> “That being said, I was quite surprised to see a few families using paper plates rather than dishes. I’m keenly aware of my culture’s extreme wastefulness and have tried to make efforts to reduce my footprint, which is why I probably was more aware of it.”<p>It's damn tempting to do it at least a couple days a week if you have kids. Stretches how long your kitchen stays clean-ish without a bunch of work, and is way cheaper than paying a human to come help. Especially effective if you couple it with frozen food that can be cooked in its own container, or a meal that can feed 4-5 but be cooked in one pot with no cutting boards or anything (so, something out of a box). That combo can buy you a day of zero-added-mess in the kitchen, which is <i>so</i> nice when you've got kids and two working parents.<p>Actually, now that I'm writing it out like this, I'm thinking maybe we need to start doing this like Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I try to consider any possible way to solve household issues and not get stuck on particular solutions, think about our house as an environment to help us get stuff done, that kind of thing, but I think I've been neglecting the possibility of <i>generating slightly more trash</i> as a way of achieving ends. Yet I've considered the far more expensive option of hiring help. Just a couple regular, planned days a week of basically not using the kitchen could give us a <i>perceived</i> lower amount of work and an <i>actual</i> time-the-kitchen-is-clean much greater than the 2/7 it implies. And it's cheaper and (way) more convenient than dining out. Hm....