50 Things I Don’t Buy Anymore as an Eco Minimalist

There’s a big myth that living a low or zero waste life is expensive, and that is just not true. Living a low waste life saves us thousands of dollars every single year. It is not expensive.

There are several ways you can start to live a low waste life, you can buy a bunch of ecofriendly swaps and items at once, which, would obviously be pretty expensive, but I recommend waiting until you’re out or almost out of something, then doing research on a eco option to replace it and then buying a replacement. In most cases, this ends up being a few more dollars up front, but several dollars in savings down the line.

Becoming a minimalist and living more planet friendly has been a huge cost savings for us, as well as it reduces our waste an insane amount. We’re still in the process of becoming more minimalist-ish, our house doesn’t look very minimalist but we’ve been doing great and have made a lot of great progress.

In The Kitchen

I don’t buy plastic bags anymore for food storage. Instead, I use stasher bags. They’re reusable silicone bags that are dishwasher safe, freezer safe, oven safe, and I use them every day.

I don’t buy plastic wrap, we’ve actually never bought plastic wrap living in this house. We just store things in containers or use beeswax wraps to cover them.

We don’t buy plastic water bottles. We are fortunate that our water is very clean, so we refill our cups and bottles from home with filtered water.

I can’t believe how many paper towels people go through but we don’t buy like Bounty anymore. We buy 100% recycled or bamboo paper towels, whatever’s on sale, when we need a roll. We only use them to clean up pet messes, we use unpaper towels and rags and dish towels to clean everything else.

We also don’t buy paper napkins for regular use, we have a very small amount left for big parties but at home we use a ton of reusables. I don’t like spending money on things that just get thrown out.

We don’t buy sponges, part sensory part ecofriendly, I hate touching wet sponges, so instead we have several wood dish brushes that we use in place of sponges. Sponges need to be replaced like biweekly, these brushes last six months and can be composted at the end of their life.

Gadgets, this is everything from like an apple slicer, garlic press, avocado tool, a lot of the tasks they perform can be done with just a regular knife, so, that’s what I use.

We don’t buy precut fruits and vegetables, we don’t need them for accessibility reasons, so we just buy the whole fruits and vegetables and cut them ourselves.

Plastic straws, I know some people who use them instead of cleaning reusables, but I just clean reusables, it’s fine.

Meat, we do not like cooking meat in our house, so we just don’t buy it and live off impossible burger and tofu.

Tim Hortons and Starbucks coffee, we invested in a Breville machine to make our espresso drinks and since we bought it in November, we’ve yet to get coffee out, and we used to get it once a week.

We don’t keep a large back stock of food, in hopes that we don’t waste anything or forget we have it. People with huge pantries tend to stock up, and we just don’t participate in that.

Paper cupcake liners, we have reusable both regular sized and mini sized, they are awesome, they go in the dishwasher and are awesome.

Vanilla extract, I don’t buy it anymore because it is SO easy to make, and way more cost effective. I’m also not going through several tiny plastic bottles a year anymore, so it’s great.

In The Bathroom

The bathroom is the first place I actually made ecofriendly swaps, so I have quite a few things I don’t buy anymore, because I’ve switched to different versions.

I don’t buy razors, I use a reusable metal leaf shave razor, the blades are recyclable and cost pennies.

I also don’t buy plastic dermaplaners anymore, Leaf came out with an all metal one so I use that one, the blades are replaceable and recyclable.

I also don’t buy shaving cream. I don’t know if its even a thing anymore, when I was in high school it was barely a thing, but I couldn’t justify having a can that would end up in the trash, so I just use bar soap.

Also because of the packaging, I don’t buy shampoo or conditioner in plastic bottles, I’ve switched to bars, this saves storage space, space in our shower and they work SO well.

I also don’t buy the plastic shower loofahs, they are full of bacteria and need to be replaced so often, instead I grew loofahs in my garden, dried them in my basement and sew them to make sponges.

I know you’re not supposed to use cotton swabs to clean your ears but I do, so I use a last swab, its reusable and silicone and cleans super easy.

I don’t buy plastic toothbrushes anymore, I actually use bamboo toothbrushes for trips or other things but I also use an electric toothbrush, a Suri, it has bioplastic heads that you send back to the company and they recycle.

