Reducing Plastics and Microplastics in our Kitchen

After reading some articles about the amount of microplastics the average person gets exposed to and consumes I knew we had to make some changes in our household. Here are some easy and simple swaps and replacements we made in the kitchen to try to reduce our exposure to plastics. | This post contains affiliate links |

Disclaimer: I am not an expert, just sharing some swaps and changes we made to try to be more intentional and reduce plastic exposure in our home. Please make sure to do your own research on this matter.

Get Rid of All the Plastic Cooking Utensils

The first step was getting rid of ALL the plastic cooking utensils we had in our home (I just recycled or tossed them all to make sure I wouldn't continue to reach for them). These utensils are constantly getting heated and scraped on pans, contributing microplastics. I thoughtfully replaced all the plastic utensils with a combination of bamboo, wood, silicone, and stainless steel cooking utensils.

Replace Plastic Cutting Boards

This is supposedly one of the biggest sources of microplastics in the kitchen - a plastic cutting board! If you think about it, every time you cut with a knife you’re cutting and scraping the plastic board, adding microscopic (and not so microscopic) plastic shavings to your food. We replaced our cutting board with a quality hardwood one made by a local craftsman, but you could also use a bamboo cutting board.

Get Rid of Non-Stick Cookware

This is a big change we made several years ago - we got rid of all of our non-stick cookware in order to reduce microplastics and PFOAs exposures. Instead of using non-stick pans, we switched to quality stainless-steel cookware and have never looked back!

Never Heat Plastic

Make sure to never reheat food in plastic containers - always use glass!

Never Cut on Plastic Dishes

This goes right along with never using plastic cutting boards - but to take it a step further, don’t cut on plastic dishware (like kids’ dishes) either - and for the same reasons. Always make sure to cut on a cutting board or glass plate before transferring the food to your kids’ dishes.

Use More Glass and Stainless Steel Dishware

This one is pretty self-explanatory - use glass or stainless steel dishware more and try to phase out your plastic ones. We have been working towards slowly replacing our plastic Tupperware with glass and stainless steel varieties.

When You Must Use Plastic, Use High Quality

When you must use plastic dishware in your kitchen (like for kids’ dishes), always use high quality ones. Avoid cheap plastic dishes, especially if you don’t know if they’re BPA-free or lead-free, etc. And if they seem to be breaking down with just normal use (fading, scratching easily, discolor easily, etc) definitely get rid of them.

Silicone Food Covers

Rather than use plastic wrap for leftovers we switched to silicone food covers years ago. We love that they’re reusable (better for the environment!) and not plastic.

Air Purifier

To take it a step further for general home health we also added several air purifiers in our home. This helps reduce dust and allergens we breathe in and we feel better knowing the air in our home is being filtered.

Disclaimer: I am not an expert, just sharing some swaps and changes we made to try to be more intentional and reduce plastic exposure in our home. Please make sure to do your own research on this matter.

Watercolor American Flag Stickers in the Etsy Shop

It may be February but I’m dreaming of summer and the beach! Get your cooler and water bottle 4th of July ready early and order one (or several) of our Watercolor American Flag Vinyl Stickers. We also have several New England State sticker designs available and more New England-inspired designs coming soon!

Exclusive Sticker Design Coming to Reverie Coffee House!

A few weeks ago the lovely Hannah at Reverie Coffee House reached out to me on Instagram and asked if I’d like to design a custom sticker for Reverie. We went back and forth several times bouncing ideas and settled on this hand-drawn design that incorporates a hummingbird, coffee cup, flowers, and Maine. This is my first commissioned/collab design and it was so nice working with Hannah. The stickers are on their way to Reverie and will be available soon!

Birch Landing Home x Reverie Coffee

I’m so excited to be included in their retail section amongst other NE-based makers. Thank you Hannah and Reverie!!

Reverie Coffee House is located in Brunswick, ME with another location opening any day in Bath, ME! You can check them out on Instagram @reverie.coffeehouse

Simple Soap Saving Hack

Does your family waste SO much liquid soap at the bathroom or kitchen sink? I know mine sure does. Here is a quick, easy, and CHEAP tip to save soap (and money) big time! | This post contains affiliate links |

The cover photo for this post shows the bottle of soap “before” - but I’m going to show you a quick and easy way to modify the pump so that it uses less soap with every pump! To do this you only need 3 simple items you probably have on-hand already.

