Making our lives greener and cutting out the environmentally harmful items we use wherever possible is a great way to do your part to help preserve our planet. At the risk of sounding like a cheesy public service announcement, making little changes in our everyday lives really is an essential and impactful environmentally-conscious act. There are billions of people on the planet — we can no longer brush off our actions as being minuscule.
If you’re searching for ways to make your life more eco-friendly, one of the best changes you can make is swapping out your house cleaning tools for more environmentally-conscious versions. Unfortunately, a lot of the cleaning tools we use today are made with un-recyclable materials and are sometimes not that durable, meaning they end up in a landfill sooner than later.
We’ve gathered up the best eco-friendly house cleaning tools for when you’re ready to make the change.
While dryer balls aren’t a tool you actively clean with, they aid in the cleaning process that is doing laundry. What makes them worthy of an addition to our list of eco-friendly cleaning tools is their reusability, the reduced energy usage through shortening drying time, and the health impact on users.
Wool dryer balls replace those disposable dryer sheets, which not only create waste but are full of some pretty nasty ingredients known to aggravate respiratory issues. The Molly’s Suds brand also lives up to its eco-friendly title because it sources the wool from family farms that practice humane farming and shearing techniques.
Yes, it’s a bit pricier, but this company also employs a small business in Nepal that hires local disadvantaged women to felt the wool and then packages the product through Florida’s MacDonald Training Center that employs adults with disabilities. This is money very well spent.
This is more impactful of an eco-friendly cleaning tool swap than the item’s size shows. The default sponges most of us have used not only have super short lives that create a lot of non-recyclable waste, but the plastic material also breaks down through usage and washes into our ecosystems in the form of micro-plastics that are no fun for fish.
This brush is 100% compostable — that means when it falls apart as all things eventually do, you don’t have to toss it out at the environment’s expense. Instead, you can toss it into your compost pile or take it to a composting facility that can process it. Even better, the head of this brush is replaceable, making it as reusable as possible.
One wasteful cleaning tool most of us are nearly addicted to is paper towels. Have you ever stopped to think about why we choose to use throwaway paper towels instead of opting for a reusable cloth when wiping up everyday substances like spilled beverages, cleaning products, and even plain water? While it makes sense to reserve the paper towels for extra nasty moments, most of the time, a washable sheet would do the job while staying eco-friendly.
These towels are super absorbent, so you won’t miss the ease of soaking up spills that paper towels offer. When you’ve sufficiently soiled them, just wash them like you would any towel!
