Our Favorite Ways to Make Your Home More Eco-Friendly
There’s just something about a clean house – and something even better about relaxing in a clean house. But if your daily cleaning products are keeping you up at night (or keeping you from relaxing during the day), we get it. While they might sanitize a countertop or remove a sticky mess from the floor, many household products can harm your family and the environment – and that’s nothing to feel good about.
Don’t worry, enjoying a clean home and a clear conscience isn’t impossible! With a little consumer savviness and these handy recommendations, you can stock your home with products that keep your space spic and span without the environmental harm!
Not Paper Towels
There’s no judgment here; we’re all recovering paper towel addicts. When it comes to finding a quick and easy way to clean up a mess, wipe hands or polish a window, it’s hard to beat a paper towel. But considering Americans use 13 billion pounds of paper towels a year – which costs forests 270 million trees, according to nomomente.org – it might be time to consider another option.
Enter the Not Paper Towel. These reusable, machine-washable clean-up heroes are made from post-consumer recycled products (not trees) and best of all, they won’t wind up in a landfill. Keep a stack on your counter and use just as you would a paper towel – except the part where you toss it in the trash. Throw it in the washing machine and you’ll have another stack clean and ready for your next mess. Oh, and did we mention the prints make them 700 percent cuter than those white rolls on your counter?
Liquidless Laundry Detergent
Ask any mom; keeping a family in fresh clothing is a full-time job in itself. The last thing you need is to worry about the environmental impact of good-smelling clothes. That’s why we love liquidless laundry detergents (like this one from Amazon), which help reduce your carbon footprint a number of ways. First, by eliminating water and plastic from the detergent, the product is smaller and lighter, reducing the energy needed for distribution and shipping.
Made from plants and concentrated into single sheets, waterless detergents are easy to use and better for your washing machine too.
Baking Soda
While you’ve probably reached for baking soda to clean tough stains or deodorize your fridge, chances are you’re still underutilizing this all-in-one household tool. From leavening your cookies to degreasing your oven, baking soda is a naturally occurring substance that’s tough on messes and safe for your family and the Earth.
If you’re wondering how to get the most out of the white powder – from shining windows to cleaning blood and rust stains – hop over to Greener Ideal for dozens of ways to use baking soda to keep your home clean and fresh.
All-Purpose Concentrate
You can find lots of household products claiming to be eco-friendly, and in most cases, the product itself really is. That said, even eco-friendly products may use bulky packaging that certainly leaves a carbon footprint, especially if you have to replace them frequently.
That’s why we love an all-purpose, eco-friendly cleaner that’s concentrated. By purchasing a concentrate, you’re reducing the energy and materials needed to produce the same amount of product. Just keep reusable spray bottles on hand and mix up a new batch of cleaner whenever you need it. We love Branch Basics The Concentrate, which can replace virtually all your cleaners with just one concentrated formula. Just mix with water and get to scrubbing!
Compostable Trash Bags
If you’re reducing your carbon footprint, you’re likely also reducing the amount of non-recyclable trash you’re producing. While very few of us can boast a zero-waste household, we can still do our best to reduce the number of years our trash is going to sit in a landfill.
When you replace traditional plastic trash bags with compostable or biodegradable versions, you’re helping your trash break down faster in the landfill. So while you work to reduce your own waste, you can help that waste make less of an impact on the Earth. Head over to Tree Hugger for a list of the best compostable/biodegradable trash bags to use this year.
Reusable Dinner Napkins
Keeping hands and mouths clean can be a dirty job – especially when you’re working with little hands and mouths. But if you could stock a landfill with disposable napkins from your daily family meals, it might be time to switch out the paper products for something more sustainable.
We might call them dinner napkins, but our post-consumer recycled napkins are perfect for any time of day – and can drastically reduce your family’s use of paper products. The Geosuede™ material is soft to the touch and incredibly absorbent, while our prints ensure you make a stylish impact on your home (and not a harmful impact on the Earth).
If you’ve been looking for ways to decrease your environmental impact, it’s okay to start small. These eco-friendly products can help make your home more sustainable – and your family more environmentally aware – in 2023.