Materials

• Liquid Soap - you can use any liquid soap pump (even refillable ones) but personally we love Mrs. Meyer's handsoap (usually we use Oat Blossom but we're still using up one of the holiday scents here)
• Small Zip Ties (we used black here because the pump is black, but you could use white or another color zip tie if it matches better)
• Scissors

How To

Seriously this couldn’t be much easier!

Simply put the zip tie around the soap pump where it goes down, tighten (but not too tight), and then trim off the extra. Ta-da, it’s done!

This “ring” made by the zip tie will prevent the pump from going down all the way. This way you get like a “half-pump” of soap rather than a whole pump (personally I feel like a whole pump tends to dispense far too much soap).

Now it dispenses far less soap = less waste!

Once the zip tie has been trimmed it’s barely noticeable. This little hack has saved SO much soap in our family - I really notice us going through the hand soap much slower. I hope this little trick will save you soap and money too!

PS - if you buy the same brand soap over and over you can reuse the pump top from bottle to bottle so you can keep reusing the same zip tie modified top if you don’t want to keep using up zip ties.

Disclaimer: Use at own risk.

How AI is Affecting Blogging and Influencers (+ Tips on AI-"Proofing"* Your Blog!)

AI (Artificial Intelligence) programs have progressed by incredible leaps and bounds over the last year and will only continue to improve and become more integrated into our daily lives. I’ve been blogging for the past 10 years and have noticed a big change in the blogging world, for myself and acquaintances in the industry. Here I thought I’d share some of my personal observations as well as tips that will hopefully help preserve your blog against AI.
DISCLAIMER: This posts shares personal opinions/observations and predictions on how to help your blog in this changing world. I am not an expert and you should do your own research on these matters and use my tips at your own discretion/risk. Please also keep in mind that AI is rapidly evolving and observations and predictions shared in this post may not apply in the future.

How AI is Affecting Blogging + Influencers

Decreased Traffic

With people utilizing AI more and more these days, they tend to visit websites less. This is especially obvious with the integration of Google’s Gemini (AI feature), among others. Now when you Google something Gemini will often give you a summary of the best or most common answers at the top the search results. This might answer your question enough to keep you from clicking around at the rest of the search results.

Decreased Ad Revenue

This one is pretty straightforward… less traffic = less ad revenue. After all, websites get paid for ads based on how often an ad is viewed or clicked on and if there’s less traffic to a site, there will be less ad revenue.

Decreased Affiliate Link Clicks

Again, this one is pretty straight forward - if you have less traffic to your website, less people will be seeing and clicking on your affiliate links, meaning less affiliate income.

The decrease in traffic is really hitting ad and affiliate link revenue HARD for so many websites, not just regular blogs.

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How to AI-“Proof”* Your Blog

*It’s worth noting that I don’t think you can truly 100% “AI-Proof” your blog - AI tech is really good and only getting better — HOWEVER, I do think there are steps you can take to help preserve your blog, traffic, and income. They include:

Gain a Loyal Following

Try to gain a loyal following of people who read your blog regularly. Some ways you can do that is to regularly post engaging content to keep them coming back for more - maybe a regularly occurring series (like making over a room step-by-step or chronicling your decluttering or healthy-lifestyle journey). Or regularly posting new, great recipes to try. Try to find your niche and your followers will continue to check back in for more.

Keep a Loyal Following Across Multiple Social Media Channels

These days they best way to see and be seen (and have your blog be seen), is to post on social media. This is how a lot of people will discover your blog in the first place - but don’t put all your eggs in one basket! It’s important to try to gain a following across all social media platforms, that way if one goes down (or gets banned.. like TikTok may) you still have a reach across other platforms.

Write Detailed Posts with LOTS of Pictures (Especially for How-To Articles)

Right now for the most part AI is great at summarizing and giving general answers - but if people want specifics, especially for a how-to post, they will want lots of details, step-by-step instructions, and PICTURES. This is especially true for any kind of hands-on craft or DIY or home improvement project with a lot of nuances. Provide a lot of details and pictures and your post will continue to be more useful than a summary would be.

Utilize Keywords + Long-Tail Keywords

Keywords and long-tail keywords are important for your blog to place high in search results. After all, you want your blog post towards the top of search results if possible - even if AI has a summary of answers at the top. That way if people want to read a little more on the subject and scroll down a bit your post will (hopefully) be one of the top options to choose from to read more.

