Papertowel Confession

Okay, I have a confession to make. I'm addicted to papertowels. Or rather, I was addicted to papertowels. For as far back as I can remember, papertowels have been my friend. For any and every mess, my papertowels (I'm partial to Bounty Select-a-Size) were always there to comfort and help me. My kids spilled their juice: 5 papertowels. I splashed some water on the floor: 2 papertowels. Messy table after dinner: 3 papertowels. Hands wet after washing: 1 papertowel. Etc, etc, etc. My goodness! I can hardly image what my daily total was, no less my weekly or monthly grand total!

I'm not sure what made me re-think my papertowel usage. Perhaps a magazine article or blog posting or conversation with a friend. Whatever it was, a few weeks ago, I decided to attempt to cut back. And I did- drastically (or so I thought)! I cut our usage down to about a roll a week (I'm not sure exactly how many that is, but I know it was a lot less than we had been using.) I was so excited at our progress!

So how did I do it? Well, I just stopped reaching for a papertowel every single time anything spilled. I started using cleaning cloths more often and even leaving a drop or two of water on the counter or on my hands from time to time (gasp!) But after two weeks or so, I thought maybe we could do better. So I made a huge, monumental change. What was this gigantic change, you ask? I moved the papertowel holder from the countertop to under the sink. Yes, that's it.

It's been two weeks since I made the big change, and it's made a very noticeable difference. I would say that I have now been using about three papertowels a week, and even those are probably unnecessary. I used one to blot the oil off some fried eggplant cutlets. I can't remember what I used the others for, but I'm pretty sure I could have used a towel instead. For everything else, I've been using cleaning cloths (towels, dishrags, washcloths for cleaning up the kids after meals, etc.), and I think they almost always do a better job! I'm still adjusting slightly, but I can honestly say that I'm not in papertowel withdrawal!

I am proud to say that I have been (almost) papertowel-free for one month! Better for the environment and better for our budget... what's better than that?

Has anyone else taken on this challenge? Any advice to share?