Spending More Time At Home: A Survival Guide Part III

In the last Survival Guide post, I shared my typical morning routine (read that here) that sets me up for a productive work day. I find it’s important to get a few things out of the way first thing, like tidying up and doing some cleaning tasks, so that I’m not distracted by mess or clutter later on when I’m working from home.

We’re constantly trying to reduce waste in our home and we have almost fully cut out paper towel use. I make my own kitchen cleaner with vinegar, water and lavender oil and pour it into a glass spray bottle (1:1 plus a few drops of your favorite essential oil; *I use something a little better at killing bacteria once a day when Chris gets home from work) then wipe down with reusable sponge cloths that can be thrown in the washer. For napkin or paper towel replacements while enjoying a home-cooked meal, we’re getting more consistent with using cloth napkins or UNPAPER Towels. We also use not-sponges or other washable sponges, or a good old-fashioned wooden and natural bristle scrub brush when doing any dishes that require a hand-washing.

Other kitchen items we really love that are helping us go more green include beeswax wrap over bowls of leftovers, stainless steel straws for fancy cocktails or mocktails, Stasher bags for additional leftovers, snacks, or cut veggies, and mesh produce bags- these are particularly awesome because they help keep those veggies even more crisp and dry.

When grocery shopping, we have a huge assortment of reusable shopping totes that we’ve acquired from all sorts of places handing them out and we also use hand-dyed net Market Bags when picking up produce. And to keep all these things on my to-do list straight, I love keeping notes and checklists on reusable “paper” from Swipies. Oh yeah, and one little bonus product: reusable facial rounds instead of cotton balls and a mesh laundry bag to toss them in the washer.

So those are some of my favorite items to help us reduce waste and be more sustainable in our home. I’ve included links to many of those items below to get you started. If you’re in the Denver area, Zero Market at the Stanley is a great resource for all sorts of sustainable products. And I would love to hear some additional products you guys love so feel free to share below in the comments!