Living a green and eco-friendly lifestyle does not have to be hard or expensive. There are many things you can do to increase your sustainable living and decrease your footprint on the earth. Another great thing about these ideas is they will save you money in the long run and help you to live more frugally. Here are a few ways we live an eco-friendly lifestyle:
1. Use wool dryer balls instead of store bought dryer sheets. They naturally help to reduce drying time and static.
2. Use cloth paper towels, more commonly known as "un-paper towels" instead of disposable paper ones. If you're crafty and want to make your own, here is a tutorial on how to make un-paper towels.
3. Use cloth napkins instead of disposable paper napkins. Here is an easy tutorial on how to make cloth napkins from scrap fabric.
4. Use cloth menstrual pads and panty liners instead of disposables. They not only come in fun prints but they are so much more soft and comfortable than disposable pads!
5. Use cloth diapers instead of disposable diapers. Stay tuned for our cloth diaper series where we'll talk more about the different styles and how to care for them.
6. Use cloth baby wipes instead of disposable wipes. You can also use them as "family cloth" instead of toilet paper for the whole family. If you are already using cloth diapers, this is a really easy one since you just throw them in with your dirty diaper laundry.
7. Use reusable nursing pads instead of disposable. These can be fleece backed or wool backed and much more comfortable than disposable. Plus they can be made with fun prints!
8. Upcycle! Upcycling is when you reuse or repurpose an item for another use instead of throwing it out. We do a lot of upcycling in our house. For example, here's our tutorial on how to repurpose a sweatshirt into a baby sleep sack. We also upcycle wool sweaters into cloth diaper covers and fun baby hats.
When upcycling, be creative and think outside the box and the possibilities are endless. My favorite hat right now is one I made out of a vintage curtain I found at a rummage sale!
All of these ideas can be made at home with some basic sewing and crafting skills. If you're not the crafty type, you can also find many of these items for sale in our Etsy shop.
What are some ways you live more green and eco-friendly?
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This post shared on: The HomeAcre Hop, Your Green Resource Natural Living Link up Simple Lives Thursday Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways ,Simply Natural Saturdays Clever Chicks Blog Hop
Eat Make Grow Hop
This post shared on: The HomeAcre Hop, Your Green Resource Natural Living Link up Simple Lives Thursday Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways ,Simply Natural Saturdays Clever Chicks Blog Hop
Eat Make Grow Hop
Excellent post. I'm going to share it with my GG community!
ReplyDeleteYay!!! With the exception of family cloth (husby won't hear of it), we made all these switches in the last year - and I love it! It's so much easier than I imagined, and there are so many benefits! We don't have to take out the trash nearly as often, everything is so much softer and more comfortable, we're saving tons of money - I wish everyone would at least give these things a try!
ReplyDeleteIf you use it for yourself just for pee, you'll still be saving a lot of toilet paper, and there will be fewer odor and sanitation concerns for your husband to worry about!
DeleteNice article! I love reusable stuff, especially cute flannel prints!
I love all the images. Thanks for the reminder!
ReplyDeleteI love my wool dryer balls - the only problem is with my large family the balls get lost when someone does a load and doesn't return it to the dryer. But when they are there they work great. Great list. Love all the fun colors to your cloths!
ReplyDeleteI love you. This is great.
ReplyDeleteWe cloth diaper and use the wool dryer balls. I keep debating about switching over to mama cloths.
ReplyDeleteGreat ways to help the environment :) I love have reusable products around our house rather than disposable. Thanks for sharing on The HomeAcre Hop! This is right up our alley :)
ReplyDeleteAre the drier balls made of wool felt? As in: could I make some out of old sweaters and some roving?
ReplyDeleteYes! They aren't too difficult to make if you have roving and know some basics about felting.
Deletelove and use most of these ideas. Please share on my blog hop:
ReplyDeletehttp://repurposemylife.com/repurposed-ideas-weekly-20-sawdust-sculptures/?preview=true&preview_id=3550&preview_nonce=dccb56a74c
shared you on my facebook page!
Very important steps to a greener life. I love using cloth towels instead of paper ones. But I must confess that I still cannot bring myself to using cloth menstrual pads, which is not so bad, it means that I have what to work on! Thank you for sharing all these great ideas and for making them affordable for us!
