This year I got some rad cloth napkins on Etsy and some re-usable bags for the bulk bins (also on Etsy). I would love to not use paper towels either (I don’t most of the time, just for cleaning the mirror in the bathroom or maybe a few other things.) These look super cool!

I made my contractor take out the Halogen light fixtures in our still-under-construction kitchen and put in Compact Florescent fixtures. Now I’m looking at how to change the track lighting to accept CF bulbs too. One room at a time!

Yay un-towels! I’ve stopped buying cleaning fluids- I use plain old vinegar. I have an natural love for vinegar and all its many purposes.

hey, those look pretty sweet!

we’ve been able to switch out almost all of our light bulbs to CFLs this year. and we’re using vinegar for most of our cleaning and in the washer rinse cycle instead of fabric softener.

Funny coincidence! I have a post set to publish tomorrow evening giving away free Skoy cloths on Fake Plastic Fish. Guess Christmas is the time for free cleaning cloths? How random and strange.

I’ve tried both Skoy and Milkweed’s hemp cloths. I think the hemp cloths are better for dusting and polishing and the Skoy cloths are better for washing dishes and counters and messier things. Skoy dries faster, but the hemp cloths are plush and feel nice.

I’m just commenting to hear myself comment, not to enter the contest.

Cheers!
Beth

I just got a bunch of power strips, so I can prevent all the energy vampires (clock on the DVD player, light on the power button, etc.) from sucking electricity when they’re not actually in use. I also take my own bags to the grocery store and farmers market, and make the bulk of my own cleaning supplies. I’ve been trying to convince my husband to use reusable cloths instead of paper towels, so the hemp cloths would be perfect!
Thanks for the chance to win and happy holidays!

I am weaning off chemical cleansers and replacing them with eco friendly products. My goal for 09 is to wean off disposable paper as much as possible.

We’ve switched over all our lightbulbs, have insulated everything we can, as well as turning down the heat while we’re away and at night. Our first child is due in a week! And we will be cloth diapering.

we try not to use many paper towels, and these plush un-paper towels would really win my less eco-conscious husband over.

Un-towels would compliment my new green mentality. We’ve already done the lightbulbs, composting, CSA’s, recycling, cleansers and we have almost completed our de-paper toweling our lives. We are looking forward to spreading our greeness in 2009.

I’ve been working really hard to green-up my cleaning regimen: we use cloth napkins instead of paper and reusable towels in the kitchen while we slowly phase out what little paper towel supply we have. I use vinegar cut with water to clean the counters and a paste of cream of tartar and hydrogen peroxide to clean stains from the ceramic sink — way better than the nasty chems in store-bought solutions.
We’re even greener in the bathroom: wiping down the counters with a small amount of rubbing alcohol and cleaning the tub with baking soda and lemon juice cut with water.
TheBoy loves to come home after I’ve been cleaning — the smells of vinegar and lemon beat the pants off nasty chemical cleaners.
Great give-away!

sigh. the paper towel wars in my house. for some reason, this is the hardest for us (read my husband) to wean off. he grumpily accepted cloth napkins – well, when he doesn’t grad a paper towel that is – we broke the bottled water habit and use only reusable containers for food storage – the seal a meal is GREAT for using w/mason jars! we biked and walked a lot more this year for the quick trips to the store. oh, and my favorite, while we have composted for almost 10 years now, we got a worm bin! talk about black gold….Merry Christmas!

We’ve decided just to stop cleaning altogether. JUST kidding!

We started out with about a hundred (not exaggerating that much) bottles of cleaning fluid in our house. We moved 3 years ago, and everyone brought over a bottle of cleaning something or other. We’ve been slowly working our way through them. And I vow to not buy new ones, but use the empty bottles to make our own home brew of bleach and vinegar cleaners.

Plus, as we had so many cleaning supplies, I also got some of the Swiffer sweepers/dusters, so as those were used up, I made fleece covers for them that are washable.

Our next big adventure will be the paper towels and napkins-like a lot of other commenters. We definitely need to work on that.

Merry Christmas!

I’ve started using vinegar and baking soda for a lot of basic cleaning instead of the bottled junk, we’ve replaced nearly all of the light bulbs in our new town home with CFLs, and we’re looking into getting LEDs to replace the smaller bulbs that we can’t find CFLs for.

I use cloth napkins & hankerchiefs. I also use a ton of vinegar for cleaning.

It’s not really what I have changed in my already energy efficent light bulb, vinegar cleaning, reuseable napkin, appartment I live it, it’s what my composting, reuseable napkin, never-let-any-food-go-uneaten, “put another sweatshirt on if you’re cold” mother has done.

