Paperless Palace

[PrincessPerky]

Last month we worked on unplugging the house, starting in January, I am moving on to banning paper.

I don't just mean getting rid of disposable diapers I also want to get rid of all the paper I throw away, something about paying for trash is just not frugal! Of course I couldn't start this before Christmas, I have tons of wrapping paper to use up first!

Kitchen
I asked for cloth napkins for Christmas, so we will be able to use those, I also started awhile ago using a rag on my swiffer mop. Actually it might be a clorox brand, whatever I just put a rag on instead of the disposable ones they sell, works great and I can dump it in the wash to use again another day. I always use a 'green scrubbie thingie' to scrub, but recently I have been using a small plastic square that came with my pampered chef baking stone, it workes better than scrubbing I scrape off the grime in one streak usually! (also very useful for cleaning my new cast iron cookware). For draining bacon I am going to have to try using something other than papertowels, I have heard a paper grocery bag works well, or newspaper, but I am not sure I want my bacon on a newspaper? Maybe I can put a dishtowel on top of the paper.

Bathroom
Sorry to all the diehard environmentalists or super frugal sort, but I am keeping my toilet paper! I just can't give it up. But I can use cloth diapers on my youngest and I can find cloth wipes for him. I can also use the rag for swiffering the floor and cleaning the tub, mirrors, and window.

schoolwork
I homeschool so there is alot of paper 'stuff' that gets barely written on. I have started printing worksheets on the back of scrap paper and getting the kids to color on the backs of sheets instead of a new sheets. I can't get rid of it completly, unless I want to try the old fashioned slate or something! But I can reduce the amount used, and save on printing paper. I also found out my husbands work recycles paper so I am sending fully used sheets in with him, might not save me any money but it does make me feel environmentally better. I have heard you can turn scrap paper into proper compost, but so far I am a failure at composting!

what else?
So what am I missing? Where else do we use paper and how do I get rid of it?

[flash]

Great idea!

I assume newspapers and magazines are obvious. All info is available online or on news. You can buy just the weekend paper for coupons and sales. Audio books are great for the car, but I still think paper books are a must keep.

Tissue, well, you can go to hand kerchiefs. Female products, yes, they still sell "rags", which my mother always used, but I could not go there.

If you can find a way to ban the dozens of catalogs we seem to get by mail, let me know!

If you have a printer for internet coupons, you may be losing money. Many are available by mail, and the cost of TONER, not just paper, is an expense.

One idea for the kids stuff -- use colored pastel or other paper for their work, then put it through a shredder and use in a gift bag/basket instead of buying it.

Lunch bags? Do you recycle the store bags? They can be decorated to make gift bags (fill with paper, above). We use them to put the paper recycling in, otherwise the recyler won't pick it up.

[flash]

Oh, what about paper napkins? Plates/cups?

Our biggest paper nightmare is always the mail pile. We are trying to move more and more to online services, but pile still overflows!

[mjrube94]

Two ideas here: Tupperware for sandwhiches on the go, instead of ziploc baggies, and reuse junk mail envelopes for things like shopping lists (you can keep your coupons inside). I'm curious to see how this works for you. I think I'll try it out first of the year, too.

[baselle]

Bills and junk mail are big for me. What I've been doing is running the shredder and using shredded paper for Christmas packing.

Paper mache for the kids - you could become the pinata maker for the neighborhood!

Perky, are you using shredded (news)paper and do you have a worm bin? Those are the only tricks that I know of to compost paper.

[zakity]

We homeschool and we use small chalkboards that we got at the $ store. We don't use them for everything, but they do work to practice making letters when they are learning to write a letter. We also had a few small motor issues (slowly growing out of them!!) and it was alot more fun for him to write on the chalkboard than it was to write on a piece of paper. We also used a Magnadoodle for writing sometimes. I have heard of other homeschoolers using chalkboards and Magnadoodles for spelling tests, Madlibs, and as scorepads for games (yahtzee maybe or whatever).

I also contacted all my bills and went as paperless as possible. I get emails when the bills are due (only way I would go paperless with a bill so I didn't forget!).

[PrincessPerky]

Thanks for all the extra ideas!

