Following this addition I opened my ETSY shop: ClothOnOsborne.ETSY.com
This was purely an experiment to see if I could sell my organic cloth wipes in the larger marketplace. I was soon able to add wet bags to my list of custom made items and the business grew in leaps and bounds (to the point where I had to ask my mother to help me with the sewing!).
How does one maintain a full time job, life with a 5 year old, being married to a man who has just undertaken a HUGE new venture himself (theEdgeHalfmoon.com) and a business on the side? Yes, I spend just about every minute of my free time sewing! Thankfully I really enjoy it, and am able to pay for my hobby by selling my products to others. I even make a small profit which I’m able to donate to the non-profit of my choice. What a blessing!
So if you haven’t visited my shop, feel free to stop by and look at the assortment of products I am now making. Let me discuss my newest creation, the kitchen wet bag.
As many of you may know, I am no longer cloth diapering. My daughter has been out of diapers for almost three years now and I don’t have the heart to put my chickens in cloth (although I admit I have thought about it- crazy, I know!). I recently heard a news story on a local radio station talking about a family who spent a year traveling in an RV. When they returned they came up with a list of 10 things that they could live without.
I can’t remember much of what was on the list, but the one that stuck with me was paper towels. I think because at the time I was out of paper towels and wondering when I was going to get to the store to get some. Solution: live without them!
I was then reminded of something I saw recently in my ETSY browsing. Un-Paper Towels. WHAT!? I remember thinking, this is stupid, these are what we call rags in my house. Why do they need a special name? Well, I admit: the idea is pretty clever.
What is an un-paper towel? It is basically a cloth that is roughly the size of a paper towel, sometimes 1-ply, sometimes 2-ply. The fanciest un-paper towels have snaps on both ends so that you can snap the towels together and store them on a paper towel roll holder. Brilliant! These towels can be tossed in the wash and used again and again.
What does this have to do with me? Well I have plenty of cloth rags around my house as well as a bunch of “seconds” cloth wipes. The problem is making the use of these more efficient. I find that the inconvenience of using the rag is not finding a rag and using it, but getting rid of it after it’s been used. This is where I come in. I admit this is not a new idea, but it has made the use of un-paper towels a reality in my house. The kitchen wet bag!
This is basically a wet bag, the same materials and construction that go into a wet bag for diapers, but it has two straps on the back that can be snapped around a bar. Example: below is a picture of my kitchen wet bag hanging from the freezer door bar handle(we have a bottom drawer freezer in our kitchen).
Here is a picture of my kitchen wet bag, full of cloth towels.
I can’t say that un-paper towels and a kitchen wet bag are for everyone (when I told my mom about it she didn’t think it was so brilliant), but for those seeking a greener solution this may be a great thing. I also want to mention that part of the dread of buying paper towels was the cost. Really? $2 per roll?! Perhaps this will also encourage you to make the switch!
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