Post written by Lilly
When we moved into our first home, my priorities for how to feather our nest were based on what guests would see and, in my perception, judge our home’s worthiness on – beautiful furniture, luxurious curtains and many, many fancy knick knacks.
Our second home, I started our “new home shopping list” focused on function over facade. My favorite items in our home that we’ve added since moving in are far from special in appearance, but have all elevated our lives in meaningful ways that add bliss to our home and make it a better place for simple entertaining.
We like our home life to be peaceful, which seems for us to come from keeping our purchases intentional, with a focus on simplicity and sustainability. For us, the less often we have to worry about or repurchase something, the less we have to “do” and the more peaceful our home feels! While we’ve looked all around to acquire these gems on our hunt for home treasures, the bonus to you is they’re all available on Amazon!
I’m not extremely proud to share that at our last house, we used jugs of filtered water bought from the store. Not only did I hate the environmental aspects, I really hated “making sure we had water” hanging over our heads all of the time! I became a crazed woman, telling Markus about a water purification system (a big step up from a filter by definition) I had heard about called Berkey that held enough filtered water for 1-4 people a day, didn’t need the filters changed every four minutes and made great tasting water free of every bad thing ever to be found in water supply sources.
He trusted me on the eyebrow raising investment cost, and well over a year later, this little dude is the cornerstone of our kitchen. We haven’t had to change the filters yet and even the most….discerning tastebuds in the house (cough, Markus, but we love him) pick this as their favorite water source. We have it on a low side table so our daughter has been able to fill her own cup of water since age four, making much more peaceful dinner and bedtimes for the family as well!
The price point on this purchase required less of a group vote than the fancy water filter, but I did expect everyone in the house to be receptive to my excitement over these wool dryer balls when they arrived. These do all of the work of dryer sheets – fluffing and de-wrinkling clothes – while the wool absorbs moisture with no waste like individual sheets! I add a few drops of essential oils to the balls before popping in the dryer which adds scent. Our pack of four I bought six months ago is still going strong!
We are now very much essential oils people after years of my resistance because every diffuser I’ve ever seen is ugly, oddly loud with water drip noises and horrible. (What about an LED light show says relaxation and wellness?!) Since I found this $40 simply designed diffuser for our home, we’ve gone full essential oil bandwagon. I ordered a second one of these diffusers in the light pink for our bedroom and, today, I’m ordering an additional one for our kitchen in white. They’re so chic and quiet, I can’t get enough! With the six hour run time option, I basically run them constantly and am really starting to feel the lift and benefits of the essential oils I can’t stop buying from White Rock Soap Gallery.
The very first thing I purchased for our home was a boot tray for the back door for our muddy backyard shoes. I didn’t notice a very strong change in the cleanliness of our floors and entry way organization, though, until I brought in the back door boot tray’s attractive cousin, this front door bamboo shoe rack. It’s just the right size for us, I love the double tier of storage and the mini storage at the top for sunscreen, bus spray and small umbrellas. Shoes come off when we walk in the door to change into our house shoes which are waiting on the rack! (For the record, our daughter and I assembled this ourselves and then also treated ourselves to ice cream for doing so!)
It is with the writing this post that I humbly admit to losing this amazing glass water bottle after a year of intimate travels together. Drinking water is not my strong suit, although it seems when I’m drinking stupid amounts of water everything in life works better. Sparkling clean Berkey purified water in this little gem is all the motivation I needed! I love that it comes in a 33 ounce bottle so I don’t have to refill as much throughout the day. The wide mouth makes it super easy to clean. Reordering today for my best life.
Not to be redundant, but, if you aren’t onto this yet, a good reusable, portable glass vessel for my drinks makes the whole world turn for me! These are the reusable coffee cups Markus and I like to fill in the morning and take with us to go. They’re easy to clean and coffee shops we pop into along the course of the day are happy to oblige when we ask them to fill up our Keep Cups for less waste!
I am adding our visual timer as the cornerstone of our sustainable home favorites as it sustains the peace. As we mentioned in our morning routines post, it’s clear that our family wants to work together to be on time in the mornings. We just have different concepts of time. What’s “soon” or even “five minutes from now” to a five year old? This helps us set our daughter up for success. We use it in the bath to help communicate how long we expect to play before transitioning, as a way to encourage her to take a break and tidy her room and pretty much through every element of our morning routine. I would be lying if it didn’t help us parents get out the door on time too! We’ve been lucky to have this one for over a year and despite its nomadic journey around our home every day it keeps on tickin’.
What makes your home run smoothly and sustainably?! We want to know! Thanks for your comments!