Around the House Cleaner Series: Vacuuming

Many people have switched to non-carpet flooring because they don't want stained carpet or they like the way wood looks. However, we still have carpet and it's definitely the least expensive flooring option by far. Getting your carpet cleaned professionally can be costly and not very effective in the long run. If you don't have a good vacuum, you won't be able to get allergens out of it either. Therefore, I recommend a Dyson vacuum and treating your carpet yourself.

My First Experience with Maca

Recently the co-author of this blog, Candace, wrote about maca and how she uses it. It sounded like such an excellent product that I wanted to try some myself!! Last week we were on vacation in Penn Valley, CA visiting some good friends, shopping at an excellent co-op where I ran across the bag shown below for $15. I don't even know if that's a great price, but I got it anyway because I really wanted to try it. Plus there's about 91 servings in a bag, so it will last awhile, thus I figured the $15 would be worth it to try.

Laundry Room Series: Cut the dryer sheets and your dry time!!

Over a year ago I purchased and began using three different types of wool dryer balls.  What are wool dryer balls?  They're large balls of wool used with every load you throw in the dryer.  They replace dryer sheets and help reduce dry time!!  The latter is my favorite part, and they do work.  I can dry two sets of queen size sheets in one cycle if I disperse the balls throughout the sheets when I put them in the dryer.  It's recommended that you use about a dozen wool dryer balls at a time.  Also, if you're allergic to wool, you can still use these because the wool isn't being directly applied to your skin.  First are the Woolzies Dryer Balls.

These are the largest and best priced of the three types I got.  They're handmade from New Zealand wool, helping providing a sustainable living.  They seem to lose their density over time, which also makes them less effective over time.

Peanut Butter Cups: Justin's vs. Unreal

I LOVE chocolate and peanut butter together. It's definitely my food weakness and constant craving. However, trying to eat more healthy makes it hard to justify eating a Reese's. Enter my new finds: less junky chocolate peanut butter cups! 

Packing Appeal

Justin's: Classic packaging for this brand. I love the use of different fonts. Advertising 80 calories per cup in the top corner is eye-catching. Slightly boring packaging though.

Unreal: The brand title is rather ironic because the ingredients are more real than that of other candies but the flavor is "unreal." I love their slogan: "Candy Unjunked." It's simple and say's it all; that hooked me. The black with bright, big yellow letters is very eye-catching. These were on the top shelf at Target, and I only saw them because of the letters.

Label/Ingredients Comparison

Justin's Fewer ingredients than Unreal and more recognizable. 80 calories per cup with 50 from fat. All organic ingredients, including dark chocolate.

Unreal: More sweeteners, but also only 80 calories per  up with only 45 from fat. Make with milk chocolate instead of dark and some organic ingredients.

Taste Test

Justin's: Stronger chocolate flavor than the peanut butter. Dark chocolate to-die-for! Mix the quality of the chocolate and the organic peanut butter, and it's heaven in your mouth! I definitely like these more, but would still eat the other if offered to me. If you don't like dark chocolate, then stick with the Unreal cups instead.

Unreal: Strong peanut butter flavor. Smooth chocolate, but I would like to taste the chocolate more. Definitely tastes better than Reese's because those taste like they've been in packaging for years. These taste pretty fresh.

Price Comparison

Justin's: $10 for a box of 28 at Costco or 28 cents each

Unreal: $4 for a bag of 12 at Target or 30 cents each

These are roughly the same price, but I would get Justin's hands-down since they're actually cheaper and my preference.

Costco Haul 9.4 and 9.6.13

I'm not sure what's going on at your Costco, but mine has gotten on the organic band-wagon. I ended up going twice this week because there were a few items I really needed and couldn't wait until the sales started on Thursday. I ended up spending $227 between the two trips, but wait until you see what I got! BTW, I'm so in love with my new Costco. I think I told you that already though. My old Costco had none of this stuff, but they did have Victoria's Marinara Sauce. Anyways, here's my haul for this week:

Organic Kale and White Bean Ravioli 2-pack for $11 (normally) but it was on sale for $8.60: This was delicious!! We had one package last night. It has a bit of a spice to it that you don't notice until you're a few bites in to it. I mixed a bit of alredo and mainara sauce to put over it. There was plenty in one package for three adults. We both had seven raviolis and there were six left over.

