple times, and it’s still very clean. But still….it gives me the heebie jeebies, and that’s probably something Kimberly-Clark has worked hard at instilling in me.

On that note, here are new wasteful products that even *I*, a paper/plastic junkie, am appalled by:

At-home disposable paper towel dispenser

…because your bathroom towels aren’t sanitary enough. What?! No. We already use paper napkins, paper tissues, and toilet paper. Paper towels are already in the kitchen. You’ve got feminine hygiene products, Q-tips, cotton balls, and disposable makeup wipes. You’ve even started making automatic shower cleaner-sprayers and soap dispensers. Let me have the towel rack. This commercial makes me angry every time I see it.

Pan-lining paper

It’s not parchment; it’s not foil; It’s parchment AND foil! …Because heaven forbid you have to hand wash a dish. That goes for you, too, crock pot liners! Grease your bakeware & use elbow grease for anything that sticks. (Confession: There’s a soft spot in my heart for Press-n-Seal when my mismatched container lids don’t fit)

Wipes

For every cleanser invented, there’s a matching tub of pre-soaked towelettes. Are we THAT lazy?? I use one tub of Clorox wipes at my desk, and I think we might have some old dried-out car care wipes in the garage. And now I’m feeling guilty about those. Buy some cleanser (or make your own!) and use a dang rag!

Disposable tools

People don’t even mop anymore – they “wipe” their floors with disposable mops, scrub their toilets with disposable brushes, and dust the furniture with disposable…fluffy things.

Convenience is flippin’ WASTEFUL so I’m changing my ways. My "recycle" is pretty healthy, but my "reduce" and "reuse" could use a major tune-up. Use a towel more than once and wash it every so often. Wash a dang dish without a machine’s help. And unless it’s for a baby’s butt, forget the wipes.

*sigh* Apologies. Annoyed rant over.