Tree-Free Home: #3 Wipe Boards and Laminated Pages

I use wipe boards and dry-erase markers a lot around the house rather than pads of paper. I have a wipe board calendar like this one:, and another larger wipe board to keep track of things like meals (though that one gets used by the boys more often as a drawing board). The calendar is great, as I can add the next month as I manage to make it through this month. That way I almost always have 4 weeks ahead of me visible on the board. I have things that happen every week, like gymnastics, in permenent marker. Permenant marker will come off if you color over it with dry-erase markers and then wipe it off.


While I generally don't like to have plastic in the house, I do have a couple exceptions. I have a notebook that I keep household stuff in, like additional calendar pages, grocery lists, budgets and stuff. Most of these pages I have laminated, so I can use dry-erase markers on and they can be used repeatedly.

I found my laminator (this one:) at Wal-mart and got a box of the laminating pouches there as well.

The grocery lists are one of my better ideas. I made a list of the things that we buy on a reasonably regular basis and then I can just mark the things that I need as I run out of them. I have the list organized according to the store that I usually go to, so it's easy as I shop, and I'm not making multiple trips down the same aisle. I also have one for my food storage. It lists the items that I want to have supplies of and how much I want of each item. As I buy them, I mark off how many I have, as I use them, I erase the marks. This tells me I have so many cans of refried beans and need this many more. Then, when it's on sale, I stock up.

I have household chore lists around the house that are laminated so I can keep track of when stuff was done last. Since we have Heather here, there are three of us doing chores. I don't always remember when someone last changed the sheets or cleaned the carpets or washed the windows. I have blank sheets with each person's name at the top of Daddy and Mommy Do lists that can be added to and wiped off when we finished projects (or given up on them). It helps us have a single place to write everything down, rather than having lots of scraps of paper running around the house. Blank laminated sheets are great for scrap paper. I can figure out how many yards of this fabric I need for that project or how much food I need to feed all the people coming to dinner on Friday.

I have also used the laminator to laminate pages for Autie to practice writing his letters and numbers. Again, they're great because they're reusable. I'll be able to use them for both the boys and the girls, rather than having to print of multiple sheets for each child.

The laminator was a good deal for me as it helps me save LOTS of paper.