Strawberry C Monster Odwalla Smoothies double-pack on sale for $4: My husband loves Odwalla drinks and with the beginning of school he's been feeling slightly under the weather, so I decided to get him these delicious smoothie drinks to give him an extra boost of vitamin C, among other things. Each one is 32 ounces which is four servings of 100% of your vitamin C needs for the day. It has strawberries, oranges, grapes, and apples in it along with a little sugar, and that's it!

Organic Artisan Rosemary bread 2-pack for $5: I got this once before already, and it is tasty! We love rosemary, and this bread features it nicely. I like that this is not already baked when you get it. It bakes for 8-10 minutes, and then there's fresh bread!! It also freezes well since they suck the air out of the packaging.

Alpine Valley Honey Wheat and Flaxseed bread 2-pack for $6.89: This is a little expensive for everyday bread, but since we're getting a produce box every week, we're eating less sandwiches and more salad, so this lasts longer. Additionally, this bread is on sale (now) this month for like $4-something. What I love about it is minimal ingredients with flaxseed, and it's sweetened with honey instead of some kind of sugar.

Justin's Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups: 28 cups for $10 and 80 calories per cup. Also organic and made with Rainforest Alliance-Certified cocoa. I'm actually about to try these and will write a detailed post comparing these to another less-junky peanut butter cup I found at Target, so stay tuned for that!

I also got two dozen organic eggs and the Quaker Oats box of oatmeal during my first trip this week.

Here's a picture from my second trip to Costco this week:

Happy Squeeze food pouches are on sale! One dozen for only $7!! They were already cheap at only $10 per box, but this month they're $7 per box, so I got 20 boxes, yes, 20. My son loves these, they're cheap and good for him. I got 10 boxes of each flavor.

Honest Juice pouches on sale for $7 for 32 pouches! There's no sweetener in these drinks, just pure, organic juice concentrate. Good for *kids* of any age!

Seeds of Change Quinoa and Brown Rice 6-pack on sale for $8.10! I haven't tried this before, but I figured it would be tasty. There's garlic and other spices added to it, and it cooks quickly in the microwave or stovetop.

Nature Valley Pumpkin Flax Granoloa for $5.20 per box! I got this last month at Costco to try it out, and we both loved it, so I got a double-dose since it's on sale this month.

Last thing I got this week was this chicken on sale for $10. It's hard to keep cooked chicken available for little one, so this is a great option. Plus we can add it to our salads for lunch or dinner when we're in a pinch or need a little more substance.

I'm not sure if this Costco is a test site for organic foods or not, but everything organic is in stock and on sale there this month. Go check out your Costco for these tasty, healthy items! Let me know what your favorite finds are too!

Costco Haul at my new location

**Disclaimer: I wrote this post a couple weeks ago and thought I had already posted it. Apparently not.**

I have been to Costco 3-4 times since moving here; I have only been here three weeks, too! Costco is about two minutes away from where we're currently living, which is part of it. Anyways, I was impressed by the tasty and organic offerings the first time I went, but the organic section multiplied recently! This Costco has a green label for everything organic so you can easily scan for organic options. In addition to the organic chicken and baby carrots I have gotten before, this Costco also has organic grass-fed beef, which I have yet to get, but certainly will soon. This week there were several different types of organic greens, broccoli, raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries. Here's what else I got this week:

Organic raspberries for around $4

Annie's organic mac and cheese; 15 boxes for $15

12 baby food pouches for $10

Giant bag of gluten free organic pasta for $7

Organic chicken for around $20

Sterling Chardonnay for $9

For comparison sake, a dozen organic baby food pouches on Amazon run $14-18. I purchased two boxes of Annie's organic mac and cheese on sale at Target recently for $2 each. I'm hoping the little guy likes cheesy pasta as much as he likes cheese!

If you want your Costco to carry stuff like this, put in your request and ask your friend to also. If your Costco doesn't carry Victoria's marinara sauce, request it!! It's the best sauce in a jar, anywhere! Seriously, you have to try it; it's make of like six ingredients, which is why it's so delicious.

