When the 2020 pandemic of COVID-19 first made headlines, I expected it to impact our lives. I did not foresee or understand the toilet paper shortage of March, 2020. In times of uncertainty or when facing an unforeseen global crisis, we can either panic or lean in. My household chose the latter, and re-evaluated our disposable paper usage, which led us to drastically reduce paper waste and save on some of our monthly expenses.
This wasn’t how I thought that change would go down.
Sure, I had visions of our household embracing greener habits and lowering our waste, years from now, by reducing electricity, harvesting rainwater, growing a vegetable garden and biking almost everywhere. But I did not foresee our choice to reduce paper waste being born out of necessity in the paper goods aisle of Walmart, masked up, staring at completely empty shelves.
After we completed that grocery trip, my partner searched online for bidets and we took stock of our reliance on paper products.
The whole “hoarding-of-toilet-paper” thing was so absurd!
Months later, I’m really glad we took that opportunity to re-evaluate our single-use paper consumption habits. I always knew there was an opportunity to reduce paper waste, but never realized how many disposable paper products we used. Reducing paper waste was a struggle at first and, like any habit, took some getting used to. But now our choice to not default to disposable paper is automatic.
And we’re saving some cash too. No more monthly toilet paper, paper towel, or tissue paper purchases. It might not seem like much, but this stuff adds up. And every dollar I save is a dollar I get to invest and turn into cash flow.
We can all agree, cash flow is good.
Want to cut down on paper waste, reduce your carbon footprint, help the environment, and save some cash?
Here are some tips.
Identify Disposable Paper Products
Shortly after our disappointing shopping trip, my partner and I sat down at the kitchen table to compile a list of our paper products and discuss what we could cut down on over the next week.
These are the items we identified:
Toilet Paper: Obvious, but worth mentioning here.
Paper Towels: We didn’t feel like we used a ton, but always had a few rolls in the pantry, and felt helpless when we ran out.
Tissues: As a mild allergy sufferer, boxes of tissues are a staple in our household. During an illness or, help us all, a sinus infection, I can go through one of these boxes in only a few days.
Paper Plates: These are rarely used, but still in our pantry for large gatherings and general laziness.
Cotton Balls: Typically reserved for nail polish removal, I keep a bag of these under the bathroom sink.
Spiral Notebooks & Sticky Notes: This one hit me hard. I am a writer of lists, plans, journal entries, and stories. I have one notebook for a journal, one small notebook for to-do lists, and an even smaller notebook for grocery and shopping lists. Oh, and the sticky notes. Essential for the to-do items before they make it into the official small notebook.
Identify Sustainable Replacements for Disposable Paper Products
This wasn’t as difficult as I imagined. I found that it helped tremendously to look back at what my grandparents did before disposable products became ubiquitous.
Toilet Paper: As mentioned, our household invested in a toilet with a built-in bidet. This was, by far, our most expensive “paperless” investment. But absolutely worth it. Sure, it takes a bit of getting used to, but now that I’m used to it, I feel almost barbaric using toilet paper when away from home – “What do you mean you want me to use paper and smear this stuff away!?!”
A bidet is much more hygienic, and eco-friendly. And, frankly, you’re a lot cleaner after washing away poo with a stream of water than you are smearing it around with toilet paper.
Just sayin’.
One thing I did not care for was the “dryer.” I guess it’s fine, but I never felt completely dry after the 90-second cycle. My solution? I bought some affordable microfiber cleaning cloths in two colors. One for the “front,” and one for the “back.” I throw them in the wash with a bit of bleach as needed. Works like a charm.
Paper Towels: After some consideration, I realized our reliance on paper towels centered around a few different needs:
- Napkins at the table. I’m a messy eater, and hate messy hands. My paper towel usage at the dining table was just unnecessary.
- Cleaning in the kitchen and bathroom. Rather than use a rag, I just reached over to the paper towels and cleaned counters, mirrors, etc. with those. It felt more hygienic. And it was just convenient since I always had a roll of these on the kitchen counter.
- Eating food on-the-go. This is similar to napkins at the table. If I wanted to eat an apple while sitting outside, I grabbed a paper towel.
After identifying these specific needs, switching to sustainable goods was easy. I purchased a very cheap set of cloth napkins online. That took care of napkins at the dining table, and food on-the-go. For household cleaning, we already had a bag of rags, most of which were old towels or wash rags that had seen better days. I simply made these more accessible and removed the paper towels.
After about a week, I didn’t miss paper towels at all.
Tissues: To address this one, I looked back to my grandfather blowing his nose (very loudly) into a handkerchief. So, along with my cheap set of napkins, I also purchased a cheap set of white handkerchiefs.
I keep the napkins and handkerchiefs in a shoe box tucked away in the kitchen, and have a few handkerchiefs stashed away in helpful places. One in the car, one in my purse, one in my fanny pack (I know, not sexy, but convenient for running), and one next to my favorite spot on the couch.
This conversion took a bit longer for me to get used to, simply because I’ve had allergies for most of my life, and it’s such a habit to reach for a disposable tissue. However, now that I’m a convert, I prefer cloth handkerchiefs. They are much sturdier. In a pinch, an unused handkerchief can double as a napkin. And my nose is never raw after using one. I’m a cloth handkerchief convert, for sure!
I wash the handkerchiefs, napkins and cleaning rags with a touch of bleach as needed.
Paper Plates: Upon speculation, we realized our paper plates were on hand for large gatherings since we only had four dinner plates, which is all we typically need. So, in the spirit of reducing paper waste, we procured some additional plates and bowls at a thrift store. Now we have plenty of extra dishes for company.
Cotton Balls: This one stumped me more than it should have. I kept racking my brain about what to use instead of a cotton ball. Then I realized that the pile of rags we used to clean the house would also work great to clean off old nail polish. So what if they get stained? That’s what they’re there for. Problem solved.
Spiral Notebooks & Sticky Notes: Not gonna lie, I resist this one. I love my notebooks. I’m a collector. I have a special kind of notebook for every kind of writing. That said, I do recognize the waste. So I’ve scaled back. I’m converting my to-do, grocery, and shopping lists to digital versions, which has the added benefit of being easy to share with my partner. As far as my story writing goes, I still prefer to brainstorm on good ol’ analog paper. Maybe one day I’ll go 100% digital. But I gave up toilet paper, so I’m keeping a few spiral notebooks!
Cost Savings
Does this all actually save you any cash? The answer is, yes… eventually.
| Annual Disposable Cost | One-Time Sustainable Cost | Pays for Itself in… | |
| Toilet Paper | $50 | $750 | 15 years |
| Paper Towels | $85 | $20 | 1 year |
| Tissues | $42 | $10 | 1 year |
| Paper Plates | $12 | $10 | 1 year |
| Cotton Balls | $20 | $0 | 1 year |
| Notebooks | $40 | $0 (no more new notebooks) | 1 year |
As you can see, eliminating toilet paper was our biggest hit financially. That’s because we chose a good toilet with an attached bidet that was over $700. The microfiber cloths were about $12. There are definitely cheaper toilet options that would pay off much sooner, but we felt like this option was the best one for us.
Everything else pays for itself within the first year. Some of these changes are free if you have some old rags lying around and are willing to use a digital app instead of analog pen and paper. The cost savings won’t build your financial independence nest egg overnight, but every bit of savings helps the bottom line, and strengthens your anti-consumerism muscle.
Overall these changes took less than a month to implement and get used to. I feel good about being able to reduce paper waste and save just a touch of money every year. Sometimes, building a life that’s just one percent better everyday isn’t just about making your life better. It’s about making our planet a better place to live.