How to gradually adopt a paperless lifestyle in your home

by Lia Belle on February 19, 2015 with No Comments

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I have always been fascinated with, interested in and drawn to both green and paperless lifestyles. I have been adopting the green lifestyle – in the way I know how, for years. Now, it is about time for me to adopt a paperless lifestyle as well.

I have been googling around about the whole concept of this paperless lifestyle for months. I have read a lot of blogs with great ideas, tips and tricks that I have found very useful and inspiring – some of them are (almost) intimidating.

I believe that “paperless” simply means “using less paper” and not necessary “using no paper at all” – at least not all at once. So, I have decided for myself that I am going to adopt the paperless lifestyle gradually rather than all at once.

These are the steps and rules that I have set and followed so far myself with the paperless lifestyle in my own home:

1. Decide why I want to adopt this paperless lifestyle

My reasons are plain and simple: I want to make my own environmental contribution and to organize my household a lot easier and more affordable.

2. Decide what area to go paperless first

I am not yet ready to go paperless in terms of using washable cloth menstrual pads and or reusable cloth toilet papers for my (very) personal hygiene. I am, however, ready and willing to use washable cleaning cloths in and round the house.

3. Decide what to use to go paperless

Tissue paper, kitchen towels, napkins and – whatever else they are called, are made for our convenience. They’re not easy to ignore because I used them daily. So, after googling for options out there, I decided that I wanted to use AmazonBasics Microfiber Cleaning Cloth to go paperless with.

4. Decide how to categorize the cleaning cloths

These AmazonBasics Microfiber Cleaning Cloths are non-abrasive, ultra soft, cheap and absorb eight times their own weight. Each pack of 24, 36, 48 and 144 comes with three different towel colors: blue, yellow and white, which is convenient to categorize according to their colors and uses.

For instance, I use the yellow collored cloths for cleaning in and around the house except the kitchen. The blue colored cloths are used for cleaning and other uses in the kitchen, and the white colored cloths are used to replace the tissue paper.

In addition, I used ladies cotton handkerchiefs that are similar to these Boxed Fancy 6 pc. Ladies Cotton Handkerchiefs for my “tissues to go”. The AmazonBasics Microfiber Cleaning Cloths are great for daily use in and around the house but they are slightly too thick for outdoors.

Because of the fact that I use the white colored cloths as my tissue paper’s replacement so, I store them in my three polka dot tissue boxes. I place one tissue box in the bedroom, the other one in the living room and the last one in my home office.

I really like these polka dot tissue boxes because they are made of fabric, light weight and absolutely washable. I am not such an expert in DIY, so I bought them from AliExpress.com (Free shipping).

In short, adopting a paperless lifestyle is still in progress but it is a great, eye-opening and challenging progress. And frankly, I have grown accustomed to it each and every day.

How about you? Are you adopting a paperless lifestyle as well? How have you experienced it so far? Let me know in the comment section below. Thank you!

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