My Favourite 5 Items I sell In My Sustainable Living Shop
Over the past 18 months the amount of different products I stock in the shop has really grown, from washing up sponges to bamboo toothbrushes, sustainable period products to vegan chocolate and the range is growing all the time. I thought it would be a fun post to fill you in on my current top five favourites from the shop and why exactly they are so great! These are all products that I regularly use myself and get great value out of. So without further ado, and in no particular order, let’s get going!
My first pick are the delicious smelling Shower Blocks. These are a solid shower gel, similar to a bar of soap but they have way more moisturiser in them. This helps them to lather up amazingly well, and did I mention that they smell incredible yet?! There’s six scents currently, if unscented counts, and I have to say that my top pick is the Agave + Ginger, but closely followed by the Lime + Sandalwood bar. I have also heard on the grapevine that the Shower Blocks team are working on a new Black Cherry scent, and I can’t wait to give that a go!
The other great thing about them is that they are totally plastic free, only being packaged in a thin cardboard box, no plastic wrapper here, which is awesome! They cost £4.50 a bar, which to be honest does sound like a lot, especially when compared to just popping into the supermarket to grab a plastic bottle of permanently on offer imperial leather, however these bars last for absolutely ages! They will totally outlast a bottle of liquid shower gel, and quite possibly two (it’s been a very very long time since I last bought shower gel so can’t scientifically confirm) and that’s where the value comes as you’ll have saved two plastic bottles being made for just a little bit extra, and I feel helping to save the world is worth it.
Next up is something you only really need to pick up once, the Circular&Co reusable coffee cup. It might not be the most patterned and ornate of cups but I just love the minimal design and the range of colours it does come in. I’ve had mine for about 3 years now and it’s still going strong, I got it long before opening the shop or even dreaming of owning my own shop when they used to be called rCups. What makes them really special is that they are made out of old single-use coffee cups, which gives the cups their really unique look and feel and is why they changed the name to circular.
The big feature of these cups is that there’s just one large button on the top to open and close it which is a genius design. This means you can get to your delicious hot drink with one hand so you don’t have to juggle things like the dog lead or your mobile phone, you don’t even have to hold it a certain way or direction, you can drink from anywhere around the button! The way the button is designed means that this really is a leak-proof cup. I’ve not had a single drip out of mine in all the time I’ve had it. You can actually just toss it into your backpack and nothing will happen! They’re guaranteed for 10 years and can be recycled after that, so still living up to their circular moniker!
Toothpaste tablets are a relatively new discovery for me. I’d had some Georganics ones in the shop almost since the beginning. They were one of the most requested items from customers in the pop-up shop on Bridge Street, but I had never tried them until my Wife and I went on our lockdown-delayed honeymoon last September and now I’ve been totally converted over to using them daily rather than a more traditional toothpaste!
The one’s that I’m now loving come in small recyclable paper pouches from a UK brand called Ecovibe. They are a really nice level of sweetness to them, not too much that you think you’re crunching on some Refreshers, and not too ‘spicy’ like some peppermints can be. They also have flouride in them, something that eco options don’t always include. I’m not so well versed on the subject to say one way or the other if that’s a good thing but it is what it is. The Georganics toothpastes I stock are flouride-free so there’s options available.
There’s 125 tabs in each £6 bag, which when brushing twice a day will last just over two months and that makes these toothtabs brilliant value. A quick look on the Tesco website shows that a 125ml tube of Colgate Total is £3 as well, which might just last a month, making the Ecovibe toothpaste tabs a great like for like swap but with way less problematic packaging. They are also way easier to travel with than a whole tube of toothpaste. Is it going to squish all over your toiletries bag? Are you able to take in on a flight with you? Having a few tiny tablets with you makes things so much easier! Do give them a try if you haven’t yet!
I’m cheating slightly with my fourth choice because it’s not just one item but is a beautiful little range of books! I first spotted the DO books on a birthday trip back to Cardiff in January 2022 (I lived there from 18 through to 31 before moving to Taunton in 2015) in a gorgeous plant shop on City Road which I think has closed down now. DO are a Welsh company I believe, or at least their DO lectures are held in Wales. They make fun and informative books about lots of different topics, quite a few very business-ey titles which have come in very handy over the past year or two. The four that I have in stock are I feel the most ‘eco’ from their range and each is just really lovely to dip in and out of. Each page is a well crafted mixture of text, beautifully shot photography, and are just really thoughtfully put together.
There’s the recipes of Preserve and the gardening tips of Grow. The awaking activism of Earth and, perhaps my favourite, the nesting and hygge of inhabit. They are great value, and look really lush all together on a bookshelf, I do love it when a book series maintains a consistent spine layout and identity! Over time I hope to expand the number of entries of this fascinating series that I have in stock, watch this space!
My final choice are the Ocean Savers and the Mack Biopods which might sound like I’m once again trying to bend the rules of a top five list, but these are essentially just two companies making very similar products, and this product concept was mind-blowing to me when I discovered it! I’d been using bicarb of soda, vinegar, and citric acid for cleaning over lockdowns which worked a treat, and still does but these are even easier, and cost barely anything! Ocean Savers are £1.60 each and Mack biopods are £1.95 and these will make you between 500ml and a whole litre of your chosen cleaner.
The gist of how they work is that in each box you’ll get a little self-dissolving sachet of whichever cleaner you choose. There’s plenty of options, from anti-bac sprays to kitchen degreaser, toilet cleaner to drain unblockers. You grab your old empty spray bottle, give it a rinse out then refill it with some clean and tepid water. Drop the sachet in and give it a really good shake! Eventually the sachet will dissolve and turn your water into whichever cleaner you went for like magic! The box also has a little sticker in there so you can relabel the bottle to avoid confusion after it’s been stashed away in the under-sink cupboard with a few other cleaners. Then all the waste you’re left with is a card box to pop in the recycling. They really are brilliant. We’ve been using them at home ever since opening the shop, and I use the lavender multi-purpose spray in the shop on the shelves and tables.
I really hope you enjoyed that closer look at a few of the things I stock in my shop. I had great fun putting this list together. I really love curating wonderful, useful, sustainable items for you to choose from whether you’re local to Taunton and can pop into the physical shop, or you’re further afield and shop here online. I’m always open to feedback, and requests, and to finish off I’d really love to here maybe not your top five, but a favourite product that you’ve picked up from me!
I’ve also made this blog post into a video over on my Youtube channel if you please wouldn’t mind giving it some love when you have a moment, thanks :D