The Frenchman and I have been trying to be more conscientious of our footprint and we’ve been increasing our efforts to live more eco-friendly. Not only is it good for the environment… it’s good for you, makes you feel good, and can also save you money! We’ve been remembering to bring our reusable bags to the grocery store and the farmer’s market. I also try to be more mindful of the cleaning products we purchase and recently invested in glass storage containers for leftovers rather than using plastic bags or aluminum.
Here are a few other ways we’ve been going green at home:
Cloth Napkins
For our meals at home, we used to use paper towels as our napkins. After a trip from France a few years ago, I noticed that the Frenchman’s mom always uses cloth napkins for meals, even for casual weekday meals. She has personalized napkin rings so everyone would know which napkin is theirs and they would keep their napkins for the week. I guess it had never occurred to me that it was possible to reuse the same cloth napkin each night.
Now that we’ve been using cloth napkins for the past couple years our paper towel consumption has reduced significantly. Not only is it more eco-friendly, cloth napkins also look infinitely better than paper napkins on a dinner table.
Reusing Water
It’s not news that California is in a drought. We have always tried to be conscientious of our water usage, and lately I’ve been trying to find more ways to reuse water. When I wash fruits and vegetables, I save the used water to water our plants. I store empty gallon water bottles under the sink that I fill up to reuse when we need to water the plants.
Water bottles
We take reusable water bottles to work each day. I use the 1L bkr glass water bottle at my desk and the 500mL bkr water bottle for workouts. I am a glass girl (glass just tastes and feels better). The Frenchman has been using Hydro Flask water bottle. Luckily both our workplaces have water stations to refill our water and with the water bottle at my desk, I’ve noticed that I drink a lot more water.
Sparkling Water Maker
We are avid sparkling water drinkers and we drink about 1 liter (32oz) of sparkling water a night. When we have dinner parties, we could go through a six-pack of water bottles in one night… which can lead to a LOT of plastic bottles that need to be recycled.
Fast forward to our dear friends, Sara & Tri, gifting us the SodaStream Penguin. I admit, it took us some time to get the hang of it after living off the convenience of buying sparkling water bottles… but now we are hooked. SodaStream also has a newer model (the Crystal Sparkling Water Maker) which also uses glass bottles.
Now that we’ve been using the SodaStream, we have ZERO bottles to recycle. For those who host dinner parties, it’s helpful to have extra glass carafes on hand to refill and keep chilled in the fridge (we have 3).
Have you tried any of the above? How are you going green at home?
4 Comments
So glad you are enjoying the Soda Stream!
Yes! We think of you everyday 🙂
Love this!
[…] how we could produce less waste in the home and live more sustainably in the city. We started with incorporating a few eco-friendly habits into our life and we’ve been adding more over the years. Here are a few more ways we’ve […]