ReplyDeleteI have been wanting to try wool dryer balls for a long time! We live in an apartment and share a washer and dryer, but I often hang clothes on a rack up in our hallway. It's in the way a lot but it saves a lot of energy!
ReplyDeleteWhat do wool dryer balls do for your laundry? I have to ask mainly because I don't use dryer sheets - or anything at all! ;)
ReplyDeleteI don't have any "unpaper towels" exactly, but I cut up old T-shirts into cleaning rags, which I use for almost anything that would normally require a paper towel - except grease. I like to be able to just throw greasy paper towels away! I haven't succeeded in turning my husband on to the cloth rags, but my boys are pretty well trained to reach for them. (And I got a LOT more rags after making a T-shirt quilt for a friend - so I was able to turn what would be trash into recycled treasure for us!) We do still use paper towels instead of cloth napkins, but we really only use them when eating pizza, so I'm not too concerned about that at this point.
Your unpaper towels are WAY cuter than my ripped up shirt rags! Want. :P
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post! I am proud to say I do all of the above :) I love to try and see how we can be more eco friendly. I realized that recently I have been falling back on a few things and could pick it up. I plan to do better once baby arrives. Im pretty much on bed rest now :S
ReplyDeleteLove the hats! And the unpaper towels are great too...I need to make some.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to get into upcycling a little more. I like to see everyone's ideas and get my own ideas for repurposing.
ReplyDeleteWe do all of those on your list except the cloth paper towels. I keep wanting to try them but run out of time when making some time to make them. I should probably just break down and buy some! Thanks for the great post!
ReplyDeletelove this list of greener things one can do! that material is just so cute for the unpaper towels!
ReplyDeleteLove this post - I try so hard to be eco friendly and these are some great ways to do it. :) *bookmarking for tutorials*
ReplyDeleteThank you for this article.... I had never even consider some of these things before!
ReplyDeleteJust won a set of dryer balls and I'm so excited about trying them!
ReplyDeleteGreat idea on the dryer balls. Thank you for sharing with the Clever Chicks Blog Hop this week; I hope you’ll join us again!
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Kathy Shea Mormino
The Chicken Chick
http://www.The-Chicken-Chick.com
cant wait for the items i have ordered to make your suggestions in this post that much easier for me an my family.
ReplyDeleteLove these ideas- I already use cloth napkins but feel inspired to make some paper towels now, too!
ReplyDeleteOnce you realize how much you spend on paper towels the switch to cloth napkins is so easy. It's even easier if you find you are on a tight budget. I invested in cloth napkins a few years back and have not bought paper towels since. Though it did take some convincing to my son that it was ok to get the pretty napkins dirty - even stained. I was using Nettie plastic dryer balls when I was married, but lost them when I got divorced. I have some wool balls on my wish list once I have some extra funds! Is it ok to put a few drops of essential oil on these when you throw them in the dryer for fragrance?
ReplyDeleteThat's great you've already made the switch to cloth napkins! A lot of folks who like a little added fragrance to their clean laundry add a few drops of their favorite essential oil to the wool dryer balls. You just need to add a few more drops every so often when the scent starts wearing off.
DeleteThank you so much for the links and great ideas! I really like the cloth napkin DIY project :)
ReplyDeleteAwesome post! We are doing all of these except mam cloth and unpaper towels! I hope to start both in the future though-thanks! BTW- you wool soaker is beautiful
ReplyDeletePerfect post !! Thank you !
ReplyDeleteDoucesLaines, Eco Chic Handknits
douceslaines.blogspot.com
douceslaines.etsy.com
I just started trying "unpaper" towels...actually a roll of bamboo towels...and I really like them!
ReplyDeleteI need to start making my own cloth menstrual pads. I have just started using them and love the difference and how much more comfortable they are
ReplyDeleteI need to get some of those wool dryer balls, and definitely need to start using cloth paper towels.
ReplyDeleteilike the deal you did and they would be great for the new born in need for the new moms
ReplyDeleteThese are some really great tips, especially the wool dryer balls. So easy to incorporate into my routine!
ReplyDeleteWe practice most of these tips but I'm always looking for new ideas! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteWe practice most of these tips but I'm always looking for new ways to go green! thanks!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tips. We are working on becoming more eco friendly. We have come a long way.
ReplyDeleteThese are great ideas. We do some of these. I need more self efficacy for upcyclying
ReplyDelete