To spend £700 a year on kitchen roll?

[Stellenbosch]

Yes, I fucking am?!

WTF, how can I cut down on usage? For my bank balance and the environment! .

In my defence I do have a toddler and a rather large family, but still, go through £2 a day worth of the stuff!

I hate dish cloths, they seem so inefficient and full of bacteria!

Help?! Hints?! Tips?!

7Salmonswimming you beat me to it. I wanted to ask the OP how many times a day her washing machine and dishwasher go on. We live in a very rural area water from a well and a septic tank. It has made me far more water usage conscious than I ever was before we moved here and with oil as our fuel you see what you are using and again I put a jumper on and not the heating. I just cannot fathom people like this out, I really cannot. I use proper cotton dishcloths - 1 a day and more if needed. I wash them once a week on a hot wash or I save them until I have a full load. Using an old clean cloth is no less hygienic than using kitchen roll. It makes you think, that for every person recycling and re-using the hell out of everything that they come into contact with there is one person like the OP.

I use cloth napkins, they go in the hot wash along with the cloths and tea towels. A napkin can last a few days.

*Ok, so, IF I can convert to some
sort of cloth... what do people use at meal times for napkins? *

Ermm... actual napkins?

You must be trolling, nobody is this thick

You know. If yowanted to use a napkin, you could use a napkin. A cloth one. Like what folks had for hundreds of years before paper ones.

I use proper fabric ones when visitor posh. When not, it’s an old terry cloth. If I have a messy child in the house. And it goes in the wash basket right away and get washed hot.

I also have ancient cheeky wipes I use as make up removing cloths.

Cloth napkins. good quality ones will wash and wash for years and less likely to carry the stain. much better than a bit of paper that gets soggy with the first bit of food on it.

if your children are small, cloth bibs. again they can just be washed. stop buying it and you will find that the alternatives work.

what do people use at meal times for napkins

Well that's the easiest question of the lot because reusable washable napkins, like you get in restaurants, long predate the use of paper napkins or kitchen roll, and there's no damp cloth/germ issue to get over. You'd get them in any department or home store.

The laugh is I don’t think I’m particularly environmentally aware and I think I could do more.

My mind is blown.

to be fair, if you never grew up with cloth napkins it's not something that would occur to you.

I'm sure there are plenty of people for whom a handkerchief is something unimaginable.

Great post @7salmonswimming

Although everything we do at home like recycling, using less etc seems very small, it's the general culture and consumer habits that influence what big companies do, so a lot of little things by a lot of people can really affect huge change.

why do you say "IF I can convert" what is actually stopping you not buying kitchen roll and buying cotton napkins and some thick cotton tea towels and proper floor cloths.

@rivertam

I used paper napkins at home as a child and now as an adult I use linen ones that I use a for about a week or until stained and then get washed - I think most normal people are capable of this. You don't need to be 'told to' surely?

You need to go to costco and buy the sturdier rolls where you can use the sheets more than once. Some can even be rinsed out and dried.

But they have cloth napkins in restaurants, and I've never been anywhere at all particularly posh, so they must be fairly widespread.

I am completely amazed and bemused by how you can use that much kitchen roll. We probably use one roll a month with two toddlers at home (one at part time nursery). Do you never use a cloth?!

Nobody can be that thick to not know about cloth napkins surely?

This is bizarre

We don't use napkins at all - are we completely uncivilised? A kitchen roll lasts me a month.

I don't use any type of napkin. I'm not messy and I just wash my toddlers' mouths with water at the sink. Much easier than trying to clean off sticky mess with paper anyway.

Seriously, if you're using two rolls a day, the obvious answer is just use less. You're CLEARLY using way more than is necessary.

People use napkins? What for?

Surely washing your hands after a meal is sufficient, and any stray food can be scooped up and binned as part of the post-meal clean with a cloth?

Even with using them as napkins and wiping down the highchair, how do you use at least a roll a day?

Bluelady we don't use napkins either.

If OP is getting through 2 rolls of kitchen paper a day, I'd hate to think how much cleaning spray and other chemicals she's getting through also.

What if you get food round your mouth? What do you wipe it on?

For the wall dispenser you pull out the carboard tube from the middle and pull the towel from the centre.

We all have our own napkin rings so everyone knows which is whose. Then wash them weekly.

What if you get food round your mouth? What do you wipe it on?

I almost never get food around my mouth. I didn't realise that was a thing that happens to adults. Maybe when eating spaghetti, but not much else.

With the kids, I hold them next to the sink and splash water around their mouth and wash it off. Then dry with a towel. Simple.