Recently my household (my partner, a dog, and our four rabbits) have really tried to start reducing our personal impacts on the environment. Even though I am an environmental scientist is an area in which I have been slacking in. I have found that there are a lot of things you can do that are not only eco-friendly but also save money. Here is a rundown of the changes we’ve made in no particular order.

• I have started to make a lot of the products we use including personal care and cleaning. The only thing I don’t make is dishwasher detergent (a request from my partner), soap (I don’t want to mess with lye), laundry soap (I use soap berries), toothpaste (not messing with fluoride) and deodorant (very hard to make correctly). A lot of what you end up paying for in these products is the water in them. You also have to pay for the water-filled products to be shipped around when you can just add tap water to basic ingredients to make basically everything. I keep a list of how I like to make everything on a list on the fridge. One of the best things I started making was a DIY version of the Lysol wipes. My kitchen gets a lot of use and therefore gets really dirty. I loved that they killed bacteria but hated throwing the wipes out after. Thyme oil actually kills a similar amount of bacteria. I found this recipe and love it! If there is interest I can do a more lengthy post on how to make everything.

• I have committed to not buying anything new unless I have to. This applies to household goods and clothing. Goodwill is a go-to store for me. While there are critics of Goodwill they do use their profits to help put people back to work. I also will buy clothes for work from Thredup. If you think about how many materials there are in the world already it’s crazy to buy everything new. Nextdoor also offers a lot of household things for sale.
• I’ve greatly reduced the amount of junk mail/ past residence mail I have gotten. Whenever I get junk mail I make sure to unsubscribe from the companies mailings by filling out an online form if they have one, or calling/ emailing them. I also write return to sender on all mail not addressed to myself, my partner, or “current resident”. It may seem small but it has reduced the amount of resources being used to send me coupons I don’t want.

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