It’s been a bit of a process the past few years switching over to more and more reusable items in our household, but I’m so glad that we put in the time and effort to reuse more and reduce our waste. Since it can feel like a bit of an overwhelming process to switch over your life to more reusable items, I thought I’d share with you some of my favorite items we use (and some that are on my to-get-soon-list) and you can get them all easily from Amazon too!
1. I use these amber spray bottles all the time to make my own cleaning supplies with essential oils, for homemade baby wipe solution, for hair sea salt sprays—the possibilities are endless!
2. I was a little skeptical these beeswax food wraps would work when I first tried them a year or two ago, but they do and I love them! Use them in place of plastic wrap, aluminum foil, or sandwich bags (or you can make your own as well!)
3. These steel lunchboxes are a great alternative to plastic and paper bagged lunch sacks and they come in lots of different sizes for big and small eaters.
4. These cleaning cloths are a must to replace paper towels (read about how Elsie uses hers when she gave up paper towels) or you can make your own unpaper towel roll like I did!
5. It took me a long time to finally ditch the cheap plastic and go with all glass food storage containers (these totally stainless steel options are on my wish list). For a more cost effective move, you can also get a bunch of glass canning jars in different sizes and use those for leftovers too.
6. I started using a coffee sock last summer with my Chemex and I love it! It actually tastes better to me, I never have to fold cones again, and you can use them hundreds of times instead of once.
7. I love our stainless steel straws for juice for Lola or iced coffee in the summer (they make larger ones for thick smoothies) and you can also get a straw carrying case to keep some in your purse or diaper bag to avoid plastic straws when out and about (you could also make one with a little scrap of fabric too).
8. I started making more bread at home lately, but I quickly realized that I didn’t have anything to put the bread in unless I kicked another loaf out of its plastic bag. So a bread bin would come in really handy to keep baked good fresh for days.
9. Ahhh, the Chemex! I love that my coffee doesn’t travel though hot plastic anymore like in my old coffee maker and it’s still really simple and fast to make (for those of you who love a French press, feel free to get your coffee fix with one of these babies!)
10. I think most of us have or have almost bought a reusable water bottle of some kind by now, but whether you like a glass or steel version, they are super handy to remain hydrated on the go.
11. These small glass amber jars are perfect for DIY skin care and bath items like sugar scrubs and lotions, and are a great size for gifts too!
12. I absolutely love these silicone food storage bags and I have them in the sandwich and snack size—great for snacks on the go or for leftovers in the fridge.
13. Cloth napkins are another great way to reduce waste at home and once they get really worn they can just join the rag pile and continue to serve for a few more seasons (and they make you look super classy as well).
14. It may seem a little “Grandma” to you, but using cloth handkerchiefs instead of tissues is another way to cut down on one-use items and if you really want to go wild, you can monogram them too 😉
15. Don’t forget the kids! We have one of these stainless steel sippy cups for Lola and they are great as a travel cup (she uses these at mealtime).
16. Trade out the flimsy plastic baggies for these produce bags when buying your fruits and veggies. They have the tare weight on them (how much the bag weighs) so the person at the checkout stand can adjust your weight if needed.
17. I’m trying to take a reusable coffee cup with me now for when I want a coffee out—you’ll want to get a size that corresponds with your coffee volume order, so make sure to choose appropriately!
18. We have a ton of reusable grocery bags in the back of our trunk (I tend to like this type the best) and we are finally remembering to take them into the store just about every time now (haha, it takes a little while to retrain your brain). My next goal is to always remember at every store, not just the grocery store, so if I forget my bags I just go bagless and put it all into the cloth bags in my trunk instead.
19. These fine mist glass bottles are also great for all your DIY beauty and home needs—I use mine to make room sprays for almost every room in the house (we have a toddler and cats so room sprays are a good idea!) as well as face mists, bug spray, and hair sprays as well!