My parents recently decided to upgrade our “one butt” kitchen, to accomodate our growing family. She had to convince her contractor that CFLs actually do put off enough light. She had to convince my father that an energy star on an appliance didn’t mean it was all that much better. She did her research. She found the most efficent stove, micorwave, and fridge (which is much better than our 50′s stove and fridge).

My mom even turned our garage into a working kitchen for the time being!

LOL! I like Nikkapotamus’ idea of giving up cleaning!

With several dogs, I have to mop my floor often. I use cotton covers on my Swiffer mops rather than the disposable cloths, and I use vinegar and water with some lavender.

Like others, I use my non-plastic shopping bags (Chico bags are great!), CFLs, keep nearly everything unplugged, use timers on the hot water heater, use a thermos carafe for coffee so I don’t need to keep it on heat, do as much shopping as possible for used items, give away unneeded items via Freecycle, have upgraded to energy efficient windows and doors, compost vegetable matter, minimize car trips and car pool when possible.

Next steps – get worms into the kitchen, find the right trash bags (thanks for the great post on this site), explore options for better lawn care tools for mowing.

Peaceful wishes to all and thanks for all the good information.

fabulous! I’ve also moved to cloth napkins and using more dishtowels instead of paper towels. I started using one main cleanser that’s supposedly more eco friendly for everything, and when it runs out, I plan to start making homemade batches of vinegar based cleaners.

Wow! Love this idea. We use minimal paper towels as it is, but I’ve wondered about cutting our use down even more. I love the 4X6 size; useful for the little messes I make all the time. I’d like to have a pile of 4X6′s on the counter and reach for those instead of the half or quarter sheets of paper towel I would normally use and cleaner than the sponge I have to keep microwaving.

Those towels are GREAT! Currently I make my own household cleaners. I have made my own lavender sachets for the laundry. I use soap nuts to clean my carpet. I hang my clohtes to dry indoors or or out and “hopefully” soon we will install a grey water system that will allow us to reuse water 3 times before it goes into the septic.

Thanks for the offer!

We unplug appliances when not in use, reuse plastic containers, and have found natural replacements for all our personal and household cleaners. I use rags to clean, but we still use 1 or 2 paper towels a week, and we are down to the last roll in the house. Time for a replacement!

May Canadians enter? We already do quite a few things, but one big change I hope to make this year is to get some reusable bags for buying bulk groceries rather than using plastic bags.

2009 will be the year of composting for us. We’re in a rental with a compost bin we never use (though we do toss things in the general city “yard waste” bin provided. Next year I will do a small garden and learn to do real composting.

This is something I struggle with as I live with my parents and my mother is paper towel happy. I purchased 2 sets of shamwow ultra absorbent towels last summer and have started using them a little. Biggest difficulty with them is to come up with a system of keeping the same ones for certain icky uses, i.e. cleaning the toilet. they came in two colors bright yellow and violet. The towels above look great, but again, the main challenge for me is organizing the usage of these with everyone I live with and encouraging ongoing cooperation. Any ideas??

I have also used old socks, T-sirts and anything cotton for rags since I was a kid for cleaning furniture. I use them over and over, toss dirty ones in the washer, until they’re pretty gross, then throw them out. Hmm, Just thinking I could compost them when they’re very worn out as long as I know they’re 100% cotton.
Also, Maybe a solution to the organizing problem is to mark towels with permanent marker. I’ll try it out!

as a college student, i think my demographic can be especially wasteful and lackadaisical when it comes to being environmentally conscious. i live in an apartment, and have slowly become more sustainable bit by bit, or at least i try to :) i’ve stopped buying papertowels, i now use the ragged socks and shirts my cat has torn to shreds. some of my floor mates and i started composting in the back grassy lot this fall, too. it’s been awesome.

Those towels look amazing! I have started cleaning much more with vinegar and a bit of elbow grease, while replacing all my other cleaning products with Seventh Generation products (for tougher jobs than vinegar can take). I’ve done a LOT to change my enviro-footprint this year, but one of the things I want to continue working on is utilizing my kitchen’s greenhouse window, which I have barely used since moving in two years ago. I recently started growing a few plants and herbs in the window – not only is it nice to have fresh herbs available to me on the spot, but it makes my house look so much lovelier without spending lots of money on decorations (not to mention all the manufacturing/transportation/etc. that would entail).

We only use cloth napkins and say NO to plastic shopipng bags (instead, bringing our own reusable bags). I also do all of the laundry in cold water and am in the process of switching to all-natural cleaning solutions.

eco-friendly cleaning products are all that we buy now. and we were gifted a set of cloth napkins … going to make more and more effort to use those ALL the time.

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