So I have been thinking a lot about ways to use less and reduce our carbon imprint at home. And in honor of Earth Day, I decided to write them all down for you. I hope you find them useful!

• Use cloth napkins instead of paper towels or paper napkins at home! My hubby and I made the switch last year and it’s made a significant impact on how often we have to buy paper towels. Here are the napkins we bought and I’m really happy with their quality. They do great in the washing machine too.
• If you haven’t made the switch to cloth or reusable produce bags, now is the time! I bought these bags on Amazon. They do great in the wash and I like that they come in a variety of sizes.
• I put an empty reusable coffee mug in my car or my purse if I know I might stop for coffee while I’m out. Every coffee shop I visit is happy to use my cup from home and use one less paper cup! Here’s a link to my favorite mug.
• If you are a fan of LaCroix, then may I suggest using a soda stream instead. The whole concept of recycling is great, but if we don’t start using LESS, we aren’t doing much to be kind to our earth. We started using a soda stream and it’s amazing. And no more aluminum cans. When your CO2 Canister runs out, you can drop it off at Bed Bath and Beyond or other participating retailers. They will give you a discount on a new one and recycle or refill the old one and sell it again! Here’s a conversation on Reddit about how this works.
• I started making my own broth at home for cooking. This is a great way to reduce food waste! Every time I have a veggie scrap, like the end of an onion or some left over celery or carrots, I put it in a zip lock back in my freezer. I also save the bones from chicken every time we make a roasted chicken or thighs, etc. I throw it all in the same freezer bag and when I need broth, I dump the frozen contents into my slow cooker, fill it with water and add any seasoning I think it might need. Let is slow cook for like 6-8 hours and then drain it all. You can store the broth in mason jars! It freezes great and it adds such an amazing depth of flavor to any soups or stews you make. Here is a great broth recipe from my favorite lady, nocrumbsleft.
• I also make my own mayo. No need to buy jars of it at the store. It takes five minutes, tastes delicious and is way healthier than the store bought versions… (and cheaper). Here is the mayo recipe I use!

One last point: I know I linked to a lot of products on Amazon in my post. And while I don’t want to discourage anyone from using this highly convenient method of shopping, I would like to highly encourage you to group your purchases all together as much as you can. By reducing the amount of ordering we do from online retailers, we can cut down on all of the resources used to pack and ship our orders, including fuel, cardboard, plastic and more!