The Best Reusable Products to Reduce Waste

Whether it’s Earth Day or you are looking to make a switch to more reusable products, you will find something in this list of 50+ Things You Didn’t Know You Could Buy Reusable!

We’re all looking to make better choices for our families and the environment. For us, we are trying to buy more and more reusable products to be more environmentally friendly and also make our own lives healthier at the same time.

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The first step that most of us takes towards a greener life is typically using reusable bags at the grocery store. You may have reusable soap dispenser or even use a reusable coffee mug at your local convenience store.

However, there’s so many more reusable products that you can buy reusable versions of now that you might have never even know (I know I didn’t know some of these!).

We decided in celebration of Earth Month that we would create this list of 50+ Things You Can Buy Reusable Versions of today! Some of these we already use and other ones we are working to implement ourselves. If we missed any, let us know!

For The Kitchen

Obviously, we are a food blog, so the very first thing that we even think about is the kitchen. What reusable products are we able to get into the kitchen and swap out! Since everyone has to eat, one of the best places to look for great sustainable products to switch out would be to start in the kitchen.

Paper Towels – lots of options! We like ones with snaps!
Plastic Wrap– there’s silicone versions available
Straws – so many options – from glass to stainless steel and beyond, make sure you get BPA free!
K-Cup
Tea Bags and Coffee Filters – buying loose coffee and tea bags saves you money, buying reusable filters will save you even more!
Dish Scrubbers – use a dish cloth or grab some actual scrubbers that are washable
Silicone Baking Cups – no one needs those paper wrappers anyway!
Popsicle Molds – Kids love making their own popsicles and this way you can do it all the time
Wooden Skewers – replace these with metal skewers – they’re easier to use!
Grill Cooking Sheet – instead of using aluminum foil!
Chopsticks – Buy a reusable pair – These would make a nice gift!
Wine Protector Sleeves – Ditch the paper bags and just use these (or just carry it out without anything!)! In addition, you can use reusable corks.
Produce Bags – no more plastic bags for all your fruit, just reuse these over and over
Lunch/Snack bags – tons of size and pattern options! We love using these.

For the Laundry Room

Obviously we all need to wash our clothes as well, so the laundry room is another great place to incorporate reusable products into our routines.

Dryer Sheets – replace these chemical infused sheets with dryer balls and scent with essential oils if desired- these are the dryer balls are the perfect swap
Laundry Detergent – Yes, you can have a reusable laundry detergent, alternatively, you could also use laundry sheets which eliminate the need for laundry bottles.
Wet Bags – If you use cloth diapers, reusable tissues, sanitary napkins, or a number of other options, these come in handy! We love them for wet swimsuits after the beach too!

For the Bathroom

There are so many things in the bathroom that you can replace and create a more sustainable bathroom! Some of these reusable products may come as a shock so proceed if you dare.

Cotton Balls – Cottons balls are just cotton that you throw away. Replace them with cotton make-up remover pads or even better money saving option – go for baby washcloths!
Electric Shavers – ditch the disposables and get a wet/dry shaver for women and an electric shaver for men
Cloth Shower Liner – no more having to worry about mildew on the plastic liner when guest comes over, just wash and re-hang
Toothbrush – these recycled handle toothbrushes last forever, just replace the head, or you can go with a disposable option that is 100% biodegradable
Gum stimulator – instead of floss go with this option that’s better for you
Menstrual Products – Prefer tampons? – go with a cup; Pads your choice? – go with cloth pads. We’ve been using cloth pads for 9 years now with great success.
Breastpads – if breastfeeding, these are definitely a go to product you need
Beauty face mask – This reusable moisturizing mask has high reviews, though we’ve never personally tried it.
Toilet Paper – Don’t shoot the messenger. Some families swear by this. You can find lots of options on Etsy – just search “family cloth” or “reusable toilet paper”. An alternative that more people are comfortable with is a Bidet like the Tushy 3.0.

Misc Home

Around the house, there are some other reusable products that we can swap traditional items for to make our homes more sustainable!

