Think about how many paper towels you use? How many tissues? How many napkins? What about cotton rounds to clean your face? And now think about how often you have to replenish these items? While not a ton of plastic, usually each one comes wrapped in plastic and I felt like I was going to buy one thing or another every other week so that adds up. And that soft plastic is not something you can recycle so it goes into the trash bin and then landfill to sit there forever!
Think about how many paper towels a family of 4 uses over the course of a year. The average family uses two roles per week @ $14 for an 8-pack, that’s $182 a year! Or you can buy unpaper towels from Marly’s Monsters. A 12 count will run you just $30, while a 24 ct will run you $54. And now you are set for life! Just wash, reuse, and save $$$!
On average a family of 4 uses 9000 napkins a year! With the cost of $5 for 250 napkins, that’s another $180 a year of savings. Or you can use cloth napkins forever and save that money for a rainy day.
What if you had an infinite supply of paper towels, napkins and tissues and you never had to go shopping for those items again? Through the pandemic, this was a game changer as well. I never had to worry about needing paper towels when they were out of stock in the stores. You would save time and you would save money! And it is so easy! I would say that my partner was skeptical but was willing to give it a try to support my plastic free mission. We transitioned to a variety of cloth towels. For wiping up messes, cleaning kitchen counters we have about 6 white cloth towels which are easily accessible. We also transitioned from paper towels to the Marleys Monsters unpaper towels. I absolutely love these towels. We bought a set of unpaper towels and their napkins. At first we tried to roll them on a paper towel dispenser to try to mirror the paper towel experience. For us they tended to unravel a bit so we converted to just placing them in a draw for easy access which has worked out perfectly. This has been such an easy switch. And my partner has not been concerned about this switch in the slightest. We just toss them in the washing machine with our weekly loads and then we are all set with a clean set of towels for the next week.
Lastly, there is toilet paper, and I am not going to say go to cloth or get a bidet. Although it is on my wishlist, I may or may not use cloth instead of paper. There are many things I said I would not try but did and loved the switch. My partner 100% would not support the option of cloth toilet paper so you do what you can to find that happy medium to keep everyone in the household happy. My partner also has extremely high standards for his TP needs. So, I ordered us Who Gives a Crap. I ordered the base option and my partner was not a fan. He did not feel it was soft enough. Well, we got through that initial supply and upgraded to the premium and I think we found a place where we are both happy. And it’s plastic free.
Obviously, this saves time for not having to go shopping for these items. It also saves money in the long run.
