Top 5 Sustainable Kitchen Gadgets

Our Kitchen is the center of our home. Literally, it’s one of the first rooms you walk into when you enter our homer and figuratively too, we tend to spend most of our time here. We love to cook and with that, comes lots of cleaning. There are certain things I love to clean. The bathroom for instance, I love a clean bathroom. Cleaning the floors and the sinks, seeing how spotless and shiny they are brings me joy. Cleaning the kitchen though, I hate cleaning the kitchen. Everything gets sticky and covered. I can’t do it. Thank goodness for my fiancé , Mark. He takes care of most of our dishes and keeps me in check after I’ve used every pot and pan to make our meal. (It’s a stage 5 destruction zone after I’ve cooked). So, these are my top 5 sustainable kitchen gadgets that have made our lives easier and more eco-friendly.

1. Swedish Dish Cloth

With constant cleaning, I started to notice a pattern after a few years. We would go through paper towels constantly! Anyone else? A small spill here and a quick clean over there, it started to add up. I started buying the biggest pack I possibly could from Costco to avoid going to the store. Mark also loves to take multiple paper towels to clean up something small. And believe me, I know it’s faster to just rip them off and go vs. taking the time to make sure you’ve only ripped one sheet. We’re in a hurry and it’s easy to forget. So I started to look into paper towel alternatives. Etsy is filled with cloth options. I liked the idea behind it but i couldn’t get over using a cloth to clean up spills. It’s the same as using a dish towel, right? You use it, toss it in the laundry bin (if you’re at my house it will sit for 5-10 business days lol) and the result will be either the stains come out or they will get tossed in the trash for being too gross to come back from. So after some time, I turned to Amazon and found Swedish Dish Cloths. They are plant based and can be tossed into the top rack of the dishwasher! You mean to tell me I don’t have to walk down to the laundry room to clean these things?! That’s a first world problem solved. They feel and work just like regular paper towels. Bonus, they can be used up to 50 times. That’s a huge saving of not only paper but $$ too! We keep them out to dry after washing and they do not have a smell at all. They lose their shape a little bit after drying the first time but bounce back after they get wet again. I love knowing that were using something good for the environment, were saving money and were getting the job we need done all in one go.

2. Reusable Snack Bags

Ugh, not going to lie we were pretty bad when it comes to snack bags and throwing away plastic. I love to snack. And if you know Mark, he loves to snack even more than me. On average we would probably go through a box of snack baggies a month between the two of us. We normally bring fruit, veggies, pretzels or crackers to snack on at work and if it wasn’t already in a smaller Tupperware container, we would reach for a plastic snack baggie, toss our food in and run. It got a little out of control. I found reusable, BPA free snack baggies at Aldi and decided to give them a try. They can go into the freezer to save a small portion of fruit or veggies, can be heated up in the microwave and are dishwasher safe. Score. So far we love them. I haven’t purchased plastic baggies since finding them which is a win. They seem to hold up well after a few cycles in the dishwasher too. Super excited to continue snacking!

3. Silicone Baking Mats

How much aluminum foil do think you go through in a year? 10 rolls, 20 rolls, or 30? I don’t know exactly how many we use but we use it a lot. We line our baking sheets with aluminum foil every time we bake or broil a vegetable, when we cook meat or fish and to cover our tins when we make bread. Now I know how wasteful this is but I want an easy clean up when I cook. Like I mentioned before, I’m a disaster in the kitchen and Mark chases me as I make a mess everywhere. So we always use foil, it’s just what we were taught to do. But I started thinking, there has to be a better way right? I had purchased silicone baking sheets years ago to make French Macarons. They are the bomb for baking. The pastries do not stick to the mat and come out perfect every single time. There even little circle guides on the mats to pipe the perfect dessert. But how often do I make these? Once a year, tops. So the mats sat in our pantry collecting dust. While cleaning recently, I found them. And it dawned on me. I can bake with these mats. Why can’t I cook with them too? Guys, you totally can! We’ve been using them to bake vegetables constantly. Season and oil your vegetables on the mat like you normally would on foil and just throw the mat into the top rack of the dishwasher to clean when you’re done. (I know, I’m a genius, I’ll pat myself on the back lol) We’re saving on not using so much aluminum foil for sure! Now I know we can’t kick aluminum foil out of our lives 100% yet. We still cover the top of our banana bread with foil to avoid burning the top and when I can’t find a lid to something, sure, I’ll still probably reach for some foil. But we are using way less so I’m counting this as a win!

4. Glass Straws

My family is allergic to water. I’m kidding. Kind of. It’s not that I don’t like water. I love water. But I have a hard time remembering to drink it. We have every reusable cup under the sun. One for coffee, one for water, one for tea. You name it, we’ve tried it. I love my thermos for coffee. I remember to drink that. And my night time tea I drink before bed rarely goes unfinished. But water throughout the day. Forget it. I found these reusable glass straws on Amazon and thought I would give them a try. I’m a huge supporter of ditching the option to have plastic straws at restaurants. They normally get tossed after barley using them, end up in the ocean and pollute the planet. So I thought, maybe if the glass straws are in the house I’ll use them. I was right. I’ve actually been remembering to drink water now. I think it’s the convenience of drinking from a straw that I was missing. If it’s in front of me, I can drink it quickly and not even realize I’m doing it. They are easy to clean since they are clear glass, you can see if you’ve missed any spots and can also go into the dishwasher. (Do you see a trend here, I hate doing dishes). They are large enough for smoothies and shakes too which is a bonus. Living a better life because of these silly little things.

5. Brown Sugar Bear

I’m obsessed with dessert. I mean, who isn’t right? We also really love to bake in our house. The tollhouse chocolate chip cookie recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag is a staple for our family. And that’s probably the only time I pull out the brown sugar. Which would be fine if I was a normal person. But the huge bag of brown sugar is only $3 at Costco, so guess what I buy? We go through a lot of it around Christmas and the rest lasts for nearly the whole year. But my brown sugar kept clumping. Mark made banana bread once and legit had a huge spot of brown sugar still intact in it. (And it was amazing to eat, but so not good for me. I regret nothing). Someone recommended the Brown Sugar Bear to me so I bought a 2 pack off Amazon to try. Guys, this little bear is legit the real deal. I don’t understand the science behind the stone but it keeps the brown sugar from clumping and brings it back to life it its clumped already. It’s possibly the best purchase of 2020 since it’s saved my baking supply. Hands down, love the Brown Sugar Bear.

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I hope this list has inspired you to try something sustainable in the kitchen. Love a product you already have that is sustainable? Shoot me a message on Instagram and I'll feature it in my stories!

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Check out my Instagram for daily stories and more sustainable products for around the house. Interested in trying any of my top 5 sustainable products? Click on the Photo above to be taken to my Amazon Finds page.