How Paper Straws Save My Sanity. Read now or Pin for Later. - Health Happens at Home

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I've mentioned before that I hate washing dishes! Overall, I try to live environmentally conscious, but there are some compromises I make to minimize the number of dishes I wash, which makes my life easier!

We enjoy smoothies regularly at our house. It's a great way to get some fruits and vegetables into my family (Check out my recipes here and here). My kids also drink kefir (a.k.a. "drinking yogurt" at my house) to get some inexpensive probiotics. According to my children, smoothies and kefir taste much better with straws! And straws are NOT fun to wash! We have some reusable straws like these:

The problem with reusable straws are that they are really difficult to clean. In my house, almost all dishes go into the dishwasher and these types of straws are difficult to keep upright to truly get cleaned out. They do make straw cleaners, like these, but am I really going to go through that step after every use?!

The crunchy part of me almost purchased these cool reusable straws:

But then I remembered once again how I hate washing dishes, so for now I have resigned myself to purchasing cute disposable paper straws. I give them to my kids in Christmas stockings, Easter baskets, for Valentines day, St. Patrick's Day, and Independence Day (Daddy's Birthday). While the kids like them, they actually are more of a gift for myself, the gift of fewer dishes to wash! I usually find cute holiday ones at TJ Maxx or Marshalls but of course Amazon has some too.