Review: Alaffia Shampoo, Conditioner, and Body Wash

I purchased the Everyday Shea Alaffia super-size bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash a few months ago now. I really love the lavender scent, but I'm partial to lavender. I find it incredibly soothing and relaxing. Anyways, we got the vanilla mint fragrance in the body wash because my husband doesn't like lavender as much, and that smells like winter fresh gum!

The shampoo and body wash lather well, but they don't over-lather. They're very cleansing. My hair isn't frizzy from this shampoo, which is an improvement. Overall my hair is smooth and has nice body since switching.

We tried mixing some Dr. Bronner's soap with water for our body wash, but it wasn't doing the job, so we got this instead. The fragrance is fabulous and it works a lot better. I just got a set of Bass exfoliation gloves for washing with, too, and I love it!! My skin is noticeably smoother! I'm not brushing off dry skin with my towel when I get out of the shower because the gloves are getting all of it off in the shower instead. I recommend the exfoliation gloves to everyone! I got my pair at Sprouts for about $5.50.

All-Natural, Moisturizing Almond Oil

For years I've struggled to find a lotion that actually helps my reptile-like, dry hands. Actually, I never found anything that kept my hands moist for a significant period of time or healed them thoroughly. Winter was so brutal, and summer could be bad too if it was dry enough. I would put this super-cream on my hands at night before bed at those times of the year because that would ease the itchy dryness. However, like all of my other lotions, it had toxic chemicals in it, so I got rid of it a few months ago and looked for an alternative solution. I found that pure almond oil is a great alternative, so I bought NOW Foods brand off Amazon:

I got a 16-ounce bottle for just under $10, and I only need three to four drops for my hands, so it will last a long time! It's not fragrant, so you can mix in an essential oil if you want. I did that for a massage oil. You can also get bottles in four, eight, or 48-ounce sizes off Amazon.

How do my hands feel now? They're never itchy or cracked, and as long as I apply the oil daily, it smoothes on the surface level too. Even if I don't apply it daily, my hands never feel uncomfortable.

There are other oils you can use as a moisturizer, such as jojoba oil or coconut oil (alone or mixed with almond oil), but almond oil was very inexpensive compared to jojoba and it works!! I use coconut oil for my deodorant mixture, and it would take a lot more work to massage into my skin, so I'm sticking with pure almond for now.

Review: Crunchy Clean Diaper Detergent

I've been using cloth diapers for nine months now and have used Crunchy Clean's cloth diaper detergent the whole time. I bought three bags at $13 each, and only opened the third bag a couple weeks ago. I figured it would take about a year for me to go through three bags, so my friend and I each got three bags to take advantage of the free shipping offer for orders over $75.

I chose the hard water unscented version in particular because I have hard water, and I wanted to be careful with possible skin sensitivities regarding the scent.

I use one tablespoon per wash, which is for about two dozen inserts and a few covers. I haven't had to strip my diapers ever! Thus, this stuff seems to work great!

Here's the back label too:

Crunchy Clean also makes detergents for regular laundry as well as other household cleaners, including pure oxygen stain remover. They're a family-owned business that's been making cleaners for five years now. I will definitely continue ordering diaper detergent from them and may check out their other cleaning products when I place my next order in a few months. If you "like" them on Facebook, you'll receive periodic discount codes and sale notices in your news feed, but they won't inundate your news feed.

Personal Care Items from Sprouts

I have been dying to share my Sprouts finds with you, my readers for at least a week now, but life has been too busy! We went to a parenting conference last Friday night and Saturday morning, and then church on Sunday. Baby came down with a cold yesterday. Lots of laundry. Blah blah blah. Anyways...

Kiss My Face Sunscreen: This particular sunscreen by Kiss My Face ranked a one or zero on EWG's scale, with zero being the best. This means there are few to no potentially harmful chemicals in it! Or the chemicals that are in it aren't dangerous, but then they're not really "chemicals." Sprouts had this on sale last week for 25% off. With summer approaching, I'm sure this brand and/or Badger products will continue to go on sale. I haven't had a chance to try this as the weather has been gloomy here, and I don't spend much time in the sun since I work from home. I need to work on that.

