Living a green life – my favorite products for a sustainable home

Ever since I was about 14 years old and saw the documentary ”An Unconvenient Truth” for the first time (it was in chemistry class), climate change has been a very important topic for me. Back then I didn’t know much, I mostly put badges on my backpack that said ”stop climate change”. What a rebel I thought I was. I’m proud that I realized that this was a serious problem at 14 years of age though.  

Almost 15 years has passed since that chemistry lesson, and today climate change is one of the most discussed topics in the world. In Sweden you read about it on a daily basis and it’s critical that we change the way we live if we should be able to save the environment and all the animals living here. 

I didn’t know much about how to stop climate change when I was in high school, back then you mostly talked about fossil fuels and companies producing greenhouse gases. Little did I know that my actions mattered as well. That is, however, something that I’ve learned throughout the years. I now know that what I do, and the way I live, matters a lot. 

Over the last years I’ve tried to improve as much as possible, and I still am of course. As long as one’s not living a climate neutral life, living more climate friendly should be on everyone’s list of resolutions/goals, right? You could write books about all the things you can do in order to live more climate friendly. I don’t want to tell people what to do, I just want to inspire people to think about their everyday choices. The take-away coffee you are buying every morning, all the new clothes you are buying, the food you are eating, how you travel, how much plastic you are using on a daily basis, your skincare products. There’s so much to improve, and yes, it can indeed feel overwhelming at first. 

We’ve improved one area at the time. We started with our food choices, then we went through our bathroom cabinet and over time replaced our old products with new and natural/organic ones. Then we went through our kitchen drawers and replaced old (and rather disgusting) plastic boxes with new ones in glass. It’s not like we just threw everything out during one day and then went buying new stuff for hundreds of dollars. Instead, we replaced broken stuff with new and sustainable things. When the body lotion bottle was empty, we bought a new one that was organic and made from natural ingredients. Over time, we’ve replaced a lot of our old stuff with sustainable products. I’ve written about some of my skincare/makeup favorites before if you’re into that (here!). 

Today, I wanted to share a mix of some of my favorite things – from the bathroom, the kitchen, the wardrobe and the living room. Just to inspire you to have a green and clean start to the new year (even though it’s already April, hehe). 

Laundry & clothes

Changing to an environmental friendly detergent has been one of the hardest things if you ask me. We’ve tried several different brands and they didn’t work. And by ”didn’t work” I mean that the laundry was still dirty after washing it. Last year I found two new brands that I absolutely love. Both Washologi and Tangent Garment Care are Swedish brands and both are all about garment care. Their products are environmental friendly and they encourage you to take care of your clothes – the total opposite to the wear-and-tear philosophy that has been for so long. 

Right now we’re using a detergent from Washologi for our clothes, a fragrance free detergent from Washologi for the baby clothes and a denim wash from Tangent GC for our denim products. 

We also have a linen spray from Washologi, which is amazing when you want to freshen up the cushion pillows, the bedding or a sweater that you’ve worn but which isn’t ready for laundry yet. 

Another thing you can do to improve your laundry game is to buy a Guppyfriend Washing Bag. It’s a bag that absorbs microplastics from your clothes, which would otherwise end up in the ocean. 

Taking care of the clothes we have will make them last longer and you won’t have to buy new ones as often. This is of course very environmental friendly, and if you buy vintage instead of new when you need something, that’s even better. Personally, I think it’s ok to buy new clothes every now and then if you make sure that the garment you’re buying is of good quality, is made of sustainable materials, and it’s something that you will wear for a long time. Saying no to fast fashion and choosing quality over quantity is key here.

Another thing we got lately was tiny balls of red cedar wood. It helps keeping the linen and clothes fresh (and moths and other bugs away) so we’ve placed them in our wardrobes. And they smell heavenly! 

Kitchen 

We used up all our straws and instead of buying new ones made from paper (or plastic) we bought organic bamboo straws. For about 80 SEK, or 8 USD, we got six bamboo straws and a tiny brush to clean them with. So much more environmental friendly! But once again, we didn’t throw away the straws we had, we used them up and then bought new ones in a sustainable material. 

Instead of using dishcloths that you throw away after a couple of weeks – buy one (or several) that you can reuse. We’re using linen dishcloths produced by a Swedish company called Växbo Lin, but I’m sure you can find similar ones where you live. When they are starting to smell bad or just not seem fresh anymore, you just wash them in the washing machine and they’re like new again. 

Another thing I just love is to use bicarbonate for cleaning. It does magic to the kitchen sink. You know how brown-ish it can look if you haven’t cleaned it for a while? Well, just sprinkle some bicarbonate in the sink and use the dish-brush to clean it. It’ll shine like diamonds afterwards. We use this bicarbonate from La Droguerie Écologique when cleaning (it’s not for baking) and we use a dish-brush made of wood with a brush that you can replace (you don’t have to throw away the entire dish-brush every time + it’s plastic free).

The Living Room 

Last year I realized how many candles are made from paraffin, and full of chemicals and bad stuff. It became my mission to not buy these candles anymore and instead I’ve chosen ones made from soy or sometimes stearine if soy wax candles weren’t available. One of my favorite brands is a Swedish one called Victorian. The candle called Seven Scentric is my favorite.