I definitely suggest looking around your house to see if you already have something in one of these categories before heading out to buy one (like I had enough old dish towels to make into cleaning cloths when I started, so I haven’t had to buy any new ones). Also, another tip, I found for me that I had to remove items I didn’t want to be using anymore from the house and that forced me to make a change. Once I stopped buying plastic food bags, I became annoyed that I always needed one and that’s what finally made me get some beeswax wraps and silicone bags instead. Hope you found a few practical ways to reduce waste at your house! xo. Laura
30 Comments
I absolutely love my stainless steel straws. I cannot go anywhere without them! Happy Friday!!!
-Kate
https://daysofkate.com
Thanks for all the great recommendations. I’m ordering the produce bags immediately.
Just an FYI, for people with SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder), the beeswax food wraps can really squick them out. I tried to use mine several times and always ended up gagging. My friends who I gifted them to LOVED them.
Don’t do it! Instead go on Etsy and find a local maker to buy them from. So many people (including me) make these from reclaimed material which is so much more eco-friendly.
I LOVE the beeswax food wraps! I use them almost every day. I’m not sure if they say this in the packaging and I just missed it, but DO NOT PUT THEM IN THE DISHWASHER. It sheds the waxy, stickiness of the wrap and it makes them harder to use. Also, I had never heard of a coffee sock before. Thanks for sharing!
Warmly,
Maegan
Ordering these “no waste” products on Amazon just produces…. a ton of waste. Ordering online is MUCH more wasteful than just going to the dang store and buying things in person. Every time you order online, the packaging alone for each piece, in its own box, not to mention the miles that are required to deliver one object to one person, are just ridiculous. It would produce less waste overall to just keep using disposable items than to order all of these from Amazon!!! If you are about waste then stop posting links to things online, stop ordering stuff off of Amazon, and get your butt to the dang store!!
Hi!
You are correct (that’s why I approved your comment) and I would hope that anyone with access to these products locally would buy them. With that said, there are so many times when certain products aren’t easy to find locally. I do think there is a time and place for shopping on Amazon, we know from research that the majority of our readers shop on Amazon. I still think it’s better to buy no waste products via Amazon than wasteful products. The journey to improving isn’t always perfect. 🙂 xx
I appreciate your comment, Elsie. Have you considered prefacing these Amazon posts with the reminder that ordering online just to order online can negate the idea of “green” or “clean”? Also, why not round-up posts of hard-to-find-in-person products for smaller businesses versus Amazon?
Hi, all very excellent suggestions, nice! I hesitated on whether to comment or not because I don’t like the social media policing ‘but what about this…’ climate that is so common these days as soon as someone sticks their neck out with a green suggestion.
But, then again, I thought people might not know about this, so here goes: while reducing the use of paper towels and cloth is a great idea, swapping for micro fibre isn’t. It’s one of the worst fabrics for shedding micro plastics during washing, that eventually wash into our oceans, lakes and waterways (trust me – I have a PhD in marine biology ????). Choose cloths with natural fibers instead ????????????
Thanks Lisa for the tip on microfiber cloths – I had no idea they shed!
Loving this environmentally-friendly list! I’m definitely going to start using some of these items in everyday life. 🙂
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
I’m trying to go wasteless inch by inch and some of these products are new to me. I’m learning a lot from the comments as well. Thanks so much!
We only use paper towels for wiping oil on our cast iron pans after we’ve cleaned them – I worried that throwing oily rags into the wash would stain other clothes. If anyone has come up with a reusable solution, I’d love to hear it!
Colour coded rags with a bin under the sink! If you have specific cloths that you use for grosser messes and oil, you can wash them all together. Just grab an old towel and serge the edges (if you have a serger) or use some old flannel and some pinking shears.
I use a silicone brush to dip into the jar and brush coconut oil onto my cast iron pans. I just try to use a little, and I don’t wipe off the excess. I’ve been doing this for over a year and so far, so good.
