Apartment Living : a series two

Welcome back everyone! Welcome welcome if you’re new! I am currently sitting on my apartment’s roof terrace sipping on some Rosé, how could Portland living get any better? To add to that, no I did not type this up in the middle of a work day, I typed it last night, so the Rosé is warranted.

Last week I posted about my love for thrifting and how I have kept my furniture and décor choices fairly sustainable and mostly secondhand. I am excited to announce that I found a lamp in the as-is section of Ikea, so something was wrong with it? It works perfectly fine so I am happy I saved it from its life in the trash.

Anyway, in this post I want to talk about my cleaning habits and some of the products I have found that help keep my apartment and the environment clean.

Let’s start off with laundry! I try to keep laundry to once a week, but occasionally have to push it to twice. If I have to do more than one load in a day, I will try to only use the dryer once and air dry the rest just to cut down a little on my energy consumption, but that doesn’t always feel like a fun plan. I also just don’t want to pay for a lot of electricity so drying my clothes on a drying rack also makes me feel like I am saving money. For the actual washing part, I use a powder detergent that comes in a cardboard box and a paper bag on the inside. As my skin is pretty sensitive I try to stick to unscented and the brand I am currently using is Ingredients Matter which I found at Target! In one of my first posts I mentioned the bulk/zero waste shop in Portland called Utility Zero Waste. They do provide an awesome bulk laundry detergent, but all of them are scented so for now I will stick with Target. When I dry my clothes, instead of using dryer sheets, I use wool dryer balls. They do the same exact job, but can be reused forever. I have had mine for about two years now and they are holding up great. I have even heard that you can put some essential oils on them before tossing in the dryer for a bit of scent, but I haven’t given that a go. I think I may have gotten mine on Amazon (which I try to avoid now), but a few other places that sell them are Marley’s Monsters and Utility Zero Waste.

Since my washer and dryer are in my bathroom, I’ll transition to my bathroom cleaning products. In my Skincare and Social Justice post I talked about Blueland. I LOVE Blueland and I use all three of my products in my bathroom. There is one specifically for bathroom use and this is what I use to clean my toilet, sink, and shower. I use the multi-surface spray for my counters, and the glass cleaner for my mirror. I try to avoid paper towels, but I haven’t found a great alternative yet for cleaning a mirror, everything else seems to make it streaky (any suggestions will be happily accepted). However, for the counters, sinks, shower, I stick to reusable cloths. I got one of my cleaning cloths from Marley’s Monsters, it is the perfect cloth because one side is soft and the other has some texture which helps with soapy scum or anything that seems sorta hard to get off the counter like dried toothpaste. I also use a Swedish dishcloth for a lot of my bathroom cleaning, they soak up water pretty much instantly and are a great alternative to a classic sponge. For my toilet, I use a bamboo toilet brush, I think from Marley’s Monsters (I should ask them to sponsor me lol). I love this brush because at the end of its life I can toss it in a compost bin and it will eventually degrade and rejoin the earth, unlike a plastic brush. Speaking of bamboo, I also have one of my old bamboo toothbrushes that I use to get in any nooks and crannies that need a little extra attention and precision.

Moving on! To the kitchen! I use a lot of the same tactics in here as the bathroom, a Swedish dish cloth or a crocheted sponge (thanks mom) works great with the Blueland multi-surface spray to clean anything off the counters. For dishes, I use a variety of different low-waste tools. I have a washable cloth sponge from.. guess where.. Marley’s Monsters (basically I love them). This sponge is great for easy dishes, but doesn’t have a tone of texture if you’re needing a bit more of a scrub. I also have a loofah sponge that is good for stuck on food, but you need a little elbow grease to get things off. I also use a bamboo dish brush with a long handle. The handle I can use forever and when I need a new brush head, I just pop the current one off and put a new one on. I got this from Utility Zero Waste. I absolutely love this brush and highly recommend this avenue if you are someone who likes to use a brush over a sponge. For soap, I use a dish soap bar that I keep in a little bowl by my sink. When I am ready to use it I just get the dish brush wet and then swirl it around on the soap and it gets nice and sudsy. I have found it works just as well if not better than liquid dish soap and takes up a lot less space on my counter. For hand soap in the kitchen, I am currently using a liquid hand soap, but I got the Grove Collaborative soap that comes in an aluminum bottle and then poured it into one of my empty glass pump bottles. It smells super good and I was able to find it at Target locally rather than needing to order online. I do want to seek out other local brands in the future, but I needed some in a pinch and I appreciate that it is less waste.

I guess all we have left is just sort of general cleaning. For all of the hard surfaces in my bedroom and living room I use my Blueland multi-surface spray and a towel of one form or another. For my floors, I invested in the Infuse floor mop. It is similar to a Swiffer, but you do not need to get a new bottle of soap every time you run out and you do not need to use a new cleaning pad every time you use it. It comes with a fabric cleaning pad that velcros on and can be easily washed in the sink by hand or in the washing machine. The soap bottle you fill up with water and use a tiny infusion bottle that creates a soapy substance, very similar to Blueland. Once you run out of the infusion bottle it can be recycled and a new one can be popped in with fresh tap water. I have used this a few times now and I really like it. My floors feel super clean after and it is so easy to store away and no need to worry about running out of cleaning pads or rushing to the store for a new bottle of soap. I would highly recommend! Eventually at the end of its life, it is plastic and will head to the landfill, but I do not plan on that being anytime soon so I feel okay about it.

I feel like that is pretty much it for my cleaning products right now. I hope a few people found some inspiration here and a few products they may be interested in testing out. As always, feel free to send me questions or recommendations, I am all ears.

Bye, have a good weekend :)