Reusable Home Alternatives: Turn Your Waste Into Grace

For the past 6 years whenever we sit down to eat we use flour sack dish towels instead of paper towels or napkins. I have tried cloth napkins but I always go back to flour sack dish towels. They are very soft and large enough to handle messy meals. This simple change has reduced our paper towel use tremendously. They sell large packs of flour sack dish towels at Wal-Mart and on Amazon.

Trade in your dish sponge for washable dish cloths. One dish sponge can contain around 8 million different kinds of bacteria and is recommended you replace it every two weeks. I use dish cloths simply because they are more affordable and more sanitary. I think in the past 13 years I have bought two large packs of dish cloths from Family Doller for under $20 and we use them until they fall apart. While there are sponges made from natural materials most of the cheap ones are made from plastic and synthetic materials and come wrapped in plastic. For your health, the planet, and your wallet, switch to a good old fashion dish cloth.

There are around 60 million plastic water bottles discarded each day in the United States alone contributing to world pollution. For years we spent around $700 a year on drinking water because we have well water with a lot of iron. Our water is safe to drink but it doesn’t tase good. At least it didn’t until we switched to a water filter system that goes under the kitchen sink. The system was around $160 and the replacement filters are $125 a year. We started using stainless steel water bottles and glass water bottles after switching to the water system. We save around $575 a year, reduce plastic waste, and no longer have to lift and carry big packs of water around each week. Also we don’t have to worry about ingesting micro plastics. I have experienced NO down sides to switching from one time use water bottles to a water filter system.

Coffee seems like it’s getting more and more expensive every year. I am the only person in the house who drinks it so I have tried many different ways to lower the cost. I tried a regular 12 cup coffee pot but even making a small pot I felt like I was wasting more than I was drinking. I switched to a Keurig coffee maker which fits my needs but the cost of pods are high. I stopped buying single use pods and started using a reusable stainless steel coffee pod with disposable filters from Amazon. buying bags of coffee and filling the pod myself has cut my coffee bill in half and its better for the environment. I tried the plastic reusable pods but I personally think the stainless steel gives it a richer taste.

I love the convenience of buying paper plates and bowls to use outside and its easier now than ever to find some made of compostable material. But if you want to save some money investing in some good outdoor plastic dinnerware is the way to go. I am guilty of using paper products by the firepit but this something I hope to improve on. I threw a paper plate into the fire and thought how I literally just set my money on fire. I think from now on I’ll save the paper for large gatherings and use reusable plastic for anything else. Amazon has great deals on reusable plastic dinnerware sets.

Another single use item that pains me to throw away are sandwich bags. I have used reusable sandwich bags for several years and I love them. They come in different sizes and even though they it seems expensive when you first buy them, they start to pay for themselves after each wash.

If you bake a lot another great swap is replacing paper baking cups with reusable silicone baking cups. Or skip altogether and just spray the pan with Pam.

If you want to reduce plastic waste and make carrying groceries easier you can invest in some good reusable grocery bags. I have used reusable bags for almost a decade and I love how they don’t bust like the single use bags from the grocery store. You can get insulated bags for keeping things cold which is nice when you live far out in the country like me. The bags come in handy for a lot of different things and are worth every penny.

We have reduced how many trash bags we go through by recycling in general. After me and my husband got married we were emptying the trash can 4 to 5 times a week and the trash just kept piling up. I felt like I was buying a big box of trash bags every month which was eating into our grocery money. We started recycling about 10 years ago and we might change the trash can every one and a half to two weeks. I think I buy one box of 50 trash bags from Amazon each year. Plastic bottles and cardboard take up a lot of space in the trash can so recycling helps in more ways than one.