Furnace/AC Filter – you should replace these every 4 months in your home, but buy a reusable one and you’ll never have to again, just rinse and reuse!
Car Filter – same as the home filters, these should be changed often in your car. Check with your local mechanic about reusable options
Sweeper Cleaning Pads – so much cheaper than continuously buying the store brand cleaning pads
Dry Cleaning Bags – I couldn’t stand how many plastic bags came wrapped in our dry cleaning every time! Use these reusable bags and ditch the plastic.
Toothpicks– Use stainless steel toothpick to replace your toothpicks! Just wash and reuse! Traditionally they are used for turkey, but we can change that to give them a better purpose!

For Kids

We could definitely probably expand this list of kids reusable products if we thought about it enough, but here’s some that we have used ourselves over the last almost decade of being parents!

1. Food Pouches – Allows you to make and take your own purees, applesauce, and more.
2. Diapers – Using cloth diapers saves you and the environment tons of money – Cotton Babies Flip System and Green Mountain Diaper fitteds were our favorite ones
3. Wipes – You can swap out disposable wipes for cloth ones. Looking to upcycle, you can also cut up old tshirts and reuse those as wipes
4. Juice Boxes – Just swap these and kids still get the fun juice box fill. Even better, these won’t spill everywhere when squeezed!
5. Swim Diapers – Disposable swim diapers are the biggest scam. They don’t do anything but hold in poop. Reusable swim diapers do exactly the same thing and last from birth to potty training.
6. Reusable Coloring Shirts – Kids LOVE coloring their own clothes! Did you know if you grab these coloring shirts and use Crayola Ultraclean Washable Markers and you can wash and color all over again!
7. Stickers – Sometimes stickers are the vein of a parents existence. Reusable Sticker Books all for less of a mess.

For Pets

While we don’t have pets ourselves, we are sure that disposable products can get really expensive with certain needs for animals. Here’s a few reusable products for pets that will help!

1. Pee Pads – Animals can be expensive. Save lots of money with these reusable pee pads.
2. Lint Roller – A reusable lint roller just needs washed and it’s pretty close in price to what you pay for disposable ones.
3. Dog Diapers – Same with kids cloth diapers but for dogs – Grab these Reusable Dog Diapers

For Travel

When traveling, you may not always think to bring your reusable products, but once you build a habit, it will be second nature!

Plastic Cutlery – Grab a reusable spork set for everyone in the family and never worry about plastic again. Bonus – you never have to worry about these breaking if you push down to hard
Takeout Containers – Out to eat at a restaurant? Take containers with you and ditch the styrofoam containers which never leave landfills.
Snack Containers – while we never used formula, these formula snack containers has been the absolute best snack containers while traveling for our kids! We can pack three different things and they can pick and choose what they want when ready
Reusable Sporks – We have these reusable UCO Utility Sporks for ourselves and they are perfect when traveling! We love how they connect together so nothing gets lost!

Misc

Below we just have a few more reusable products that we think are helpful that most people use in and around their homes that we hope help!

1. Wrapping Paper – I can tell you from experience, kid’s have zero care about how presents are wrapped. Buy reusable wrapping paper and never worry about running out again. Bonus tip: looking to save money? Wrap presents in newspaper.
2. Batteries – Having kids, we spending hundreds on batteries alone over the course of a kid’s life. You can buy AA and AAA reusable batteries and recharge again and again.
3. Pens – Buy refillable pens and never worry about the ink drying out of your favorite pen again!
4. Ink cartridges – Grab refillable printer cartridges and just do them yourself. It saves a ton too!
5. Hand Warmers – I remember going through a crazy amount of hand warmers at college football games. This rechargeable hand warmer is super neat and we’ll be getting one for snowboarding season!
6. Rain Barrels – reuse water! It’s free water that you can use for plants, kid’s outdoor play, and more. We love these rain barrel planters that look like home decor!
7. Cable ties/twist ties/zip ties – I had no idea reusable zip ties etc existed! We’ll be grabbing these soon!
8. Dry Erase Sheet Protector – We love these reusable sheet protectors for homeschool. We can do the same worksheets again and again and it also allows me to save the sheets for our second little too!
9. Balloons – YES! These is such a thing as reusable balloons! No helium need! How cool is that!?

What switch will you make for Earth Day?

It’s so amazing to see so many different reusable products!

If everyone could swap out 3 or 5 things from this list, we could all start by doing our part. Obviously one of the easiest swaps that you can make is simply swapping out plastic water bottles for a reusable one!

We hope you love our list of 50+ things you didn’t know you could buy reusable. Did we miss something? Let us know in the comments!