We’re back at it with more tips for you to do your part in helping out Mother Earth! It was a couple of years ago when we posted Ways to Reduce Waste in your Daily Life , and while we still practice all of these strategies, we’ve picked up a few more that we’ve now implemented into our daily lives!
Since everyone has spent the last couple of months MOSTLY in their homes, we all have more time and dare I say, no excuse, to not be making sure we are reducing waste IN OUR OWN HOMES. We’ve made it easy for you! Read up on our tips and don’t forget to reference our previous post for even more tips!
Laundry Strips
In our opinions, this is one of the least practiced waste reducing strategies. For us, we’ve only heard about it in the last couple of years, so perhaps other people just haven’t caught up yet! Our favourite brand to use is TruEarth. They are ultra concentrated, pre-measured strips that are super easy to use! Not only are they better for the environment, they are also paraben free, phosphate free, dye free, chlorine free, hypoallergenic and vegan! This product just has too many wins! You can order them online from their site, or from Amazon as we have!
Reusable Dryer Balls
Keeping on the theme of laundry, something else we’ve also picked up is reusable dryer balls! Instead of using sheet after sheet of store bought boxes of dryer sheets, buying reusable balls creates no waste! Do I remember what brand of dryer balls I have? No…I definitely could not tell you. However, I can confidently tell you that you can pick them up at any grocery store that sells laundry supplies! I probably bought mine from WalMart.
There is the debate on which dryer ball is best. There are more natural options made of wool, however if you don’t use products derived from animals or if you have an allergy, there are plastic options. Which one is better for the environment? We’re still figuring that one out, hit us up in the comments if you prefer one or the other!! For now, we’re content with our plastic dryer balls.
Beeswax Wraps
Beeswax wraps is something we were super late to the party for. Now that we have it, we ask ourselves how we went so long without them? We used plastic wrap very sparingly regardless, but just knowing that we have beeswax wraps in our cupboard instead of plastic wrap leaves me feeling in a good state of mind. This is a product that has gotten more commonplace as the years go on. You’ll be able to find multiple brands with multiple size options.
We’ll probably have to purchase a new pack because unfortunately I didn’t look into washing instructions the first time around. I hand washed with hot water which kind of melted the beeswax and now they’re a little crusty. So don’t make my mistake! Hand wash with COLD WATER and leave to air dry!
Glass Containers for Leftovers
This tip isn’t so much ‘reducing waste‘ as it is reusing materials that you already have! If you’ve got an empty jar in your kitchen from something like a pasta sauce, instead of throwing it straight into the recycling, reuse it as a ‘tupperware container’! You can have so many different sizes for packing up sauces, soups, pastas, salsas etc. Even if you’re feeling a little crafty and want to whip up your own sauce recipe, you already have an old recycled sauce jar to keep it stored!
Reusable Muffin Liners
I am alllll about baking muffins, so these silicone liners have been such a saviour! I don’t even have to worry about using oil or butter for non stick reasons! Sure they’re a pain in the ass to wash, but I would 100% take that over constantly throwing out one use liners! I’m not sure which brand we have, but you can find so many options on Amazon!
Reusable K Cups
I bought my husband Caelan a Keurig for Christmas because he was spending so much money on coffee to go, so I wanted to make sure he could just make coffee for himself at home! The last thing I wanted; however, was the waste that usually comes from the K cups. Back when my parents had a Keurig they were using reusable K cups with whatever ground coffee they had! Just have to give them a little wash and they’re ready to use again! So I definitely made sure I added those cups in the gift as well 😉 We have a brand called Cafe Cup, but really anything similar will do the trick!
Let us know some of your best environmentally friendly practices! We’re always looking to learn more! 🙂
