How to decide when to make a Sustainable Swap?
Asking these few questions has helped me decide where to spend my energy and which items to replace...
Happy April, I can’t believe we are already half way through this month again. Making sustainable swaps and trying to find the better alternative is something that has been on my mind a lot lately. Specifically, I have had a lot of conversations with friends and colleagues about the overwhelm that comes with wanting to do better, buying the better alternative and how to balance the monetary and mental drain it can often take to buy the better option. Let me explain what I mean…
Most often we buy something if we need it, or if we want it. Mostly in these conversations we talked about necessities and how much work it already is to find the better alternatives. Often finding better options is time consuming as we need to do research and it can be more expensive and less convenient to obtain. All of this can become really draining, lead to decision fatigue, and in the end drive us to buy the simpler less sustainable option or from a less sustainable place.
First let’s focus on how to decide if it is worth finding a better alternative. To figure this I usually ask myself a few questions:
How often will I use this?
Let’s take your laundry detergent or kitchen cleaning supplies. I use those all the time, and repurchase them quite often. That tells me these are great products to look into and find a healthier and more sustainable alternative. Lets look at a different example - last year, my kiddo and I were in a wedding and needed certain hair accessories to match our dresses. Given we were only wearing them for that day, wouldn’t wear them for that long, and it was already difficult enough to find exactly what we wanted/needed, it was not worth finding better alternatives and spending even more time and money on it.
By no means am I saying that one time purchases should not be considered. Actually quite the opposite, especially big purchases that we use a lot and will have for a long time. Talking to my friends, it seems that for these big purchases we are often more easily willing do the research. The bigger the purchase, the more research we tend to do, the more time we take to carefully consider out options, and often the burden of the additional work to find a more sustainable and less toxic option doesn’t seem as overwhelming as with the everyday things we purchase all the time.
Thus for this post, I have decided to focus on those smaller purchases that we often spend less time thinking about before we buy them. For the smaller purchased, I ask myself the following questions:
Is it healthier and less toxic? Reduce our toxic load overall? Is it better for the Planet and people?
I know if I use something often or will have for a long time it is worth investing my time or money to find a better alternative, a higher quality and sustainable item that is better for our health. It also highly depends how much time we spend with it. Thinking of the laundry detergent, that is something that we wash our clothes in. Most likely, clothes that we wear every day for long periods of time. For me personally, those items are absolutely worth spending a bit more on and taking the time to keep trying to find a less toxic and more sustainable option.
Every small change reduces our overall toxic load. The more small changes we make, the larger the change. So even just one substitution of something that we use very often can have a big impact on our overall load. Additionally, a more sustainable option is usually also better for the planet and other people.
Will it save me money in the long run?
Sometimes, more sustainable items or higher quality items will cost more up-front but can save money in the long run. Now, not only am I investing my time in research and more money for a better and more sustainable alternative, but I am also investing in my future savings.
Is it multi-use and limits waste compared to the original product?
These are two additional question that I like to ask myself especially if there are several different options of the same product. If one of these products can replace several other products I currently use, or if it reduces lots of waste it not only is more sustainable this once, but the sustainability aspect has a positive compound effect for myself, the planet, and others. Most likely it can save me money in the long run too.
A few years back, I switched almost all our cleaning products to one concentrate from which I can make our All-purpose cleaner, Bathroom cleaner, Glass cleaner, and floor cleaner. Now, not only does it save me time and mental space as I only need to buy one cleaning concentrate I also only keep track of the one product. Not only has the concentrate saved me money as it is much more efficient and effective and a bottle really lasts me a long time. It also has saved me money as I don’t have to run out when I run out or pay extra shipping for several different products. I also value the lower clutter that we don’t have backup bottles for every cleaner anymore, simply only one for the concentrate.
Does my purchase benefit others? Who do I vote for with this purchase?
Supporting brands with amazing and wonderful missions is such a gift. Looking at the additional costs of these purchases compared to less sustainable options as a donation of sorts has really helped me shift my mindset. Let’s take Selas design who make amazing jewelry, and their amazing missions to help sexually trafficked women. They donate all their proceeds to charity supporting this mission. In a way paying more for a pair of earrings, a necklace, or a bracelet on my part acts as a form of charity to their cause supporting sexual trafficked women. Instead of donating that extra money to the same charity, I am purchasing jewelry that supports survivors and donate in a similar way. Additionally, I am voting with my hard earned dollars by supporting brands that I love and can fully stand behind. Even just a few of these purchases can make a very big difference. Best of all, if someone asks me where I got my earrings, I love that I can share their mission and hopefully spread the word. I used this example, as just the other day, someone asked me about my favorite hoop earrings from this brand.
I hope these questions can help a bit and help you decide which items to prioritize. I also recommend to take it slow, don’t try to change everything at once. It truly is a lifelong journey and definitely not a quick fix. We are all at different stages of our journey and even just changing a few things can have a huge impact, especially if we choose items that we purchase regularly.
As I am focusing on project pan this year and using things up, I am trying to find better alternatives for my foundation/bb cream, body lotion, body butter, or body oil, and bath products.
For my kitchen, I am planning on tackling a few low stake kitchen utensils next. Additionally, I am hoping to figure out better options for tea and ditch the tea bag options. No, no we won’t toss them, just replace them with loose tea options once these are done.
What products will you find better alternatives for?
