Sustainable & Creative Living
Table salt is a natural product that can be used for so many things around your home. So, with the rising interest in eliminating toxic chemicals from our routines and in our homes, I’m eager to share a list of 10 Ways to Use Table Salt at Home. Some of my favorites are natural cleaning methods but I bet there are some you’ll be surprised to know.
If we start at a young age, we can help our children learn the importance of celebrating Earth Day not just on Earth Day but every day. I’ve put together 5 Earth Day Activities for Kids that can help them learn how important it is to take care of our planet and the environment around them. [Read more…]
Before too long a lot of us are probably going to have some extra pumpkins we no longer have any use for. Other than fall decorations, it’s not always easy to come up with uses for these Halloween leftovers. Try making this easy DIY Pumpkin Bird Feeder from some of your Halloween pumpkins:
One of the most common questions I got when I decided to cloth diaper my son was, how do you wash them? The second was, where does the poop go? Yes, cloth diapering can get messy (literally) because you’re not just tossing the diaper in the trash or Diaper Genie. But, if you have all the right tools and a clear plan, then cloth diapering can be [Read more…]
These days more products than ever are being recycled. Many of these items are things a lot of us never
considered to be recyclable. These 5 Items You Should Be Recycling are just a very few of those
products. I don’t know about you, but I find myself feeling more and more guilty when I throw something in the trash without trying to first figure out a way to repurpose or recycle it. At any given time I have 2 or 3, [Read more…]
If you’re a person who considers themselves to be environmentally conscious, then you’re probably someone who looks for new ways to reduce your environmental footprint. If you’re like me and have adopted a lot of good personal environmental practices like drastically reducing household chemical usage as well as eliminating single-use plastic products, then you’re looking even deeper at your habits. Maybe you’ve found your environmental hot spots. In other words, maybe you’ve discovered some of your personal environmentally unfriendly indulgences. I’ve discovered one of mine. And I [Read more…]
Having raised three kids and cared for multiple family pets, medication disposal has always been an issue. In the past, I either flushed old medications down the toilet or threw them in the trash. Then I read that our water supply is becoming contaminated with human and veterinary pharmaceuticals.
Admittedly, I procrastinated finding somewhere to take my unused prescription and over the counter medications until I recently found a designated place to dispose of them.
Microfiber pollution is a form of pollution I hadn’t heard of until quite recently. Maybe you haven’t either. This type of pollution basically comes from microfibers that textiles such as synthetic clothing shed during the washing process. Every time we do a load of laundry, our clothing sheds microscopic fibers that end up in our water. They end up in our rivers, lakes, and oceans. From there, these essentially plastic fragments make their way to our [Read more…]
Plastic shopping bags are a huge threat to our environment. Their impact is widespread- from the energy it takes to produce the plastic to the pollution they cause on land and sea. Yet they’re still one of the most used single-use convenience plastics. If these are items you’d like to eliminate (or cut back on), here are 22 Ways to Avoid Plastic Shopping Bags. [Read more…]
If you’re trying to adopt natural and more eco-friendly cleaning habits, one of the easiest places to start is with laundry practices. There are many different alternatives to harsh detergents if you want to go green in the laundry department.
Natural laundry practices are especially important because clothing actually touches our bodies, as opposed to the surfaces in our homes. Of course, we’d only want non-toxic substances touching our skin. [Read more…]
Depending on how familiar you are with cloth diapering, you might be thinking, “What exactly is a prefold diaper?” Simply put, it’s a 3 panel, rectangular piece of fabric that contains multiple layers of either cotton, bamboo, hemp, or flannel— traditionally with an extra layer in the middle for extra absorbency. They’re folded and fastened to baby inside of a waterproof diaper cover.
Before I even got pregnant with my son I knew I wanted to use cloth diapers. My mom used them with me and my sisters, and because there are significant age gaps between us, I still remember diaper laundry, safety pins, and plastic pants all around the house. Let me assure you that this sometimes referred to as “old fashion” way of diapering has come along way in recent years. [Read more…]
Last week I wrote a post about all kinds of eco-friendly products that are great replacements for single-use/disposable plastics – check it out here.
As I was writing that post and seeing all these great products, I couldn’t help but wonder – what makes these products eco-friendly?
My thought process has always been that if you can use it more than once, it’s automatically better for the environment. After all, you’re not throwing something away after you use it one time – i.e. a straw or plastic cup. If you can get more than one use out of it, it’s already a step in the right direction.
While this is a step in the right direction, it’s not the whole truth.
As a parent, keeping my children safe is always a priority. We think about external factors but what about the toxins in our own homes? Most of the time we have control over the products we use so why are we using cleaners full of toxins? Our homes should be a safe haven from toxins!
Over the past couple of years, I’ve given up using almost all synthetic and toxic household cleaners and detergents in favor of more eco-friendly and natural products. One of the products I use a lot of these days is vinegar. It’s all natural and extremely versatile.
