Replacement Rules

As we run out of things around the house, I am trying to make an effort to find a better replacement before just going out and purchasing more of what we ran out of. For example, we only have a few rolls of our wholesale club sized paper towels left. I really don't want to continue using paper towels in excess, so I bought a 10-pack of microfiber towels instead. So far, the issue I have with them is that they can't be put in a dryer with dryer sheets. We have a dryer bar stuck to the inside of our dryer, and one of my self-imposed "rules" in this whole project is that I won't throw something out just to purchase a better replacement. I already spent the money on it. I think I can take the bar out and just dry those towels by themselves, but why not just air dry? That is on my agenda for today.

Speaking of laundry, I am almost out of our laundry detergent. We use ALL free & clear, so it's not that harsh to begin with, but I wanted to try something even better. While I have never used a powder detergent, I went ahead and ordered this from Amazon. I'm oddly looking forward to doing next week's laundry. (But only a little bit...N reads this blog and we don't want him getting the wrong idea now.)

I am also out of Ziploc sandwich bags, and while I try to use reusable Rubbermaid containers for a lot of things anyway, I definitely still use way too many Ziploc. I've been browsing and trying to decide on which reusable Ziploc-type bags I want to purchase. I'll update you when I make my final decision!

A couple of weeks ago, I bought Seventh Generation's bathroom cleaner and all-purpose cleaner. I didn't even know my grocery store sold them until I was on a specific mission to find them. They are on the side of the aisle opposite from the standard cleaners, and I just never looked over there before. I've been really pleased with the efficacy of both, and the bathroom smells like herbs after a good scrub as opposed to chemicals. You really can't beat it! And I feel better about putting those 2 cute hineys in that bathtub when I know it's not still covered in chemicals that didn't rinse off well enough.

In the future, I plan to try making my own cleaners, but for now, I really prefer these to the standard cleaners. They were about 30 cents more per bottle, which really isn't much.