This shower caddy used to be completely FULL, but since we're eliminating potentially toxic products, this is all we're using in the shower.

Everyday Shea Shampoo and Conditioner: These are Costco-size bottles that were on sale for $10! They come in two scents--vanilla mint and lavender. I got lavender because I love it, but apparently my husband doesn't, so I'll be opting for vanilla mint next time. I really like this shampoo. I have slightly dry hair that's on the thicker side, and it works great.

Dr. Bronner's Shave Gel: This works best if you squirt it right onto your skin because it's rather liquidy. I like the feeling my skin has after I use this, and the scent isn't strong at all, though I did get lavender. I also found I have to use more than I would if it were a cream.

Dr. Bronner's Pure Castile Soap (liquid and bar): I am in LOVE with this soap, by the way. I got almond, peppermint, and unscented in liquid form, and a peppermint bar. These bottle sizes were on sale, 25% off, only $12.74! I use diluted peppermint and almond soaps for--

• Foaming hand soap containers
• Body soap
• Dish soap
• Mopping

I use the unscented soap for my baby and our laundry. For laundry, the soap doesn't need to be diluted and I use the same amount that I did with my other soap. I'm planning to take the bar of soap on the road to use for washing my hands and body while away from home. I wanted to try out the bar of soap to see how it might be different, too.

Nature's Gate Natural Toothpaste: These anise and peppermint toothpastes received good ratings from EWG and were on sale. I really like it! I tried a drop of Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap on my toothbrush because that's one of the many things people use it for, but it tastes too soapy.

Tom's Mouthwash: I don't know what this is rated on EWG, but I didn't want my husband to continue using the high alcohol content Scope anymore. I figured this has to be better!

Chocolate Granola: Okay, this isn't exactly a personal care item, but I had to share it. It's regular granola and chocolate-flavored granola, plus there are little chunks of chocolate. Super tasty! Way to make a snack healthy and junky! Haha.

I hope this is helpful! Do you have a Sprouts near you? Have you tried any of these? What do you use for soap and such?

Costco Trip 4.12.13

I didn't get a lot at Costco this week, but I did get a few wonderful items that I wanted to share.

From left to right,
100% Whole Wheat Bread from Oroweat: I like this bread because the slices and loaves are big, it freezes well, and stays moist. It does have added sugar, and I would prefer bread sweetened with honey, but at least it's not high fructose corn syrup like most breads. I also like Trader Joe's Sweetened with Honey Whole Wheat Bread, but the slices are smaller and it's drier. It is a little cheaper though. Overall, this bread is pretty good option.

Mary's Gone Crackers: These are organic, gluten free, and contain great ingredients like quinoa. I actually haven't tried them before, but Mama Natural raved about them on one of her videos as a favorite snack. These are on SALE right now for a few more weeks for only $5 per box! Normally $7.50. What a steal!!

Shredded 4-Cheese Blend: My Costco doesn't have organic cheeses, unfortunately, but I love cheese and lots of it :) I probably should eat less. They just started carrying this in two smaller bags, which is nice for storage purposes. I put a little of this on my salad, and we put it on burgers and crackers this way too. I did the price comparison to the same amount of cheese as a block at Costco, and it was about the same price, so since it's easier to deal with shredded, that's all I get now.

2 Dozen Organic Eggs: The price on these organic eggs is incredible. I love making veggie breakfast burritos for dinner with eggs; I just pull out all the veggies in the fridge, cut up a little of each, and throw them in the pan while I'm scrambling the eggs. Delicious! I also found this fabulous Avocado Egg Salad recipe recently, so I've made that a couple times when we got eggs.

Sweet Kale Vegetable Salad with 7 Superfoods: This has kale, some collards, pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries, and some other tasty stuff. It also comes with dressing. We tried this last night and devoured it. We actually used some of the dressing we use for our normal salads instead of the poppy seed dressing this time. I'm a little hesitant to try different dressings because many contain vinegar which I'm not a fan of. This is great for when you want a salad but you're tired and/or it's late, so you don't want to fix your salad.

