Rethink How You Host
- Rachel Thompson
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Lately, we’ve had the opportunity to host several group gatherings at our house for various reasons. Sometimes it’s simple weekend fellowship with our friends and their kids. Sometimes it’s our family members in town to celebrate a birthday. Sometimes it’s a shower in honor of a wedding or a new birth.
It’s a gift to have a home that we can open and to have people who will fill it. But also, these gatherings seem to be contributing too considerably to our landfill.
A couple changes I’ve made in the last month or so include purchasing reusable products to be used during our parties (keep reading for more info) and reusable cleaning products to help me prepare for them (look for a future post on this).
Reusable Napkins
After a party, check out your trash can. I think you’ll notice, like ours, it’s filled to the brim with used napkins, used plates, used cups, and used flatware. Now, I get it: it’s not fun to have a mountain of dishes to wash after cleaning and prepping and hosting. You’re exhausted, and it’s nice—and off your plate—to have your guests use something you don’t have to fool with after they leave.
However.
Our landfills do have to fool with our used plates and napkins and cups along with all of yours, and your neighbors’, and all their neighbors’, and . . . you get the idea.
So can I encourage you to consider switching at least one of these items for a reusable product before your next gathering? At our house, I purchased cloth napkins for our dining table.
I have enough for our family and a few more, and we’ve made the switch to using them during our weeknight family dinners* as well as during extended family meals. I don’t have enough (yet) for a large group, but progress is progress. 😊
Reusable Dishware
I also purchased a pack of wheat straw plates by Homienly. Here’s what I love about these:
Dishwasher safe
Microwave safe
Freezer safe
BPA & toxin free
Plus, at the end of their life (which will be a while—they're quite durable), they’re biodegradable and compostable! Although bamboo plates might be an even smarter option (compare wheat straw to bamboo here), I think either is better than a stack of paper plates in my trash.
I purchased an eight-plate “deep dinner” set with lipped edges so they could hold sauces and dips without spilling. But Homienly (and other brands) offers a variety of other shapes and products—including flatware and cups and bowls. My plan is to purchase these items slowly so that, over time, I won’t need to purchase any more of their throw-away counterparts.
Oh, and one last thing—these are actually better than paper plates in some ways. Yes, you’ll have to wash them (not by hand though!), but you know what you won’t have to wash? Your carpet. Or your couch. Or any other place where spills happened because guests were trying to balance their food on a paper plate. So that’s a little bonus, besides all the good you’re doing for your landfill.💛
*I encourage you to purchase enough so each member of your family has a napkin for at least two nights in a row. This translates into washing them every other day or so.
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