I’ve been wanting to write this post for a while.
Given the current state of… *gestures wildly,* I’ve been making it a point over the past year to upgrade a LOT of my household staples to more eco-friendly versions.
I mean, given that the Supreme Court just decided that the Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t actually have the legal authority with which to protect the environment…
AGH.
Deep breaths.
Anyway. I’ve spent the past year investing in a few reusable upgrades to common kitchen and household supplies. I know I’m one person and any changes I make are pretty much futile given the current state of affairs, but still. It feels good to reduce the number of single-use plastics that end up in local landfills!
A lot of this stuff — while being a bit up-front investment — actually saves us money in the long-run.
We haven’t bought paper towels in months. I haven’t bought Ziploc bags since I lived in Chicago and buying grains in bulk is a lot cheaper than buying them boxed, bagged or canned from store shelves. Durable Pyrex lasts years longer than flimsy Ziploc containers and we’re no longer buying single-use plastic or cardboard straws.
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Stasher bags. Between these and the Qinline brand that Ryan buys, we haven’t bought single-use Ziploc sandwich bags in literal years. I LOVE the Stasher bags because — while they’re pricey — they can be put in our dishwasher! We have to wash the Qinline ones by hand (I accidentally warped on in the dishwasher) which is a little annoying.
Food Huggers. These things are great! We use them to keep half-onions, half-bananas and half-lemons fresh. They’re also great to pop over little glass food prep bowls, half-empty canned goods and the open ends of Yukon’s tubes of wet food.
Beeswrap. This stuff has all but replaced Saran wrap for us. We use it to wrap up blocks of cheese and sandwiches, and to cover larger bowls that the food huggers won’t fit over. A disclaimer: This stuff is kind of annoying to clean and I can’t bring it along on hot summer hikes (I’ll use Stasher bags for sandwiches, in those instances), but it’s still a way better alternative to cling wrap.
Mesh produce bags. We have a bunch of random reusable grocery bags that we’ve acquired from Whole Foods, Sprouts and Mariano’s, but we bought these mesh produce bags about a year ago and use them for both errant produce like mushrooms, snap peas and Brussels sprouts, and for the food we buy in bulk at Sprouts, like oats, rice, various grains, nuts, dried fruit, beans, trail mix, etc.
Linen napkins and cotton napkins. I majorly splurged last year and bought about two dozen reusable napkins to replace paper towels and single-use paper napkins. They make every meal feel a little more luxurious and they’re machine washable.
Cotton dish towels. These also replaced paper towels for us, for the most part. They’re 100 percent cotton and because they are so cheap, we don’t worry about keeping them nice. We do a lot of cooking and it’s nice to have these for wiping up spills and drying hands.
Swedish dish towels. One last replacement for paper towels. We use these to clean our counters, some dishes and other various surfaces. They’re amazing!
Glass pantry jars. And, speaking of the food we buy in bulk: we recently bought more than a dozen of these glass pantry jars. We have some of the bigger ones to store flour and sugar, and a bunch of the three-quart ones to store nuts, grains and other bulk foods. We lined em all up on top of our cabinets, and they’re pretty AND functional.
Pyrex. I’ve been obsessed with Pyrex for YEARS, but now that I live in a two-person (and one dog) household, I’ve been buying it like crazy. It’s way more durable than the plastic version, and doesn’t stain! It’s great for leftovers and meal prepping.
Glass straws. I’ve replaced my paper straws with these reusable glass straws, which are more durable and just straight-up pleasant to drink from. Not pictured, but these live in our bar cabinet.
・・・
So, there you go! We want to become even more sustainable than we are now, but it’s SO hard to completely eliminate single-use plastic from our lives. We’ve made a lot of progress, but there’s still such a long way to go.
Hopefully, if you’re looking to start making some sustainable upgrades around your house, this little list will give you some inspiration!
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