Chef's Knife: This knife that comes with a lifetime warranty and was only $40! It cuts beautifully and easily. This was from a road show going on at my Costco currently. Look for them at yours soon!

Peaches: Three pounds of organic frozen peaches! I'm making baby food for my 8.5 month-old son these days, and he loves his fruit. I haven't seen fresh or frozen peaches at Sprouts, so I grabbed this bag, which should last awhile. It's great too because I don't have to worry about them going bad or freezing them myself, and I can throw them in the blender frozen.

I also saw a 36-pack of microfiber towels for $15.50! I wish I would have seen those before I ordered a package off Amazon...oh well. If you're looking for towels to dust with and clean up wet messes, pick up a package for yourself.

What are your favorite Costco finds?

Toxic Chemicals in EVERYthing!!

AHHHHH!!!! My cabinets have been full of products with scary stuff in them. I was watching Candid Mommy on YouTube the other day, and she mentioned this website called EWG where she found out about the safest sunscreens to use. So I traversed over to this site last night, and could hardly fall asleep after looking up a couple products I use because I could only think about replacing them. Environmental Working Group (EWG) has gathered test results and ranked a bazillion skin care products and household cleaners, but this is just two of the pieces on their website that I have explored today! They also have stuff about food--eek! What will I find there??

After reading over the skin and household cleaner parts of the website, I did some cabinet binging.

Here's a closer look at a couple of the bags

 All of these bags are full of products I'm throwing away that have toxic chemicals in them (except the soy milk box). And it's made a ton of room in my cabinets, which I won't be replacing with much! What am I doing about it?

Household Cleaning
 
Nearly all of my soap-based products are being replaced by Dr. Bronner's soaps, including Sal Suds as a tougher cleaner. Dr. Bronner's soaps are replacing my body wash, hand soaps, floor and surface cleaners, laundry detergent, toothpaste, dish washing soap, and probably some other things. You can get Dr. Bronner's 18-in-1 liquid and bar soaps at Target. You can also get huge amounts off Amazon or the company's website. This will be much cheaper than purchasing all those other products, especially since I'll be diluting it for my body wash.

For the dishwasher, I'll be using Seventh Generation Automatic Dishwashing Powder (available at Target, I believe) and pure citric acid to fight the hard water here in So Cal.


For dusting, I'm just going to use microfiber towels. They're supposed to wipe up dust well; it's what's recommended for dusting electronics and cars, so it should work in my house. I'll also use them for mopping up messes and other surface cleaning.

Personal Care

As mentioned above, I'll be using Dr. Bronner's soap for many personal and household cleaning items. Dr. Bronner's even makes a mild baby soap! And it's available at Target!!  

Moisturizing: I'm also purchasing Dr. Bronners lip balm, shaving gel, and unscented body balm off Amazon. Additionally, I'm getting 100% almond moisturizing oil for my everyday moisturizer, and it only costs $11.99 for a 16oz bottle! That's only 75 cents per ounce! Lotions from Bath and Body Works in 8-12oz amounts cost at least that much and more! I'm also planning on making a mixture of coconut and almond oil for an extra-awesome combination; it was recommended by an Amazon reviewer.

For deodorant, I'm planning on mixing together pure coconut oil, corn starch, and baking soda. Cotton Bottom Mama's blog explains how to do it, and I'll be trying it out as soon as I can make it to the store!

For sunscreen, I'm going to peruse Sprouts tomorrow to see if they have the Kiss My Face Natural Mineral Sunscreen because that brand is on sale this week. I will also be checking for Badger sunscreen products. If they don't have these, you can be sure I'll be purchasing something from Loving Naturals off Amazon, as Candid Mommy recommends.

Unfortunately, all this change means I'm throwing a way A TON (well at least several pounds worth) of products, but I like feeling confident in my choices, and in the end I will waste less and spend le$$.

By the way, in case you think your products are safe because they say "natural," or they're made by Burt's Bees or Yes to __ brands, think again. Some things made by these companies are safe, but not all of them. To make it easier on myself, that's why I'm using mostly Dr. Bronner's brand.

You can be sure there will be MUCH, MUCH more to come on this endeavor. Do you make any of your own personal or household products? What do you use? How have you liked them? If not, what do you think about this?

