Paper-Free Kitchen

Yep, you read that right, for about a week now the Orthner kitchen has no paper products.

I read about a friend doing this on Facebook and at first I thought it was crazy and not worth it. But the more I thought about it the more I like the notion. I took all my saved up coupons to Bed Bath and Beyond and  created an easy system for all my family to follow.

Black=napkins
White=floor messes or super messy table messes...aka spilled yogurt like we had this morning
Colorful=hand towel/dish towel

I currently have the basket on the counter top so that we get used to grabbing for these clothes like we did paper towels  Hopefully I can move it one day into a cabinet!

Why did I choose the categories above?

Napkins are obvious, we need a small hand size cloth to clean our hands while we eat. But I needed to differentiate between hand/dish towel and floor messes. I want to know when I pick up a colorful cloth to dry my dishes that it has not cleaned up the floor.

So my family knows, the black napkins go straight to the washing machine after a meal, the white floor clothes go directly to the washing machine after use and the colorful dish towel gets changed every other day.

I just throw the clothes on the bottom of my washing machine and they sit there until a load of wash is done. A few clothes doesn't effect the size of your load, so I will just have a few to fold with each load, so there isn't much extra work with the laundry.

It feels good to do my part to save money in the long run while helping the environment. You may think there is no way your family can do this, but really if we can, so can you!

Fun with Fiesta

So I have to tell you about my dishes that I LOVE! My MIL introduced them to me (thanks Kim!) and I am so glad she did. I still get excited about them everyday that I use them. If you are looking to update your dishes, look into buying Fiesta.

 

If you don’t know what Fiesta is, it is high quality everyday china that comes in several colors, like over 20. I have chosen six different colors to mix and match and I have yet to get tired of it, years later.

 

Here is my cabinet of colorful fun!

 

And since I took the cabinet pictures after dinner, I had to snap a couple pictures of the dishwasher. They even make the dishwasher pretty!

Now here is where the real fun is for me. See if you can tell what I like to do…Karl has never noticed that I do this, I finally pointed it out to him today.

 

Did you get it? I like to match my food to the dish. Makes a bowl of peas more exciting to me.

 

FYI: this dinner pictured is Reese’s night to cook. She STILL chooses pancakes every week. I don’t mind a breakfast dinner though because my girls love it!

 

I was thinking of adding a 7th color to the mix…a deep purple. What do you think?