We don't get newspaper or many magazines (just one as a gift). I am thinking of asking a neghbor for theirs though cause I heard it composts well. ANd it is definatly better for packing than plastic bags IMO.

Sorry gonna keep the female products for now (fortunatly being pregnant or nursing all the time I don't use much!), though I do go with a hankerchief sometimes. depending on if anyone has bought me klenex lately!

Catalogs, email the company and tell them to remove you and DONT buy anything from them! (buying automatically signs you up for them and several other companies)

We use alot of plastic containers for lunches and leftovers, I used to think I used pretty much all plastic, but I am using even less lately, and I want to make it still less (I freeze meat in ziplock, plus quick breads and such, need to work on that)

We are the oddest entertainers, we don't use paper for that either (course we also have small parties)

I need some worms, my yard could really use them, but I havn't been able to convice DH I wont kill them! he figures he doesn't want to spend money on worms, and I have no idea where to get them, sortof a summer project to figure out the compost if I can.

I have all my bills taken out automatically (cept the CC) and I still get a statement about it, not sure if it is possible to escape that or not (after all it is in my bank statement, and the same each month anyway)

I think I will have to help the kids make papermache soon, they would love it!

I might have to look into a wipe off board or chalk board for the kids they would think it was fun and still get the practice in.

[jodi]

I "opted out" of the junk mail - I don't know the number off the top of my head, but you call to opt out of receiving offers, etc. through the mail. It has really reduced the amount of stuff I get. DH still gets cc offers at least 2-3 times per week, but I get nothing...the only thing it does not affect is the donation requests, which I still get a ton of.
I keep a pile of small washclothes next to the sink for my boys after meals instead of using napkins - just wet them, use them (good for wiping up small spills on the table or booster seats) then throw them right into the washer for whenever I do the next load.
As far as the feminine needs go, I have heard of people using the "keeper", but I'm not ready to make that leap either! (sorry guys!)
Here's an area where we waste - Dixie cups in the bathroom. Even more of a waste when we have a plastic cup sitting right there, but we usually just grab a paper cup for ds if he wakes up in the night, then toss it. I guess we'll have to work on that one!
Great post!

[baselle]

Originally Posted by PrincessPerky

Thanks for all the extra ideas!

I need some worms, my yard could really use them, but I havn't been able to convice DH I wont kill them! he figures he doesn't want to spend money on worms, and I have no idea where to get them, sortof a summer project to figure out the compost if I can.

Red worms are your typical denizens of a worm box. All you needs a few. Heck, you can cut the big ones in half and double the population that way. Not sure if they grow to nightcrawler/fishing lure size. If they are, it might be enough of a side benefit for DH.

Here's a quickie google search for red worms:
http://www.cityfarmer.org/wormsupl79.html
Its Canadian, but they have US suppliers at the bottom.

[PrincessPerky]

DH doesn't fish, but thanks for the link, mail order will save him a trip, a bonus to us both!

[flash]

A good, simple PDF on composting from the famous Longwood Garden idea garden:

Odd as it seems, newspaper is often used for landscaping large areas. Put it down on the area you want to convert into a bed in the fall/winter, and the area will be ready for planting in spring (grass and weeds die off without air and the paper breaks down and fertilizes the ground). Never done it, but it's fairly popular so I'm sure there are articles.

Magazines are great for collage! Teachers use them to teach vocabulary, relationship of words and pictures, self-expression, etc. Art, too.

If you get the 101 donation requests, kids love the stickers, and the address labels can also be cut into stickers. Our schools take them for art projects. Heavy paper can also be cut/recycled into bookmarks, cover with stickers, or paper mache.

What a fun project!

I'd think about the trade-off in paper cups in the bathroom, unless you have room for everyone to have their own cup. Colds are more expensive than paper cups!

Neat idea! Do you have a guess at the cost difference between not buying paper and doing the extra wash?

[PrincessPerky]

My two are young, so they will share the germs no matter what I do, I don't mind the cup sharing and I know they share their milk cups anyway!) (I use my hand, no way am I sharing their germs!) Oh the 'cup' I use is a old yogurt container, recycled, and when I want I can toss it out and grab a new one (though now that we make our own yogurt I may eventually run out.)

