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Living in Seattle for five years has definitely influenced my behaviors and philosophies, even though I don’t still live there. Seattleites are amazing at thinking green and wanting to be nice to planet Earth. In the last few years I’ve made some environmentally friendly switches that were pretty easy to do.
8 Easy Environmentally Friendly Switches I’ve Made
I’m definitely still a beginner when it comes to this stuff, but I’ll celebrate the small changes. Here are eight changes I’ve made…
Reusable Straws
These stainless steel reusable straws look really nice and classy. Unfortunately, I have a weird aversion to metal, especially metal in my mouth. (I know, so weird.) But that hasn’t stopped me from getting reusable straws. I found these silicone smoothie straws that we regularly use. They are great for kids too!
Chemical-Free Cleaners
Chemicals are all over the place in generic bathroom cleaners, laundry soaps, dish soaps, etc. I kept having that nagging thought that I should be using chemical-free household cleaners for my family’s health and safety and to be more environmentally friendly. After wanting to ditch these toxic chemical cleaners for about a year, I finally took the plunge and just did it.
I ordered a bottles of Thieves cleaner concentrate through a friend and tried it out for a while. Because I loved it so much, I recently decided to just become a Young Living “member” to be able to buy the products at wholesale price (24% off retail). I was welcomed into the fantastic “Nesting Well” community of people sharing DIY cleaning recipes/hacks using the plant-based Thieves formula. Now, I am slowly working to fully eliminate toxic chemicals from my home.
My purpose for becoming a member was not sell the products, but if you too are interested in getting some Thieves cleaning products then I would be more than happy to help you do that. You can click here to become a member to get wholesale prices–with no pressure at all to sell btw. (You can choose the Thieves Premium Starter Kit to try out a variety of products including oils, or you can click the tab “Other Premium Kits” and get the Thieves Starter Bundle to just get the cleaning products.) Feel free to click here to message me with questions anytime!
Reusable Wax Wrap
Instead of using plastic wrap, we almost always just do reusable wax wrap. We were gifted something similar to this bee’s wax wrap and have totally become converted! Our wax wrap is just as effective as plastic wrap with no guilty conscience and a cleaner planet. Win win!
Wool Dryer Balls
I am maybe a little too obsessed with my wool dryer balls. So much so that I gave them out as Christmas gifts last year. They are such an easy environmentally-friendly switch from dryer sheets! If you’re going to miss getting nice scents from your dryer sheets don’t worry…. Recently, I started adding a few drops of essential oils to my wool dryer balls to help my clothes smell lovely without the toxic perfume found in dryer sheets. (See the “Chemical-Free Cleaners” swap above for how you can get essential oils to use on your dryer balls.)
Can Lid
Did anyone else grow up putting plastic sandwich bags over open cans when keeping them in the fridge? Just me? I’ve since done the more environmentally-friendly switch of using a can cover like this to put on any can that ends up in my fridge. Anytime I can save a single-use plastic bag from going in the garbage is a win for me!
Water Bottle
You will still find some single-use plastic water bottles in our pantry, but they are for occasionally giving out to others, not for my family’s consumption. Everyone in the family has their own water bottle that we can refill to our hearts’ content. (I love my 40 oz Iron Flask insulated water bottle! And my toddlers each have their own CamelBak water bottle they drink from throughout the day.) It’s all about cutting down on those single-use plastic moments.
Food Storage Containers
I think I truly became an adult when I “splurged” and got some nice food storage containers. This Rubbermaid Brilliance set I have is amazing (they don’t leak!), and they for sure help me use less of those single-up plastic bags. Here is a blog post I did gushing all about these containers.
Reusable Shopping Bag
I got these reusable, insulated shopping bags (also great for keeping food cool in the summer). Using a reusable shopping bag is an easy environmentally-friendly switch. It just takes practice remembering to do it. (Admittedly, I occasionally forget to bring my bag in to the grocery store from the car and I am not making the journey back to grab it with 3 kids 4 and under–baby steps!)
P.S. If you do have plastic grocery bags at home, don’t throw them away… you can take your old plastic grocery bags to Walmart and they will recycle them!
Ways I Need to Improve
Like I said… I’m a beginner and I still have room to improve with this whole environmentally friendly stuff. Here are a couple of examples on changes I still need to make:
Plastic Sandwich Bags
Sometimes a food storage container isn’t practical, so I reach for the plastic sandwich bags. We have these reusable sandwich bags, and I just can’t bring myself to use them regularly. I don’t like how hard they are to clean and dry. If anyone has another alternative to single-use plastic sandwich bags please share!
Paper Towels
Admittedly, I still use paper towels like there’s no tomorrow because I absolutely hate wet, stinky rags. I can’t bring myself to reuse a rag after a single use because they immediately feel dirty to me. Also, I don’t have a big laundry room so hanging a bunch of wet, used rags doesn’t work. If you have a great switch for paper towels I’d love to know!
I think I’m going to pull the trigger on these sponge cloths for wiping down counters and such. They are supposed to be a paper towel replacement, and I have high hopes. I’ll update this post when I know if I like them or not.
Food Waste in the Garbage
In Seattle it was easy to collect any food waste (apple cores, moldy bread, etc.) and throw it into designated food waste bins. Here in southern Utah (as I’m sure is the case in much of the U.S.) I haven’t seen food waste bins and haven’t found an easy solution for composting. (FYI, I don’t have a garden and all of my flower beds are covered in rock, not soil, so I have no need to use compost myself.) Any tips for disposing food waste properly would be great!
Please Share Your Environmentally Friendly Switches
If you have environmentally friendly switches you have done that I haven’t even thought about yet please share! I’m definitely a beginner still so the easier to implement the better! 🙂
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