Happy Earth Day 2017, Crafters! As Earth day was getting closer and closer, I was thinking about how I, as a maker, reduce my carbon footprint on our lovely planet. I thought I would share some ways you can too!
My family lives pretty frugally and we are big on recycling. (Yes, I’m the person that washes out those plastic containers and either keeps them, or throws them in the blue bin!) I look at it as a challenge each week to see how little I can throw away. 😀 Here’s a few tips for you to be a little more Green in your life!
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Stop buying sponges.
A few years ago I made a set of crochet multipurpose cloths as I was tired of buying sponge after sponge for my kitchen. Plus, being as they are a breeding ground for bacteria to marinate I knew I needed to stop using them! Instead of replacing my sponge every 2 weeks as the CDC recommends, I found a skein of 100% cotton yarn in my stash and got cracking! They are still going strong to this day, and I don’t miss a sponge one bit! 1 skein of yarn made roughly 6 cloths which is great for keeping one for dishes, one for counters…etc.
Make Plarn!
This is one of my favorite ways to use up those plastic bags you have laying around your home! I do my best to try and remember my reusable bags every time I go to the store, but hey.. I’m only human right? I still find it astonishing the amount of bags I STILL accumulate even when bringing my reusable ones with me most of the time!!
You can visit my Plarn Round up post from last year’s Earth Day for some great ideas… or my Pinterest board that I like to update whenever I find a new one!
Stop buying laundry detergent & dryer sheets.
On average a household can spend anywhere from $200 – $600 per year on laundry detergent alone, so I knew this was an area I could definitely cut costs. It was my bonus sister that recently turned me on to this eco-friendly laundry soap alternative. These laundry balls are good for 1500 loads of laundry, so you can for sure expect to be throwing out laundry containers less. As of today they were on sale too! I totally recommend checking them out.
I also was tired of having to buy dryer sheets, and so ended up buying a set of wool dryer balls, but if you have 100% wool yarn you can make these yourself as well! There are some great how-to’s on that here. I also feel a LOT better about not having all the harsh chemicals on my family’s clothing!
Stop buying cleaning products.
You can considerably decrease the amount of harsh chemicals in your entire household by making your own cleaners! They are still as effective as store bought ones! I recently purchased a starter pack of essential oils to aid me in doing this, and I’ve been quite pleased. You can find a lot of recipes on my Pinterest boards for cleaning and essential oils to start you out! I use mostly distilled white vinegar in all of my cleaning recipes, as well as baking soda. Very cost effective, since the average family can spend about $500 per year on cleaning products alone!
Tip: I have found that buying the 4 pack of glass Perrier bottles is great to use for my cleaners, since you usually want to store your homemade cleaners in dark bottles… and you can buy dollar store bottles with nozzles, or save the ones from your cleaning products that you are no longer using!
On a frugal note, I love stocking up at Dollar Tree for household products, and think they have some of the best stock-up prices I’ve found. The best price year-round on toilet paper I have found is at Dollar Tree. For value the thickness and softness is awesome! Try it out for yourself before stocking up on a case! I usually find the best price per yard is with the Home brand, which they carry in-store. We are also a bar soap type-of-household here, so I pick up their Dial Basics Hypoallergenic Bar Soap 3-Pack there too. You can buy an entire case for only $12, which is 36 bars of soap for $0.33 cents a piece. You can’t beat that! Plus if you use Dollar Tree’s Free ship-to-store option you don’t have to pay for shipping!
I hope you have a blessed & happy Earth Day and you spend a few moments today thinking about how you can contribute to helping the environment in your daily life! Here’s a few fun DIY Earth Day activities you can do to celebrate!
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