Paperless Note-Taking

I'm going to try to resurrect this blog! A whole lot has happened since my last post here. Let me give you a quick update:

• I gave birth to a healthy baby boy who we named Elijah just over seven months ago.
• My husband just received a pink slip for his teaching job.
• Elijah is a huge blessing in our lives!! I couldn't imagine life without him now.

With some Christmas money, I got an iPad mini! I love it, too. It has a plethora of practical uses for my life as a wife and mom, but today I'm only sharing one: paperless note-taking. You can do this on any tablet, smartphone, or even an iPod Touch. I'm going to talk about the app I use though, since I'm familiar with it. I'm sure there are similar apps for other devices though.

I use GoodNotes which has a FREE version. The free version allows you to keep two notebooks with up to ten pages in each one. Afraid of maxing out too fast? No worries! You can download your notes as PDF files to your computer, and then clear your notebooks. Want to view your saved files on your device? No problem! Download them to it.

There are lots of neat features for note taking with GoodNotes, as the image below shows:

A plug for the iPad mini: It's perfect for women because it's light and small, which means it fits perfectly in a purse or diaper bag without adding much weight! However, there are tablets of similar size out there; I just got this one.

Review: Pepperjack Home Kitchen Wetbag & Reusbale Unpaper Towels

I've been using these Pepperjack Home products in the kitchen (and around the house) for about two months now and am happy to not throw away so many paper towels now!

I must confess that I still use a paper napkin to clean my espresso machine parts, but I'm going to switch to the towels for that too as I now see that I have plenty of towels.  Other than this one use, we have completely stopped using paper towels and switched to reusable towels.

Reusable towels are better because they:

• Clean better than paper towels 
• Get the job done with fewer towels
• Don't rip and dirty your hands

Now, on to my review of the actual product, in two parts. First: the kitchen wetbag.  I love the design of the bag: how it hangs off the stove and zips.  I have washed it almost every week with my towels  since I received it and hung it to dry, and it still looks brand new!  See:

This photo shows the inside pulled out so you can see it's condition: perfect!  It also dries quickly--within a couple hours or less.  To dry the bag, I clip the cotton part of the bag to a pant hanger and pull the inside out completely. 

Second part of the review: the reusable unpaper towels.  These come in a really cute cotton fabric on one side and a textured fabric on the other to help fight your messes.  I like both fabrics, but I don't think the company washed them before making them, which caused severe shrinking of the textured fabric and thus curled under edges:

The towels shrunk about an inch or more after my first wash, which I found disappointing.  If you really want cute towels because they're going to be visible in your kitchen, then I would suggest making your own or having someone do it for you.  If you can store the towels in a drawer, then I suggest buying a few packs of towels just for cleaning up messes.  Buy your towels on clearance or from a place like Ross or TJ Maxx.  Either of these options would save you money over buying towels from Pepperjack Home.  However, I do suggest buying their wetbag, which you can purchase separately from the unpaper towels, and some are on sale right now.

Bottom line: Pepperjack Home Kitchen Wetbag, your own unpaper towel choice, and consistent use of them = less waste and a cleaner kitchen.

*Readers: I'm sorry it's been awhile since I posted.  We have been prepping for baby, so I've been occupied.  Expect a hiatus next month also.

Wool Dryer Balls: Explanation & Review

A few months ago I purchased and began using three different types of wool dryer balls.  What are wool dryer balls?  They're large balls of wool used with every load you throw in the dryer.  They replace dryer sheets and help reduce dry time!!  The latter is my favorite part, and they do work.  I can dry two sets of queen size sheets in one cycle if I disperse the balls throughout the sheets when I put them in the dryer.  It's recommended that you use about a dozen wool dryer balls at a time.  Also, if you're allergic to wool, you can still use these because the wool isn't being directly applied to your skin.

First are the Woolzies Dryer Balls.

These are the largest and best priced of the three types I got, and for those reasons, they ended up being the best value.  They appear that they'll hold their shape and quality.  Today they're on sale at babysteals.com for $19.99 per box (6 dryer balls).  They're also handmade from New Zealand wool, helping providing a sustainable living.

