Cutting Down on Household Items


I know this may be a no-brainer to some, but I recently had an "ah ha" moment that may help some of you.  I work hard to clip coupons and bargain hunt, as I know many of you do too!  I started really thinking about the things we use around our house on a daily basis and noticed we were carelessly using products that could last twice as long if we used only what we needed.  Here's what I mean:
  • Although I have a ton of toothbrushes in my stockpile, I realized I was switching them out too often,along with many other toiletries in my stockpile simply because I had them on hand.
  • I was using two baby wipes at a time.  I don't know why, maybe just out of habit, but using one a time makes them last twice as long.
  • As opposed to a handful of shampoo and conditioner, now I use more of a quarter size amount.
  • Here's one of my favorites... I cut foods in half, such as the amount of salad dressing I use, to not only make it last twice as long, but it also cuts my calories in half.
  • I started actually looking at the fill line on the laundry detergent cap instead of overflowing it and then adding a little extra to get the clothes super clean.  There's a set amount for a reason!
  • I was using handful of paper towels when I really only needed one or two...better yet, started using hand towels a lot more.
  • I realized I only need a pump or two of hand soap to clean my hands, as opposed to three or four!
These are just a few of the things I consciously noticed that I could change to make my hard earned stockpile items last that much longer!

How about you?  Are there things around the house that you could cut back on?

6 comments:

  1. I read if you put a rubberband around the neck of the hand soap despenser it makes it last longer because the pump won't go all the way down. Works SO well for us!

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  2. One thing I did was instead of having one or more different specialized cleaners for each room (ie: kitchen, bathroom, etc) I started buying more multi-purpose and multi-surface cleaners and cut my number of bottles under the sink by more than half.

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  3. I made the homeade laundry soap like the duggar's and saved a lot of money!

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  4. Did you know that there is a WHOLE lot of lotion left in the bottom of the bottle when it STOPS pumping???? I started cutting the tops off my bottles (not real easy because of the shape and hardness of the plastic) when they stopped pumping and I can usually get at least another weeks worth of lotion!

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  5. Thank you all for sharing your tips!!

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  6. Great tips, Mandie! I didn't even think about the baby wipes, but I'm definitely guilty of grabbing more than one out of habit. Now, I'll be more aware!

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