I don’t buy floss, honestly I hated using it, but I got this water pik water flosser and that’s what I use and love.

I don’t buy plastic tubes of deodorant anymore, they just end up in the trash, so instead I invested in Wild deodorant which is a metal reusable case and then compostable cardboard refills.

I don’t buy pads or tampons anymore, I use both period panties and menstrual discs, depends how I’m feeling that day.

Also we don’t buy like bottles of hand soap, instead we refill our bottle with water and drop a Blueland hand soap tab in, these take up so much less space and I love them.

I don’t buy makeup wipes, instead I use reusable cotton rounds, they go into our washing machine and get clean.

Related to that I don’t buy a lot of skincare, I stopped buying a bunch of products, I have a huge stockpile, but I also don’t think a lot of them work? Probably unpopular opinion but I have my simple skincare routine I follow.

I also don’t buy excess of makeup, if it’s not part of my regular makeup routine for those rare times I wear makeup, I’m not buying it and It’s not here.

Bath bombs, honestly this is more toward minimalist but bath bombs are so wasteful, it’s literally putting money down the drain.

I don’t buy body wash, i just use bar soap body scrubs, I use coffee grounds and mix it with some oil and brown sugar, it’s easy to make, and is basically free.

I don’t buy single use sheet masks or under eye masks, I have a reusable set of under eye masks, and I use powder masks from BKind.

Paper nail files, they last a while but can’t be sanitized so they eventually end up in the trash, instead I use a glass nail file.

Plastic-wrapped toilet paper, honestly we don’t go through a lot of it anymore because we have a bidet, but we buy bamboo toilet paper that is wrapped in paper.

In The Home

I don’t buy candles anymore from like bath and body works, I actually just buy Everly refill kits that I can melt in the microwave and pour into an old candle holder.

To light those candles, I don’t buy disposable lighters, I have an electric rechargable lighter that I like to use instead.

We don’t buy lint rollers, ones that you can use for like, two seconds, rip a sheet off and use another, my mom bought us this reusable stick roll that can just be washed off and air dried and it works so much better.

I don’t buy new decor, I think that redecorating every year when new trends come out is silly, and a waste of money. I thrift so a lot of our decor comes from the thrift store, nothing from other stores new though.

Also, I don’t buy paper bags when we go out shopping, this is something that might be just for New Yorkers but with the plastic bag ban, stores offer paper bags for like five cents, I just bring reusable bags.

We don’t buy bottles of cleaner anymore, we buy cleaner concentrates, that are tabs or concentrated liquid that I can add to the same bottles and add water.

New this year, we don’t buy replaceable and disposable mop heads for our shark vac mop, we have reusable pads with a plastic box that we can dump out, it’s awesome.

We also don’t buy air fresheners, we bought a room spray from grove, it works way better than those aerosol cans or the single use air fresheners.

We don’t buy any subscription boxes, there are several that we could be part of from anything with makeup, clothes or food products, but I think they can be a waste of money and I don’t want all that extra clutter.

We don’t buy dryer sheets, I never really thought they did anything, but we switched to using dryer balls which are just wool balls . They are awesome, they save us on drying time and reduce static.

I refuse to buy fabric softener, it’s actually not good for your clothes and makes them not last as long, I’ve never found a need for it so we don’t buy it.

Scent boosters, I think these are also a waste of money, and they make everything smell so fake and artificial we just, don’t use them. I found unscented laundry products in general are my favorite.

On that note, I don’t buy perfume, I try to avoid any sort of chemicals and artificial scents, so, this is definitely not something I use.

I don’t buy wrapping paper anymore, I save all of the brown paper that we get from packages to reuse for holiday gifts, and if I have to gift something really big, I buy reusable bags from homegoods and gift them in reusable bags.

New Christmas and Halloween decor, I thrift everything and even then I don’t buy a lot of new things seasonal decor, we only decorate for the two best holidays, Christmas and Halloween.

I also don’t buy fast fashion. I used to live in forever21, now I live in thrift stores, I didn’t buy any new fast fashion last year, and I don’t plan to in the future either.