Many of us are trying to adopt more earth-friendly habits, and while some people think that this lifestyle is expensive, I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be. You don’t have to buy all new things, but some small purchases can help you save money in the long run.
If you’re looking to make a few small purchases to save yourself money, these are 3 that I would suggest.
1. Wool dryer balls – I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it. This was one of the switches that I resisted for a long time. I put this off for so long! I thought they wouldn’t work as well as dryer sheets. I thought they would get lost and I would be on a constant search for them around the house. I thought our clothes would end up all staticky and my family would hate them. I was wrong on all counts. In hindsight, I wish I had made this switch years ago because what I thought would be so hard was actually really (laughably) easy.
Here are a few tips:
- Drop your drying temperature down a notch.
- Drop your drying time down a smidge.
Doing these two things will help reduce the amount of static that builds up in your laundry. The static tends to build up in the final minutes of the drying cycle when dry clothes are rubbing together. You reduce this when you drop the drying time and temperature.
Some people report still having issues with static and end up using a safety pin pinned to the dryer ball or a balled-up piece of aluminum foil, but I’ve never had to do anything other than drop the temperature and dry time, and I’m now on my second dryer using these. It’s worked for both.
If you want a source for a good set of dryer balls, go here.
2. Reusable Cotton Rounds – everyone washes their face differently. For me, I use a face wash solution that I squirt onto a cotton round to wipe the makeup and dirt from my face. When I first started using this method, I purchased sleeves of disposable cotton rounds from one of the big box stores.
After some time, I started to feel rather wasteful, so I went searching for an alternative. Sure enough, there are companies out there that sell reusable cotton rounds made from cotton, bamboo or some other mixture of materials. There are even some crafty friends who have made their own.
These work great! I have even bought sets for my kids to use so that they develop good habits while they’re young. After use, you throw them into a laundry bag and throw it in the wash. You could add them individually to your laundry, but you’ll be searching for them and they could become another item lost like that single sock that has no match. If you’re looking for a source, go here or here.
3. Cloth napkins – when my kids were infants and toddlers, we went through a lot of paper napkins. I remember buying a huge package of them a couple times a year. Over time, I decided they were both wasteful and expensive, so I sought out a reusable alternative. I’m not a fan of the fancy napkins that you can buy in the kitchen section of department stores as I’ve always found them stiff, rough and not very absorbent.
I went to one of my favorite websites, etsy, to see if I could find something that would work. Lo and behold, I found someone making everyday napkins from the same fabric as cloth diapers. The first set that I ordered were single ply, but I did not like them as they seemed too thin and they crumpled up like a paper fan in the laundry. Ironing is not happening in my house, especially for something we use everyday, so that was not an acceptable solution. Those single ply napkins were soon relegated to the cleaning rag supply. I went back to etsy and found that the same person made a different version with 2 layers. Voila! They have worked perfectly and have lasted at least 10 years at this point. The small investment has saved us (and the landfill) bundles.
If you would like to see the ones that I use, you can find them here.
Friends, living a sustainable, earth-friendly lifestyle does not have to be expensive and just like anything else, you can make small changes over time. Once you find a solution that works for improving one lifestyle habit, move on to the next. This is not a race or a sprint. It’s a marathon. Pace yourself.
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