Green Challenge part 1

I would like to share my path to being more green now i would love to say its to save our planet and in part it is because it a great reason but the biggest driving force for me lately has been to save money. And i have saved a ton of money and the reward of not polluting our planet has felt good too! I find myself cringing at all the waste we as a society just throw away and it makes me want to change! How did we become such as society of consumables, Oh yeah we are lazy and disposable is so much easier. Well I'm here to say that while a little easier, in the end the reward is much better than the few minutes it take to reuse something. I will share with you the things i have done and tried and help you to become more earth friendly and also save some money in this tough economy.  Obviously the big one that i started is cloth diapers, i have talked a little about them already so i will tackle that another day. Today's topic is home cleaning.

Paper towels! This is one of the worst inventions! Such a waste, It is amazing how much using cloth diapers has opened my eyes. The next disposable thing to go was the paper towels. I am one who used to have a thing for dish towels i thought they were disease traps and wouldn't go near them but since having a baby who now wipes his face on my shirt several times a day i have gotten over it. Now they are convenient yes, and nice to just throw away the mess, now besides the obvious of filling the landfills and killing trees which everyone knows. Think of it from your wallets view: Roll of paper towels cost around $2.00 give or take and i know i was going thru a roll about once a week maybe 2 weeks if i didn't feel much like cleaning or i dried my hands with a towel.  Now i got a package of 18 cotton terry towels for that same $2.00 at walmart and i use them for all my cleaning needs and i have actually found they work way better! You don't need to use 3 or more towels to clean the counters just the one if it gets dirty you don't throw it away you just rinse it off.  I pinned one to my swiffer and mopped my floor with it and i liked the results better than the disposable pads rather than pushing around the wet dust/dirt in clumps that you need to pick up later all the crud stuck to the towels and i washed it off.  I have been using cotton towels to clean for about 4 months now and i can honestly say i don't even miss paper towels. I do have a roll around for grease clean up but I'm hoping to find an alternative, i have read that used coffee grounds work i will let you know how it turns out when i try it. Any suggestions let me know i love to hear what you think! 

If you are one of those mama's who likes to have custom things (like me when i had money) there are wahm's who make what they call unpaper towels they are cute and can be made to your liking with different patterns and cloths. They even have some that snap together on a roll. They have them available in alot of etsy shops or you can check out the wahm section of diaper swappers if your interested
http://www.diaperswappers.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=34

Up coming green challenge features:
home made cleaning products
cloth diapers
mama cloth
reader suggestions?