Friday, November 6, 2009

Papery Towelry Goodness (or the WYCD Challenge - Jessica-style)

So this week began the On the Leesh challenge. Working on What You Can Do has already made me much more conscious of my impact on the environment. Since its inception I have begun to monitor and curtail my consumption and waste habits. And I have been much better. By simply turning my attention to my daily habits it has been easy to make simple changes to reduce my carbon footprint. For instance, I try to always bring canvas bags to the grocery store. I make sure to run the dishwasher only when its full, and I have been donating many things around the house that I no longer use. But with the official kick off yesterday - I was forced to confront the skeleton in my closet-my global warming nemesis- the big bad of my environmental wear and tear: the paper towel.
Oh how I love a paper towel. I love its absorbent goodness, and its multifaceted purpose in my house.
Spill anything? Paper towel. Need to quickly wipe Scout's paws? Paper Towel. Not sure what that weird thing is on the floor of the kitchen? 3 paper towels! And so on November 1 I was forced to finally have a paper towel intervention.The only way through this was to remove the temptation from easy grasp. So I went downstairs to our storage unit and locked my stash away for the remainder of the month. I instantly regretted it. I was cooking that day and I have never been able to make an apple pie without a massive artillery of paper towel back up. I considered cheating- 'oh gosh! I had no idea today was November 1st!'. I considered bargaining - 'well since we turned the clocks back I have an extra hour of paper towel usage!' And I considered outright lying. 'Oh God, paper towels? Never use them.'
But instead I buckled down and got to it. And it was challenging. When the flour went everywhere -as it always does- the clean up consisted of a dustpan and broom. When I managed to spread sugar and apple over every available service- I turned to a dishrag. All in all, I was successful but it made me realize the full force of my paper towel habit. Hopefully as the month goes on it will get easier. But for now I better hide the key to that storage unit.

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