If your hunt for toilet paper and paper towels has turned up only "Currently Unavailable" at every online store you've shopped, maybe now is the moment to green your home with reusables? Buy once, wash, use again.
When your stores of paper products run dry, there is no need to panic. Just do a load of laundry.
Everything — except convenience, maybe — is better about reusables. Better for the planet, cheaper in the long run, less trash, and more pleasant to use. And you're supporting a home business, rather than a mega corporation.
Here are some terrific replacement products for everything you are running out of.
Bees and flowers make a pretty dinnertime napkin.
You'll never miss the paper napkins once you convert to cloth. Cloth napkins add grace, beauty, and a better tactile experience to every meal. You don't have to wash them every day, either. Let each member of the family choose a napkin and decide when it needs to be washed.
These farmhouse napkins ($18.95 for four) go from breakfast to lunch to dinner beautifully. And you never have to worry about running out of them.
They are cotton, so they will get softer every time you wash them.
Convert your diaper system to cloth.
This diaper shortage does not have to cause panic. It's an opportunity to green the entire system, create less waste, and cute up that baby bum with these adorable Eco Friendly Reusable Pocket Cloth Diapers.
These Nubunz diapers ($5) are so cleverly designed that they fit babies from 8 to 36 pounds. So you will never run out of diapers. Just wash and use them again.
Give up on paper towels. Unpaper is better.
Paper towels are impossible to find right now. They are also terrible for the environment, producing 254 million tons of trash every year.
These Unpaper Towels ($32 for 12) are an upgrade. They are pretty, absorbent cotton, and never run out.
Yes, you can get toilet "paper."
Toilet paper is wildly convenient, there's no doubt about it. People's fear and panic is so attached to going without this convenience that it has led to a widespread shortage during these frightening times.
But you can let go of that convenience and go back to a time when we didn't flush 27,000 trees down the toilet every day.
Get a bidet and some Reusable Toilet Paper ($13 for 12) and you'll not only save trees, reduce waste and pollution, and save water (it takes 37 gallons of water to manufacture one roll of TP) but also save your own money. Lots of it. (A family of four spends $1,200 a year on TP.)
Also? This system will get your hiney shiny clean like TP can't. Enjoy it! You'll never go back.
Cloth menstrual pads brighten a bad day.
Everything is going to hell in a handbasket right now. Then you get your period and can't get pads. Turn this awful situation into an always-available moment of self-care for all future days like this.
Soft bamboo and cotton menstrual pads ($8.50 for a 7-inch pantyliner) are adorned with galaxies and offer a softer, guilt-free respite from disposable pads. They are pretty. They feel nice. They are always there, even if you don't feel like braving the apocalypse to go to the store.
They come in every size and shape the disposable ones do. And you don't have to leave the house to get them.
Psst: If you choose to purchase an item from this post, CafeMom may receive a small cut. Each item and price is up to date at the time of publication; however, an item may be sold out or the price may be different at a later date.
