Reusable Household Items

We have been making the transition to reusable household items. I've long had a problem with paper towels, but in the last year or so, I've really been noticing how much money we spend on stuff to THROW IN THE TRASH. I really noticed this with paper towels and zip top bags in particular. With the current state of affairs with the coronavirus, I have almost fully made the transition with my household away from paper towels. This was made easier by the impossibility of finding them in the stores. We have a decent set of kitchen towels, maybe about 15, and we have a basket by the washer for dirty ones. I looked on pinterest and there are many versions of reusable paper towels. Some even in the rolled form of paper towels, snapped or velcroed together.

Unpaper Towel Tutorial by A Blossoming Life

But if you're not attached to rolling them up, any sort of kitchen towels will work, it just takes a collection of them. We have 2 nails near the sink used to hang damp towels up after drying hands. 

The area that has bothered me the most has been our prolific use of zip top bags. We use them for food storage, marinating and stuff storage and organization.  I have been looking for silicone zip top bags but never had the money together at one time to buy a set. Recently, for my birthday, I was gifted a set and they're amazing, I definitely will be saving my pennies to buy a big set. 

There are many more items on my pinterest board I'm interested in, oilcloth bowl covers, shopping bags and washable sponges to name a few. With each idea I weigh the economic impact to our household. We aim to be as self sufficient as possible, and I recognize that I'm lucky I can sew, crochet and knit.  I am not transitioning to reusable items for any specific impact on the environment exactly, I just think that if we were using more reusable products the economic impact, especially on low income families like mine, would be beneficial.  My son and husband drew the line at reusable trash bags though ;)

If we convert fully to reusable bags and don't use paper towels, our household savings will be $250 per year!

I'm sure I'll write more on this topic.

Taryn