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Anything that multi-tasks, saves plastic, saves money, saves shopping, and/or reduces chemicals & environmental impact AND simplifies my life is a winner in my book. Sometimes something is environmentally friendly, but is super expensive or really annoying to use or clean. Other times something saves money but it wastes plastic and is loaded with chemicals. This post showcases my most favorite items that have served the best mix of these values for us over the years.
What's In This Post
Favorite sanity saving consumables
It used to drive me crazy constantly having someone’s toiletry needs on the shopping list- my shampoo, his shampoo, my deodorant, his deodorant, my body wash, his soap. After we had babies and I was researching safe baby washes and laundry detergent, my bandwidth for everyone’s separate stuff started to break.
I kind of disdain specialized function items, unitaskers, to begin with. If I had to own separate baby laundry detergent, separate baby wash, separate baby lotion (not to mention separate baby plate and cups, separate baby food, etc etc) the house and my brain would explode. Why did we all need different products? And if these products aren’t safe enough to use for a baby, why on earth should we be using them either?
So, from these little epiphanies my simple mind found a few items that have had staying power as our family’s go-to items over the years.
#1 Everyone Soap
It’s all-in-one baby shampoo/wash, big kid shampoo/wash, bubble bath, adult body wash, and adult shampoo (if you like)… all in one large 32 oz. pump bottle. We get ours as one of our Amazon Subscribe & Save items, so we get 15% off, making it also an excellent value compared to grabbing bottles from Target or the grocery store. And it rates very well on the EWG Skin Deep registry, making is a super safe product pick for everyone in the family (by comparison, check out good old fashioned Johnson & Johnson baby wash). You can find many different scent combinations (using essential oils), but we always get the Lavender and Aloe (probably because it was least expensive when I subscribed to the shipments on Amazon!). Highly recommend!
#2 Everyone Lotion
Same story as the soap above. I often get the Unscented because I even use this as my face lotion but the various scented varieties tend to be more available and with a better price on Amazon. So we tend to get what’s well priced, and pick up the Unscented when available. This is just an all around awesome lotion though, no greasy feeling, lightweight but effective. We keep a big pump bottle in each bathroom and even the kitchen.
#3 Puracy detergent & pouch refills
A clean, safe, and effective laundry detergent… in a tiny convenient bottle of super 10X concentrated gel… with a pump… that has plastic-saving pouch refills… and costs less per load than standard detergents! For a full load in my HE machine I use two little pumps of detergent- that’s it. Need I say more?
#4 Puracy handsoap pumps & pouch refills
We bought the Puracy handsoap pumps years ago and have just refilled as needed by buying these plastic-saving pouch refills in our Subscribe & Save deliveries over the years. The pumps have held up well, but you could also use this refill in a decorative soap pump. Love anything that reduces our plastic waste. It also has a very mild scent and is gentle on sensitive skin. We do the same thing with Puracy dishsoap and refills.
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Favorite household workers with staying power
In addition to the category of constantly consumed items like those above, there are a few long term keepers that make my ‘highly recommend’ simplification list.
#5 Dryer balls
Did you know dryer sheets are bad for your fabrics and your skin? And it seems like just another item I used to buy only to be thrown away, as well as being another source of chemicals which seems worse. We bought these 100% wool dryer balls almost six years ago to bounce around in the dryer in place of fabric softener or dryer sheets. Besides losing one to the dog, they are still going strong! Clothes don’t have that ‘chemically soft’ feeling that softener or softener sheets give, but I think once you get used to unscented laundry, you won’t want to go back either. Definitely worth a try!
#6 Mason jars
These jars are basically the ageless, multi-tasking master that do their various jobs while looking great too- a lot like moms everywhere! ;). Besides canning, they can be used as beverage glasses, food storage (dry, wet, cold, hot), breastmilk storage, home organization, clever gifting, the list is endless. One thing I love is the lid situation. My Pyrex food storage set is going strong… except for the lids which are starting to crack and aren’t leak-proof to begin with. Mason jar lids of a variety of types are easily obtainable because canning jars aren’t meant to have their standard steel lids continually reused anyway. We have a couple of these white plastic reusable lids that can be used indefinitely with our jars, giving a leak-proof seal for transporting soup to the office for lunch and such. My coworker uses the little tiny jars for salad dressing, brilliant. I love the jelly jar size for kids’ beverage glasses, the perfect size for little hands.
#7 Surgical/huck towels
This idea is one a savvy dear friend uses in her house so I couldn’t resist including it. It’s utilitarian sanity saving brilliance. These towels are no lint, absorbent, 100% cotton (designed to be used in surgical instrument packs!) and hold up a loooong time. She uses her set (which she’s had for 3+ years) as dish towels, cloth napkins, housecleaning, pretty much anything (I bet they’d make great burp cloths too). So I’m imagining my laundry folding… instead of a stack of kitchen hand towels, a stack of dish towels, a stack of kitchen napkins, and a stack of other towels for the hall closet cleaning pile…. it’s just ONE type of multi-tasking towel. Mind blown. AND since they are dark blue or green (typically), you’re not constantly fighting stains on the more widely popular white cotton kitchen towels. Besides, if you grab one of these to clean up spaghetti sauce instead of a disposable paper towel, well, you can downgrade it to cleaning cloth if it doesn’t come clean. Another multi-tasking household workhorse- at a bargain price no less- that reduces dependency on disposable stuff. Love.
I hope one or two of the items on this list might bring you some home efficiency and simplicity joy. Please list your own favorites in the comments!
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