Ready to rethink toilet paper for Earth Day?

I wouldn't presume to use this method for toilet paper, but here's a money and recycling efficient way to atleast replace paper towels: use cloth hand towels, the kind you use to dry your face off with.

Using it at home, I found the results to be wonderful. While cooking, I use the hand cloths to wipe my hands off instead of use of multiple paper towels. The hand cloths don't get extremely dirty, and more often than not can be used for another meal. I put my cooking instruments on a plate that I can rinse off in seconds instead of wasting disposable cloths.

During eating, the hand cloths work extremely better than traditional napkins or paper towels, recycled or not. The paper towels can be used for the entirety of the meal instead of using multiple napkins. Even for greasy/messy dinners, a hand cloth lasts alot longer and cleans up better! More often than not, depending on your family size and what you're eating, the hand cloths can last for more than one meal.

You can even replace those Swiffer cloths or whatever other disposable cloths you use for cleaning or dusting. Just get a hand cloth that absorbs well.

And of course, you only have to pay the initial price of buying the hand cloths, instead of repeteadly buying paper napkins and paper towels. Throw them in a wash with your other shower towels (preferably energy efficient!) and they're ready for another use.

Sit back and think about just how many paper towels and paper napkins you use in a day. A couple of cloth washcloths/hand towels could replace those. My paper towel use went down drastically; as a new mother I was going through a whole roll every couple of days. Now a roll lasts weeks, if not a whole month or more.