An Eco Friendly Alternative to Wrapping Paper and Gift Bags

I should have posted this earlier and I apologize. My friend Sarah had the greatest idea this year. She offered hand sewn gift bags for the holidays. At just $4 a bag, who can pass up this economical and eco-friendly packaging solution? I am Jewish so mine are Hanukkah bags, but most of them were for Christmas. Her address is imamamadiapers@yahoo.com and she just informed me that she is making Valentine bags.






Other ways I reduce during the holiday season are by:
~Re-using gift bags, tissue paper and boxes for years. Literally until they break. Then I recycle them.
~An old Hershey tradition is to not sign cards. My grandmother, May Hershey, always gives the presentee blank cards with their gifts. She does this to be frugal but the tradition stuck and my whole family attaches blank cards so that they can be re-used.
~At my house we always recycle wrapping paper. I was surprised to find out that a lot of people didn't know that it was recyclable.
~Lastly, I always make presents. Well that's not totally true, gifts to my family are comprised of things that my kids made. That way, we get to use all those lovely things they make in school and my family is overjoyed to receive kid art.

However you celebrate the holidays, please be on the lookout for ways to reduce your carbon footprint.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

How did people wipe their butts before toilet paper?

I have been thinking about what I can do about the excessive toilet paper use in my house. With 6 kids and my nephew here 5 days a week, we go through at least a roll every other day. One of my girls-who will remain nameless-believes that her butt is never clean enough and therefore uses half a roll wiping herself. I finally told her to go get a washcloth and wash her butt after she pooped. That is working for now.

The bigger problem is the actual waste of resources and money. I am convinced that toilet paper is bad for the septic system, our bodies and the planet. So I did a little digging...

An obvious drawback to toilet paper is an issue that I am passionate about in regards to disposable diapers and it never occurred to me that it pertained to toilet paper, derrrrrrrrrr. DIOXIN!!!!!!!!! Dioxins cause cancer, learning disorders, decreased immune response, diabetes and all sorts of other nasty problems in the environment.

Sometimes I am so dingy I swear.

As I was searching online for banana leaves or something equally "safe" to wipe our butts on I learned that 424,000 trees would be spared by replacing a 500-sheet roll of virgin fiber toilet paper with recycled toilet paper.


When shopping for earth friendly toilet paper look for statements such as "unbleached", "processed chlorine-free" or "totally chlorine free" otherwise they might slip some dioxin in on the down low.

This is all great and informative but I want to know what alternatives we have to toilet paper. Seriously, how gross is it to keep stacks of rags in the bathroom and just throw them in the diaper pail after using them? I could handle it. The kids could get used to it. Chuck would grump but he'd come around. What would guests think? Do I care? Hmmmmmmmmmmm.....

I am going to do a little experiment. When I switched my family from paper towels and napkins to cloth, I just said we ran out and use a rag. They are now so used to rags as napkins and paper towels that no one has asked in months when I am going to purchase some paper ones. I wonder if I can pull the same trick with toilet paper.

I am going to try, stay tuned for an update.