Our kitchen went paper free a long time ago and I imagine that it’s saved me quite a bit of money over the years; there’s also the advantage of less waste being created.
I use a combination of old clothes made into rags, as pictured above, and micro fibre cloths for all my cleaning, washing up etc. I’ll make any item of clothing that has seen better days into a handy sized cloth….in fact that’s about the extent [so far] of my ’make it yourself’ skill set!
I can’t recommend micro fibre cloths enough; they cost about 25p each and seem to last for ages; I have 4 in assorted colours for washing up and 4 plain white ones for cleaning and polishing [with a vinegar mix or on their own]; I can’t remember the last time I replaced them.
Let me know, is this something that you’re doing, are you paper free in your kitchen?
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
We’re not paper-free in the kitchen yet – it’s something I really need to work on – but we do use reusable cloths most of the time so we’re not getting through a lot of paper.
One of the main things that we use paper for is … well, things coming out of the cats at one end or, occasionally, the ickier other end. We try to use scrap paper (for example newspaper or phone books) rather than kitchen roll but when that’s not to hand, we go to kitchen roll instead. I’m not sure I’d want to use reusable cloths for that sort of thing – so I guess I should make sure we always have scrap paper to hand instead…
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Laura Reply:
December 21st, 2010 at 10:59 am
Louisa: I hadn’t really thought about what I would do if I had cats! Newspaper or the phone book sound like a plan
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I am paper free other than napkins. For some reason, I onlyuse my cloth napkins for “fancy/nice dinners”…not every day. Maybe this is a concept I should change or have ‘less fancy” cloth napkins for every day? Good thought! Thanks for sharing.
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Laura Reply:
December 21st, 2010 at 10:49 am
Misty: I have eight basic cotton cloth napkins that I use for every occasion..I just throw them in the wash after use
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Our kitchen is paper free too though I have never managed to get around to using old bits of fabric for cloths/rags despite the best of intentions. Well done for actually doing it!
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Laura Reply:
December 24th, 2010 at 6:59 am
Thanks Shoestring!
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I have microfibre kitchen towels I received as a wedding gift seven years ago. They are still in great shape and work really well. I’m surprised they haven’t really caught on here in the states. I am also guilty of keeping paper towels around, but I use them sparingly for really ugly messes.
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Laura: Paper free is a cool idea! Been reducing a bit but not enough to say my kitchen is paper free, blame it on fried food
Merry Christmas!
Peace, Health & Love
Many Hugs,
Mizé
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Laura Reply:
December 24th, 2010 at 6:55 am
Merry Christmas Mize, I hope you and M have a wonderful Christmas and 2011
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Thank you for this post! Our kitchen is paper free because I refuse to buy kitchen roll etc as it’s extortionate! However, we do go through a lot of scrubbers because we’re in the habit of buying cheap ones which fall apart. Will try to pick up some microfibre cloths soon as I’ve heard good things about them!
Hope you had a wonderful Christmas my love xx
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