Second are Buddha Bunz dryer balls.

A cool feature of this product is that you can choose the color(s) you want and a scent.  The scent subtly transfers to your clothes while they're being dried.  You can also get them unscented.  These are handmade by a WAHM.  These seem like they'll hold up well, but they're not as big as the Woolzies, though they're a little more dense, so they're probably equally effective.  It also may take a month or more for you to receive your order.  I purchased the "Special" which is three balls with a scent of your choice but not color of your choice for $18.

Third, and my least favorite, are Pepper Jack Home dryer balls.

I purchased these on sale: four for $9.99.  I'm really glad I didn't pay more for these because they're not worth it, unfortunately.  They're considerably smaller and less weighty than the other two brands I got, so I don't recommend them.  They're also collecting a lot of lent and don't seem like they'll hold up as long as the others.

Here are three types next to each other, so you can see the size difference more clearly:

Reusable Shopping Bags 101: Which ones and why?

There's a huge variety of reusable shopping bags now since they came out on the market a few years ago.  I have purchased several different kinds, so this post is going to explain the various kinds and include my review of each.

First, I'll discuss the most common type of reusable shopping bag out there.  These are found mostly at grocery stores, but also some large chain stores.

The bags I have from Albertson's feature a loop at the top of the bag and a black piece of heavy duty plastic-like material inside for the bottom.  I do not recommend getting bags for groceries without a heavy duty bottom.  However, I think it's more rare to find grocery bags with the heavy duty bottoms, so you can make your own with cardboard or the thickest lining available at a fabric store.  The loop is really handy for self-checkout because it holds the bag open for you when you place the loop over the plastic bag holder.  I always use these for grocery shopping and never have problems with them.  We've been using these for two+ years now.

The second type of bag is one made from a thicker plastic-like material.  I got some from Costco, Trader Joe's, and Fresh and Easy.

The ones from Costco (at least when I bought them about a year ago) came in a pack of four with two square bags and two long rectangle bags.  They are the largest (of course) reusable shopping bags I've found.  With this type of bag, a heavy duty bottom isn't needed because the material is heavier duty than the standard grocery reusable bag above.  Lots of heavy items may cause sagging though.  I put a game next to the Costco bag because it's the perfect size for carrying board games to a friend's house.  We've also taken hot meals to people's homes in the Costco bags.  They can carry A LOT!  Be creative with their use and you'll find you never need another plastic grocery bag!

The third type of bag is the hot/cold bag.  Lots of grocery stores sell these now, but compare prices before you buy one.  I ended up getting one at Sprouts because Sprouts is the furthest grocery store from my house and I needed it at the moment.

It's about the size of the standard grocery bag, and it does a great job of keeping food at a good temperature.  If you have a family, you can pack a lunch or snacks in it for a day trip or picnic.  Throw a couple of ice packs in even to help keep the food cooler.  This bag has never leaked either.

Fourth is the reusable shopping bag for non-food items.

This is a special baby registry edition of a Target shopping bag, but they do sell similar fold-up wallet bags that are red (and I love red!)  The fold-up wallet bag is a great size to put in your purse, and just be sure to not use it for food items so you can always use it for clothes or other items at your favorite non-food store.  Target even gives you a five or ten cent discount for every bag you bring!  This particular one even has a pocket on the front, so it could double nicely as a book bag.  You could slip your phone and keys in the pocket, books in the big pocket, reusable coffee cup in hand, and head to the coffee shop.

Fifth is the reusable produce shopping bag, which I recently purchased on Amazon.  For $9.46 I got ten Bring It! Valencia produce bags with a bonus small bag that they can all fit in.

On the left are the bags inside their holding bag, and on the right is a produce bag in use.  They're just as light as a plastic bag from the store, so you don't have to worry about it costing you more to use these versus the plastic bag.  They'll also be great for taking to a farmer's market, once I get around to that, maybe this week.  When we went camping recently, we stashed all of our little snacks in them for the week, like bags of pretzels and nuts, bars, etc.  These seem like they'll hold up well.  I ran them through the wash, but not the dryer because they don't need to be dried.

Do you have other favorite reusable shopping bags?  Do you want to know more about any of these?  Leave a comment or send me an email!

Reusable "Paper" Towels

In one of my first posts I mentioned my desire to try to make as many things reusable in my house as I could, including paper towels. This week I purchased two of Trader Joe's Kitchen Cloth and plan to clean my counters with them thoroughly today.  These can be found on the aisle where they have cleaners, usually hanging from the shelf.

In my usual morning perusal of baby deal sites today, I came across Pepperjack Home products on Baby Half Off.  They make tons of different reusable products, including snack bags, dryer sheets, and wool dryer balls.  However, I purchased their kitchen wet bag with twelve reusable cloth towels in attempt to replace my paper towels.  I'm rather excited to give this a try!  The wet bags and towels come in lots of different stylish fabrics, but I chose a simple green fabric with red and yellow dots on it so it didn't look too feminine.  The one pictured below is obviously not the one I bought.

Something I was reading recently (I think it was the Web MD diaper article I linked to last week) in regards to using reusable, washable items instead of throw-away argued that using reusable and washable items was just as bad for the environment because it used electricity and water.  However, water is an ever-renewing source.  Second, everything we throw away will end up in a landfill or something like that.  Land ills are horrible on the environment around them because of the smells and other things released into the air and ground, so it has to be a better trade-off to wash these things rather than throw away more.  I'm going to make a note to do more research on landfills to share with you.  I also promised you a post on reusable shopping bags last week, and I took photos of several of my bags last night, so I will write that post this weekend.  In the mean time, check out some reusable cloth towels for your kitchen!

Reusable Lunch/Snack Bags

A couple weeks ago we ran out of sandwich bags and Costco was out of them too when I went to buy them.  I have long been aggravated by the idea that I'm throwing away so many plastic bags after just one or two uses, so then I remembered that there are companies that make reusable lunch/snack bags!  I remembered seeing some Planet Wise ones at Grow Natural in Fullerton.  At this point I decided I would do some Amazon research on reusable bags.  I bought three different brands of top-rated bags, and all have very different features.  Here's a photo of them all:

First, on the far left is a set of three Lunch Skins bags.  They feature tough Velcro all the way across the bag and flap.  The fabric is used by professional bakers, though I'm not sure what for, perhaps also for storage.  They're toxin free.  They're supposed to be dishwasher safe, but I ran them through and the Velco is a little crumpled, so I will probably rarely do that.  I will likely just turn them inside-out to wash like the other bags we got.  What makes these even more awesome is they're sewn by a local family business in the US!  I purchased the set of three off Amazon for $25.

Second, the black bags with the green monster flaps are Re-Usies.  They're cloth on the outside, so if that gets wet while washing, they'll take longer to dry than the other two sets I got.  The flap has the Velcro running vertical across it and the bag, so there's less closure to the bag than the Lunch Skins.  The flap can wrap around to the back where there's another piece of vertical Velcro, which is helpful for wrapping up very small snacks.  These are also free of toxins, but aren't dishwasher safe.  The label says you can throw them in the washing machine, but the fabric may fade, it warns.  These bags also come in an abundance of different fabrics!  I got the set off Amazon for $16.

Third, I wanted to try a wrap, well, I want Joseph and Sarah to try a wrap because I rarely take any food to go right now.  Anyways, on the far right is the Food Kozy by Kids Konserve.  As you can see it's circular and has vertical strips of Velcro on it for closing the wrap.  It can double as a place mat, which is pretty cool.  It's also toxin free, and is easy to wash, rinse, and dry.  It seems like this would be best to use with sandwiches and not snacks, though.  I got this set of two (because they're orange) for only $8.01 off Amazon.

Now, I'm also wishing I got zippered snack bags because Joseph likes to take oats, granola, and craisins to put in his yogurt, which wouldn't stay in one of these bags well.  I'm going to look into those for my next Amazon purchase.  I'll update you the verdict of these three reusable options in a few weeks.

Of course, another alternative to this is plasticware, commonly known as Tupperware.  If you have a lot of it already, use it for your lunches and snacks!  We don't have a ton of plasticware, so I decided to get some of these bags.  The bags are also less bulky too.