12 months of Greening - January - Less waste part 2

Yesterday I talked about how we were working to reduce our household waste back in January.  We reduced a lot of the general waste and recycling, but also noticed a lot of single use products that we were using - mostly made of paper - and were also keen to reduce that waste.  Today I'm going to talk about that.

DISCLAIMER- In this post I'm going to be talking about replacing some personal hygiene products with cloth alternatives. Some of you might not want to know about this - if that's you, stop reading now and don't say you haven't been warned :-)

Cloth nappies

No, my 7 year olds don't wear nappies, so we don't use cloth nappies anymore, but we did.  We used lovely flat terry towelling nappies until the boys were 6 months old.  We then had a break from clothies as we moved house twice and were seriously sleep dperived, but picked them up again a few months later when we discovered modern cloth nappies.  We were big fans of fuzzibuns back then as the market for SAHM made nappies wasn't so big.  I loved the cloth nappies!  I didn't mind washing them, and except for the occasional leakage problem when the boys grew or changed (which would also happen with disposables) we had no problems with them.  Plus, how cute is a baby bum when clad in a cloth nappy?!

So we didn't bring in Cloth nappies this year, but I mention them here because I realised that if cloth was good enough for our precious babies' bums, then it was certainly good enough for some other uses..... here's what we've done.

Tissues

We used to have a box of tissues in every room. They'd be used for wiping noses, cleansing my face, mopping up and whatever else we could think of to do with them.  At times, you could look in our kitchen bin and find it piled up with scrunched up little white pieces of paper.  No more.  We have a single box of (100% recycled) tissues in the house in case a guest wants to blow their nose and that's it.  I found a collection of flanallette bunny rugs in the shed from when the boys were babies and cut them into two sizes with my pinking shears - small for my face cleansing, and larger to be our s'not paper tissues (yeah I know, we're hilarious!).  I made enough so that they don't need to be carried around like hankies often are, but are single use and then go in the wash.  Unless they are really dirty, they just get chucked in with the other washing, line dried (which kills any germs) and then folded back into their convenient basket. Simple, green and very cost effective!

S'not paper tissues drying in the sunshine

Dishcloths

I used to buy and use sponges and scourers for my dishes, use them for a couple of weeks and then toss them in the bin.  Not anymore.  My friend knitted me some dishcloths and I crocheted a few too, so now I have a lovely collection of washable dishcloths that do a much better job of cleaning than anything I could buy and then throw out anyway!

Paper towel

I never used much paper towel, but it was always there for the occasional spill/grill clean, and we had paper napkins on the table.  So, I replaced these with a set of homemade cloth napkins made from a vintage sheet.  With regards to the paper towel, we use rags to clean up most messes, but for some things, like cleaning the fat from the grill, we use a paper flour bag or similar that has already been used anyway.

Girly stuff

I bit the bullet and went cloth with my menstrual pads too.  I bought some made by a SAHM on ebay and then I made myself some using recycled fabrics.  I was a little dubious, but I LOVE them!  I used to have to buy a certain more expensive brand of pads as I reacted to something (don't want to think what) in most brands.  Now I don't have to worry about that because my pads are simple, clean fabric that has been washed in my homemade laundry powder!  They also fit well because I made them to fit well what could be better than that!?  I did find that they move around a bit when I'm excercising, so I also bought a menstrual cup.  My total cost outlay for my "kit" was about $60, which will have been well paid off in 6 months worth of savings.  And do I mind washing them?  Not at all, easier than nappies.

In the toilet

The only change we made in the toilet was to use strictly 100% recycled toilet paper.  I've hinted several times that we could try cloth, but am not being met with much enthusiasm from the rest of the family..... perhaps next year.

All in all, our changes here have saved an awful lot of landfill.  We might use a little more electricity and water in the washing, but the items slot in with normal washing, so it is negligible.  Plus we only wash in cold water and have water tanks that are nearly always full anyway, so the cost isn't worth considering. 


Have you made cloth changes?  Do you have any other suggestions? 
I'd love to hear your thoughts.