1 ) Say No to Bags
Instead of always taking a paper or plastic bag from the grocery store, bring your own tote and produce bags. If you live in a city with no car, you can get ones that stuff really nicely into a ball that you can throw into your purse. If you have a car and you forget to bring your bags, have the grocer put your products back into the cart and put them directly into your car! With COVID this year, many places aren’t allowing you to bring personal grocery bags. You can still request to have them placed back in the cart and bag them outside!
If you’re like me, you have way too many tote bags that companies have given for free. But if you really don’t have any… here are a few:
2 ) BYOC (Bring Your Own Cup)
I know COVID has made it more difficult for us to bring our own reusable cups to coffee shops and restaurants - and many places don’t allow them. But this scare tactic was really brought on by the plastic industry. You can read more about it on the Green Peace website here. Our use of plastic has increased 250-300% since COVID started! It’s time to do something about it or else we’re really going to destroy our world. Instead of buying bottles of water while you’re out, bring your own bottle. If you go to a coffee shop, encourage them to do contactless pours. Stojo is starting a campaign to bring back reusables with coffee shops (I hope to share more info on that soon!) Here are few bottles and tumblers that I like:
3 ) Ditch those Cotton Pads
Some of us can use up to 7-10 cotton pads a night just removing makeup, applying toner, taking off nail polish and the list goes on. Ditch those one time use cotton pads and switch to these awesome reusables that you can simply throw into the laundry! This has seriously changed my life. Here are some I recommend:
4 ) Swap out your paper towels with tea towels or rags
I know a lot of us out of convenience, like to use a lot of paper towel. When there’s a spill, when you need to wipe your mouth, when there’s bit of dirt - it’s just easier. Try using tea towels or rags instead! I always have one at the kitchen area designated only for wiping the kitchen and dining table. Then I have one specifically for the bathroom, and one for cleaning the bedroom. Trust me, you’ll feel much better after you switch to towels! You won’t be worried about Costco running out again! Only if you need to buy, here are some ideas:
5 ) Bring your own Utensils
These days, everyone is ordering take out and restaurants automatically give you way too many forks, napkins, and soy sauce packets. Though ordering take out is not ideal since most food are packaged in styrofoam or plastic boxes, but during this pandemic, I feel like it’s almost important to support our local restaurants. And to do a small part, tell the restaurant in the instructions not to include utensils. If you need napkins and sauces, ask for the actual amount that you will use. If you don’t have utensils to repurpose and must purchase, here are some ideas: