The bathroom is one of the easiest places to start integrating eco-living into your home. There are tons of products available to help people develop more sustainable personal care routines. You definitely don’t need them all, but there are some great products that go the extra mile, are reasonably priced, and are simple switches to make. We will walk you through some of our favorite easy bathroom swaps for green living. The best part is that many of these will save you money. Some of the savings are immediate by reducing the amount you spend at the store and others will accumulate over time as you find yourself buying fewer single use items.
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.
My Favorite Bathroom Swaps to Reduce Single Use Items
- LastSwab
- Earth Hero deodorant
- Hand towels
- Plaine Products refillable bath and body products
- Period underwear
- Bamboo toothbrushes
- Soap bars
- Arcadia power
LastSwab to stop the mess of cotton swabs
This is one of the first changes that my husband and I made, and we were so glad we did because it was so simple. The LastSwab can replace 1,000 single-use cotton swabs. The bonus is that I no longer need to pick up random cotton swabs from the floor. LastSwab has one version that is smooth at the end for beauty product application and another that is textured. You can easily clean them after each use with some gentle soap and water.
Eco-friendly deodorant to reduce single-use plastic
A lot more stores are starting to sell eco-friendly deodorant. I tried Earth Hero and Raw Sugar and felt they were pretty comparable. It took me a little getting used to at first because I felt like these products didn’t have the antiperspirant properties that I was used to, but I liked how they smelled. Even though eco-friendly deodorant has a higher price point than traditional deodorant I would buy them again – particularly to cut down on all the single-use plastic.
Rethink your makeup and face wash routine
Cotton balls can really add up, even if you only use a couple each day. Instead of using disposable cotton balls, I use a regular hand towel when I wash my face. I used to use fancy face wash, but I found that I didn’t have significantly better skin with that than when I switched to only using water. Part of this could be that I don’t wear makeup so I don’t have much gunk on my skin to wash off aside from occasional sunscreen. I know a lot of people enjoy makeup as part of their daily routine, but honestly I was never much of a makeup person and I completely gave up on it during covid. This saves me a lot of money, time, and reduces single use packaging. Even simplifying one part of your make up and face wash routine can reduce your daily waste.
Plaine Products for all your body and hair care needs
If you have a family, it can be really valuable to have a one-stop shop where you get all of your sustainable hair and bath products. It can be challenging to find products that work for everyone when dealing with babies with sensitive skin or family members with different hair types. Enter Plaine Products. Plaine Products sells a wide selection of refillable body care products from shampoo and conditioner to body wash and lotion. They have a wide enough range that you can find something that will work for different hair types or scent preferences (or unscented options for people with sensitive skin or noses). You can read my post about how my family switched to eco-friendly hair products here.
Period underwear are effective and comfortable
Not ready to switch to a menstrual cup or disc? Period underwear are comfortable, easy to use, and are great for cutting down on plastic waste. I have used Saalt underwear and found them to be really effective. It’s also easy to care for them. Just rinse them under cold water after use and throw them in the washing machine like you usually would. Trust me when I say they will definitely save you money in the long run.
Bamboo toothbrushes are easy bathroom swaps for green living
Approximately 1 billion toothbrushes are thrown out each year in the United States. That adds up to a lot of plastic. Bamboo is biodegradable/compostable so it is a much more sustainable option than a traditional plastic toothbrush. I’ve found more and more stores that carry bamboo toothbrushes – I even found multiple options at TJ Maxx.
Switching to soap bars (and how to make your own)
Switching from liquid hand soap to soap bars was an easy change for us to make. It is a simple way to cut down on single use plastic. We have been using soap bars for a few years now. You can make your own melt and soap bars in only 5 minutes!
Consider your electricity source – make the switch to renewable energy
Since we have our washer and dryer in our bathroom and since we use cloth diapers for our baby, our bathroom is one of the more energy-intensive rooms in our house. In order to offset our carbon footprint from the energy use, we signed up to get 100% of our electricity matched by wind energy via Arcadia Power. Household electricity can have a big impact on your carbon footprint. Connecting your home to clean energy through Arcadia can help to reduce the demand for fossil fuel-based energy. You can read more about how their wind energy program works here. We pay a little extra money per kilowatt of energy, but it is worth it to know we are supporting reusable energy. If you sign up using my link you can get $10 off of your bill.
If you are just starting to look for ways that you can easily incorporate green living into your life then I highly recommend that you give one of these a try! My husband and I started with LastSwab and slowly expanded from there. It is okay to be gradual when implementing ways to reduce your waste. Take time to experiment and see what works for you and your lifestyle. Let me know in the comments which of these easy bathroom swaps for green living you have found to work well for you and your family!
