Reducing the amount of trash you throw away every day is important on so many levels.

We have evolved into such a "disposable" society. As a parent, I became very aware of this in my own life and set out to change. This "How To" is an outline of what I did for my home personally, and I hope it can help others.

Think of all the paper towels and toilet paper you use in your home in one day. Think of all the money you spend on those things to just throw them away and buy more. There IS a better way.

Start with your kitchen. Stop buying paper towels and paper napkins.  Stock up on handtowels, washcloths, or make your own. If making your own, the sizes I prefer are 4"x6", 8"x8" and 11"x11". The smaller ones are good for quick clean ups on the counters and for wiping little faces at the dinner table. The medium size serves well for cleaning counters and are big enough to use as napkins. The largest size works well for drying dishes, covering bowls in the microwave, and other large tasks.

The bathroom is also a great paper waster. I live in a house with 4 females and one male. All-male households probably find that they use a LOT less toilet paper than homes with women, but well...we can't just give two shakes and walk away. My personal size preference for bathroom wipes is 4"x6". For my bathroom, they are 2-layer Hemp/Cotton rectangular cloths, and for my children I spiced it up a bit making them oval and using cute flannel prints with 3 layers. Storing *used* wipes is simple: Keep a small trashcan with a lid beside your toilet. Give it a cloth liner. When it gets full, simply remove the cloth liner like a bag, turn it upside down in your washing machine and then drop in the empty bag. No need to handle dirty wipes!

The most frugal way to go about this is to make your own. There are many fabrics out there to choose from, but I have found that the most absorbent fabric is Hemp Fleece. Hemp is grown naturally withOUT pesticides and can be grown using a lot less land than cotton.Hemp can be hard to find outside of the internet, though, and cotton flannels also work very well. To make an even bigger impact on saving resources, use recycled materials! Old tee shirts, flatfold cloth diapers, old terry robes and towels. If you have an old terrycloth robe, you can easy make enough wipes to supply an entire bathroom.  After choosing your fabrics and cutting to the sizes you prefer, you need to simply serge the edges together. No serger? That's okay too; just use a zig zag stitch around the edges to keep fraying to a minimum.

To further reduce your disposable household items, you can also consider cloth menstrual products and cloth diapering. Cloth diapers are gotten so complex and varied, though...that would need another "how to" ;)