I made some switches to more natural products in my cosmetics routine but I definitely should follow those recommendations when it comes to household too. I never use plastic bags for my groceries at least, for starters 🙂
xx A. | mylondonandbeyond.wordpress.com
I already own the metal straws that I bought from amazon! They are amazing and so practical too. Have you considered getting the fold away one you can buy for on the go to reduce your plastic waste even more?
I think thinking of the environment is the way forward, in the order “reduce, reuse, recycle”. I like that you approved the comment of the person who noted that ordering online isnt always the best way, although I do think for some (like me) who live far from any shops selling eco-friendly ware, online shopping is helpful. Though I would also add that please don’t go and chuck out your plastic tupperware and buy reusable stainless steel- the whole point is to reduce waste; so only replace your things with environmentally friendly items when you NEED to replace them. Otherwise we are just buying into the tend for overconsumption that is so prevalent nowadays. Like dont throw out your shampoo and buy a shampoo bar, wait til your old one is finished. Dont chuck your clingfilm in the bin, wait til it is finished then use beeswax raps. Better than using these reusable items is creating less waste in the first place- and that starts with consuming (aka buying) less.
I should add that I do think its hard for you- you’re a business so you want people to buy things. And i’m sure you’re paid by amazon to promote their posts. I get it. I do think you are one of the good guys though- I was first attracted to your blog because of all the crafting, home reno and personal stories. I love that you are pro-environment. I think because you will attract more envirnomentally ethical readers you will also therefore attract more cop than would, say, a fast-fashion blog where there will be less readers who care so much about the environmental impact to begin with. I love your craft and homemade posts, love your recipes and how to do a hairstyle etc. The posts that are just a list of things to buy I find meh. But that is ok, I know you need to post lists like these once in a while because you are a business. Xx
Please be careful what you put in your room sprays if you have animals. There are a lot of common essential oils and fragrances that are toxic to your pets.
I love this, so many great suggestions!
http://www.rafflesbizarreblog.com
Do you make money off of these Amazon posts? Does ABM earn if viewers purchase through these links?
I’m a huge ABM fan and I think transparency would be valuable here.
We certainly do. I mentioned in my book post that we have an affiliate with Amazon and we also say we use affiliates in the footer of our homepage. We are very transparent about it and happy to be. No tricks here.
We also use affiliate (like we offer it) for our courses program bc it’s a great way to reward ppl who want to talk about your products and a great tool for both small and large businesses.
Love this list! I just wanted to make the suggestion to buy local! Even if you have to order online, it’s way better to order things like reusable produce bags and beeswax wrap from people in your province or state through Etsy, rather than supporting massive corporations like Amazon 🙂
Very useful list 🙂 I always try to use re-usable items. A similar list of Etsy items would be interesting too, there is a lot of eco-friendly and re-usable items on it !
This list is amazing! I have been using fabric produce bags for around a year and I LOVE them. I live in an area of Michigan that has lots of produce stands and the local hobby farmers always comment on my bags. It saves them money and is so much better for the environment. I’m also super excited to try the reusable snack bags. I pack school lunches every day and feel so bad about the plastic bags I sometimes use. My sons lunch box isn’t huge so I have needed to use plastic bags, but these are a great alternative. Awesome list! Thanks for sharing!!!
These glass food storage is a must have. They are really useful and great to store the things well.
I already have a reusable water bottle and coffee cup, but I still need to order myself some beeswax food wrap.
Snippets of Emily’s Life xx
Omg thanks for sharing! I’ve been meaning to buy these types of things but never really knew what hahaha
dorky-and-weird.blogspot.com
Xoxo <3
Thanks for this resource. I am trying to make our house a bit more environmentally friendly and this is a good help. We love our metal straws. We also have silicone straws for smoothies. Our next purchase will likely be a to-go coffee cup.
https://www.feistylifemedia.com
Very useful information that you share with us thanks for writing this blog I am very glad to know about these things that we can reuse.