Ditching Disposables

I have been thinking a lot lately about all of the disposable products we use everyday. Things like paper napkins and paper plates are things that you don't usually spend too much time thinking about, but with gas at $4 + a gallon and food prices going up I thought it was time to reevaluate the type of things that we (literally) throw our money away on.

Disposal products you will find in my house currently:

1. Paper Napkins
2. Paper Plates
3. Small Paper Bathroom Cups
4. Tissues
5. Toilet Paper
6. Paper Towels

We are currently experimenting with cloth napkins and so far it is going well. I am not doing extra laundry and we have not run out of cloth, so I think I can say that we have eliminated #1.

We have 12 place settings of our everyday dishes and we run the dishwasher about 2x a week. Unless we are having a party or a BBQ there is no need to keep paper plates on hand at all times, so I think we can eliminate #2.

#3 is a sticking point for me. It just seems to be more hygienic, but I am the only one who uses a cup in the bathroom so I would only be sharing my germs with myself. I think #3 can go.

I am not getting rid of #4 and #5. I know that there are handkerchiefs, but this is a hygiene issue and tissues and TP are here to stay in my house.

#6 I deem a necessity. We have a baby and 2 large dogs in our house. All of which occasionally make messes I would not want to clean up with anything reusable. For anyone who has has to clean poop off of a carpet you understand completely.

So that means that we can stop buying 3 of the 6 disposable products we currently use with little to no impact to our daily lives. This means less money thrown away and also less impact on the environment (I hope).

What disposable products can you not live without? What have you eliminated from your lives and why?