Thanks for the links, I will check them out and hopefully get the compost thing working this spring.

[jodi]

No extra cost as far as I can see for using the washclothes. I only do them when I am doing a load of laundry anyway, and usually only 3-4 per load (they are the small baby washclothes, so they don't take up any room). All of my washclothes were received as gifts for my baby shower, and I still have several unopened packages left. They may stain, but who cares? They are very durable and have been washed over and over.

[flash]

Originally Posted by PrincessPerky

My two are young, so they will share the germs no matter what I do, I don't mind the cup sharing and I know they share their milk cups anyway!) (I use my hand, no way am I sharing their germs!) Oh the 'cup' I use is a old yogurt container, recycled, and when I want I can toss it out and grab a new one (though now that we make our own yogurt I may eventually run out.)

Thanks for the links, I will check them out and hopefully get the compost thing working this spring.

My bathroom cups are from my childhood - those little glass jars phili used to put olive/pimento cheese spreads in. 40 years and still going! I like the yogurt cup idea. We reuse water bottles for everything, including water.

[shadon]

I have a "No Junk Mail" sticker on my mail box which prevents 99% of junk mail. I look on my supermarkets website for their specials which come out every Monday which is the day I grocery shop.

I use the "Reply Paid" envelopes from advertising junk mail to send their junk mail back to them. If a letter is addressed to me and I recognise it as advertising rubbish before I open it I will cross out my address and write "Return to Sender, Not known at this address" in the hope that they take me off their mailing list (I started this practice beacuse when I used to work at the Tax Office, any returned mail would see that an indicator was placed on the client's account stopping any further mail from going to that address until recieved an updated address-hoping the same principal applies with other companies).

[cercis]

Don't cut worms in half. That's a myth. If you do it right, you might end up with one worm which will heal and half that will decompose, but you won't end up with 2 worms.

Back to the topic at hand ...

In college I used a white-board (marker board) for my calculus homework. I struggled with the simple algebra (yes, I can do calculus and not "simple algebra"), having the marker board to struggle on helped save a ton of paper. It was nice too, I could take it down the hall to the math tutor for help.

[Fern]

Originally Posted by baselle

Bills and junk mail are big for me. What I've been doing is running the shredder and using shredded paper for Christmas packing.

Paper mache for the kids - you could become the pinata maker for the neighborhood!

Perky, are you using shredded (news)paper and do you have a worm bin? Those are the only tricks that I know of to compost paper.

I hate the thought of just dumping junk mail into the waste stream, so I:
1. Call various catalog companies and ask them to take my name off their mail list.

2. Sign up online for the no junk mail list.

3. the post office has special blue containers to accept back junk mail they send to you, which they recycle. I have a special box where i dump my junkmail (tearing up any with sensitive information) and once a month or so bring it to the post office.

[Fern]

I have saved tons of money in not having to buy paper for my home printer.

Twice now my employer has moved its officees. What do you think happens to all stationery and envelopes? They throw it away cus they need to make up new stationery with the new address. No one elses ever seems to want the stuff, but wiht the stationery, i just use the back side to print on; most of my printing at home is not stuff you have to send to anyone, it's just for your own use, so this doesn't matter.

I took all the old stationery from one employer about 10 years ago and believe it or not, am still using it. When my current employer moved my office 2 years ago, i took about 10 full boxes of perfectly good letterhead stationery and as many envelopes. needless to say, they'll lst me for years.

oh, this isn't paper, but dont' forget about used printer ink cartridges. office depot and i'm sure others will take your used ink cartridge for recyling and give you a FREE ream of paper!

[chrysnblue]

With magazine subscriptions that you've recieved as gifts, etc you can send them to soldiers. They've already been printed and instead of throwing in trash, can be reused again and again. They really do read them. Also good at reirement homes, hospitals, etc.

[FrugalTexan75]

One way I am saving on paper is by doing Weight Watcher's Online. My food/exercise journal, lists of foods and point values, etc. are all online. I post my food journal everyday in a thread on a fitness forum, so even if I stop paying for the Online, I will still have access to my past food/exercise logs. This saves a lot of paper, because if I was going to the meetings, I'd be getting the starter kit with a bunch of pamphlets, and a paper food journal every week.