waste not, want not

I'm annoyed.  Not outraged or furious, just annoyed.

Yesterday we set out to Target to get all the required school supplies on Eloise's list for preschool.  At her school, you are asked to buy everything on the list and it goes into the community pool and used throughout the year.  Fine.  Love that idea.  There were a few school supply-ish things:  crayons, glue, scissors, etc and then the remainder of the list consisted of a pile of items that I could only think of as...garbage.
600 paper cups, 5 boxes baby wipes, 4 rolls paper towels,  2 packages napkins, ziplocks in 3 different sizes,  2 boxes of tissues...

Somewhere, Al Gore is crying.

I understand that it is probably difficult for the school to avoid this much use of disposable things.  In fact, I was trying to think of some better solutions.  All I could come up with was a personalized cup for each child that they could reuse each day.  I think they only have water at snack time and there is a kitchen so they could conceivably rinse them out.  Having said that, I am not a preschool teacher with 20 kids screaming and eating and spilling and peeing... so I get it if this is not their top priority.

I think I was annoyed because I haven't bought most of this stuff in about 4 years.  At some point we decided to start using dish towels instead of paper towels and cloth napkins instead of paper ones, and try to use handkerchiefs instead of tissues.  We don't use paper plates or cups or straws either.  But before you give me my halo, I'm not perfect.  I admit that I have always used disposable diapers and baby wipes.  (In fact, I think I might be addicted to the Costco baby wipes and use them far too much.)
I try to remind myself that going greener doesn't need to be an 'all or nothing' situation.
I believe that you should do what you can and what works for you and your family.

What works for our family is a huge drawer of dishtowels that we use for everything from spilled milk to wiping countertops.  We just throw them in the wash and they are in constant rotation.  I have observed that people who come into our house are very uncomfortable using them, they get over it.  I once had a babysitter call me because she couldn't find any paper towels in the house and she wasn't sure if she should use a dish towel.  I think my dad is the most annoyed at our lack of paper products in the house.  "How do you drain the bacon?!??"

We have another drawer for cloth napkins, the 'everyday' ones, which are covered in all kinds of stains but still manage to make our meals seem more civilized, and the 'company' ones, which are just a tad nicer.  I remember the moment when I realized that cloth napkins were just pieces of fabric.  Fabric?!!?  I've got a ton of fabric.  If you have fabric around the house you can make your own too---very simple tutorial here and lots more on the internet.

When I was getting all this stuff from the store yesterday I remembered what I also hated about buying that kind of stuff.  It isn't that cheap.  I was thinking napkins would be like .97 or something and the pack I got was $3.49.  Waste.  I also hate hauling it into the cart, and into the car, and inside the house and finding a place to put it and...wow, I guess I was really annoyed by this stuff.

 I'll get over it.  Eventually.

the stuff

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