---
title: Sustainable Living
date: 2025-11-20
lastmod: 
published: true
tags: 
    - housekeeping
    - sustainability
---

As a homeowner, I have made it an ongoing goal to adopt sustainable and eco-friendly practices. As with all new undertakings, start with the small things and work your way up. 

Before we get started, I do have to add one caveat. Disposable goods *do* have some legitimate use-cases, like sanitization and keeping things sterile (e.g. disposable needles, disinfectant wipes, toilet paper, etc).

In roughly increasing order of how difficult it was for me to build these habits, here are some of the things I do.

## Cultivate a distaste for disposable products, especially single-use plastics

Buy a thing of Milano cookies and see that the cookies are separated with plastic risers into tiers, and how each tier is wrapped in plastic. The damn bag is already sealed! 

Buy a pack of paper towel rolls, and notice that each roll is individually wrapped in plastic, inside the overall plastic-wrapped pack.

Just think about how pointless and wasteful all this single-use plastic is. Imagine a turtle swallowing a piece of this plastic and choking to death.

Now think about how much money you spend on paper towel. Think about how much money you spend on bottles of cleaning spray, and how much waste they generate.

This is your first step.

When you opt for reusable things instead of disposable things, it's an investment that is both eco-friendly and financially rewarding.

You can't always control how things are packaged, but if you develop this anti-disposable mindset, it will nudge you towards choosing better products.


## Use natural lighting during the day

If you have LEDs, this won't save much energy, but every little bit counts. And sunlight is good for the soul.


## Buy in bulk

As containers grow in size, the surface-area-to-volume ratio typically decreases. In other words, you'll generate much less waste buying a gallon jug of dishsoap than you would buying 4x 32oz bottles.

Typically, unit prices also go down when you buy larger containers or multi-packs, so it's a win-win.


## Use powder laundry detergent

Powder detergent is much cheaper than liquid detergent, and you need much less of it to wash your clothes. When I moved here a hear and a half ago, I bought a 16.5lb drum of Arm & Hammer powder detergent from Home Depot for a little over $30. I'm not even halfway through it.

Liquid detergents also sometimes contain byproducts of petroleum cracking.


## Mix your own cleaning sprays

Blueland sells tablets that you can dissolve in water to make your own cleaning spray. They also sell volumetric reusable spray bottles, which you can use to easily ensure your cleaning solution is made to the correct concentration.

As of the time of writing, the tablets are around $2 unit price. Most cleaning sprays in disposable bottles cost at least twice as much and generate a bunch of plastic waste. Blueland uses compostable packaging.


## Don't use garbageware

Stop using garbageware (disposable utensils, plates, cups, etc). If you have a dishwasher, just use it. If you are hosting company and are overwhelmed by dishes, conscript someone to help you; most people are eager to be good guests. It's just not worth generating so much waste. If you're afraid of people breaking your fine china, get reusable plastic dishes. If someone serves you with garbageware, act offended. Cultural attitudes need to change in order for us to make progress.

If you get a paper cup at a restaurant, try to go without a straw or lid. If you are getting carryout, ask for no plasticware (or better yet, just don't get carryout).


## Use cloth towels instead of paper towels

Cleaning up after my son as he learns how to feed himself, I would go through a roll of paper towel in less than a week. So wasteful and so expensive. So, I bought these Mioeco-brand "reusable paper towels". People said that they're a scam and just to use regular rags, but I did not have rags, and these seemed like they would have a good texture (they do).

I use these to wipe up his crumbs. When one gets too crumby, I rinse it off in the sink, wring it out, and use it again. Once I feel like it's too gross, I throw it in a bucket I keep on my countertop. When I run low, I wash them.

Likewise, I use cloth napkins instead of paper napkins or paper towels. I got separate cloth napkins because the "reusable paper towels" have a nice rough texture for wiping hard surfaces, not skin. 


## Use a water flosser

When I first started trying to reduce single-use plastics, I switched from disposable floss picks to a reusable floss pick, which uses spools from floss cartridges. This is much less wasteful, but still generates plastic waste in the form of the empty cartridges, as well as the floss itself.

After I got some floss stuck in my teeth and had to go to the dentist to have it removed, I switched to a water flosser (we decided on the classic Waterpik). I now generate no plastic waste, and my teeth feel cleaner than ever. There's no chance of floss getting stuck between my teeth now, and the water flosser minimizes gum bleeding too.


## Turn off fans when not in use

Fans use a lot of energy (typically hundreds of watts; cf LED overhead lights, which typically use less than 10W). It's important to use them to keep the air fresh and even out the temperature in the house, but be sure to turn them off when not in use.


## Use canvas bags, boxes, or baskets instead of plastic grocery bags

I purchased a set of 4 canvas-and-mesh bags for groceries (including one with thermal lining) from Meijer several years ago. The bags have poles in them that span the top of a grocery cart, so they dangle down into it. Whenever I empty them, I try to toss them into the back of my car. If they get gross, I just toss them in the wash.

I also keep a few collapsible baskets in case I forget the bags, or in case the basket would be more convenient.

In one of the grocery bags, I keep smaller cloth bags for fresh fruits and vegetables. Whenever I use these, I wash them along with with towels, work gloves, bibs, etc.

If you slip up and forget your reusable grocery recepticles, just use their paper bags because you can compost them.


## Use LED lighting

This takes more monetary investment that many of the other practices, but you also it's also pretty much a one-and-done. LEDs use around 10x less power than incandescent lights, and they don't dump a bunch of heat into their surroundings (which you have to air condition away in the summer), and they typically last much longer. I think I've only had to replace two LED bulbs in the last 2 years (and they were in the same fixture, so maybe there's a problem with that).


## Distill your own water

This doesn't apply to everyone, just people who use a lot of distilled water. We use distilled water in our humidifiers, bottle washer, warm water dispenser (for making bottles), steam cleaner, Waterpik, etc. Some things don't explicitly require distilled, but if you do use distilled, you don't have to worry about having to clean out salt buildup.

We got a countertop still, and we typically have to run it 1 to 3 times per day. This keeps us from wasting around 20 plastic jugs of distilled water per day. The downside is that it does take a considerable amount of energy to distill the water, but it's worth not needing to use all that plastic (or carry that many jugs in from the grocery store every week).


## Go to the farmers' market

Fresh produce at the farmers' market is typically cheaper, tastier, less likely to be affected by recalls, and supports people in your community instead of supermarkets. Things at the farmers' market are also less likely to use single-use plastics.


## Shop online less

There are some easy ways to make shopping online less wasteful. Whenever possible, ship in the manufacturer's packaging, and choose lower-carbon delivery options.

But actually reducing how much you shop online is tough but rewarding. Shipping costs money and energy (even if the cost is incorporated into the price of the product instead of a distinct "shipping fee"), and inevitably requires more disposable packaging than what you would buy from a store.

I understand that it isn't always possible to buy stuff locally, and if you are very busy, it can be hard to get to the store. But I'm not saying be perfect; just try.


## Compost

I'm still in the process of getting started with composting. 

For years, I have felt deeply bad about putting vegetable waste in plastic trash bags and shipping them off to the dump. So, as much as possible, I try to chuck food waste into the woods, just so the nutrients can return to the ecosystem. I purchased a countertop compost bin, in which I put fruit/vegetable waste. Every few days, I dump the bin onto a pile in the woods.

Soon, I'm planning to use a compost tumbler. I'll also be able to put shredded office paper and packaging cardboard waste into the composter and turn it plus the biomass into fertile soil for gardening.