Keywords are straightforward words that describe your post, for example: “how-to”, “declutter”, “cleaning”, etc, - they are important but it’s easy to get lost in search results with just regular keywords. This is why it’s important to also include long-tail keywords which are the specific phrases that people might actually type into the search to find your post, for example: “how-to declutter your house with small kids”. In general, long-tail keywords give you a better chance at placing higher in search results.

Consider a Pay Wall to “Hide” Your Best Content

If you have REALLY good content that people would want to pay for, consider implementing a pay wall for readers to access it. Examples of this could be having readers pay for a course on your website or pay for access to an exclusive newsletter that offers info and content that they couldn’t find on your website otherwise.

I hope this post gave you some food for thought on how to preserve your blog and blog income in this rapidly changing world. Best of luck!

DISCLAIMER: This posts shares personal opinions/observations and predictions on how to help your blog in this changing world. I am not an expert and you should do your own research on these matters and use my tips at your own discretion/risk.
*I don’t think you can truly 100% “AI-Proof” your blog - AI tech is really good and only getting better — however, I do think there are steps you can take to help preserve your blog, traffic, and income. Please also keep in mind that AI is rapidly evolving and observations and predictions shared in this post may not apply in the future.

Affordable Yankee Swap / White Elephant Gift Ideas

‘Tis the season of Yankee Swaps! (Being from New England, we call them Yankee Swaps but most parts of the USA call them White Elephant Gift Exchanges.) Yankee Swaps are always a fun time and joke gifts usually rein. That said, it can be hard to decide what to bring as your gift so here are a variety of affordable gift ideas, ranging from funny to nice to extra cheap/free, all broken down into categories for easy shopping (I will keep adding to this list as I think of more). | This post contains affiliate links |

The first thing to consider before you choose your gift is your audience… is this a professional work party? Then you might not want to bring the toilet coffee mug.. however if the party goers have a sense of humor then silly gifts may win the night! Also consider if there’s an inside joke you can play up - for example one year at our work party someone wrapped and gave the dead houseplant that had been sitting in the breakroom for months! Now that was a clever and funny gift idea.

Funny and Silly (Joke) Gift Ideas

• Framed photo of yourself - preferrably in the dramatic, cheesy department store photoshoot style
• Burrito Blanket - Not going to lie, I kind of want one of these! haha
• Toliet Mug (with an extra surprise)
• Bean Boozled Game - This is a funny game: spin the spinner, take a jelly bean... is that yellow speckled jelly bean buttered popcorn flavored or ear wax flavored? You won't know until you try it!
• Scratch Off Dad Jokes - everybody loves a corny Dad joke!
• A Rotisserie Chicken (and a side) - this one is so unexpected it's bound to get a laugh. Just make sure you buy it right before the party and maybe put it on ice packs so it doesn't go bad.

Practical and Nice Gift Ideas

• Lottery tickets/Scratch off tickets - everyone dreams of winning big!
• A Cozy Blanket
• Food basket - come up with a theme and include nice snacks or drinks
• Nice office supplies (a nice set of stationery, pens, etc)
• A board game or card game
• A Gift Card to a Local Shop or Restaurant

Cheap or Free Gift Ideas

• Something from around your house that you’re not using - coffee mug, knick knack, etc.
• Something half used from your house - like a candle.
• Split and repot one of your houseplants to share
• A Big Package of Toliet Paper or Tissues - People often get excited for these before opening because it looks like a big gift!

Happy Giving Tuesday!

A tradition I started back in 2016 was to donate a percentage of profits from Birch Landing Home to charity at year end, and it’s a tradition I’ve been proud to continue every year since.

2024 has been a challenging year for a lot of small businesses, including mine. This year I had 4 brick and mortar shops I wholesale to close their doors, many of my remaining wholesale accounts have been cutting back how often they reorder, regular sales on Etsy have been slow, and affiliate sales/ad revenue on the blog are down. Inflation and spending habits have impacted everyone.

Nevertheless I am still planning on making a donation at year-end even if it’s small. I think it’s important to give back when you can and I want to make sure this tradition continues. If you have a suggestion of a charity or non-profit to consider please let me know! And thank you all again for your continued support - even just views, clicks, and likes on social media and my blog or Etsy go a very long way to supporting my business and don’t cost anything. Thank you!

SALE: 20% Off EVERYTHING in Etsy Shop!

Happy Plaid Friday/Small Business Saturday/Cyber Monday! (Whew, what a mouthful) To celebrate we’re offering 20% off everything in our Etsy Shop with no minimums - including some really unique Vintage Christmas items, as well as our classic Stickers, New England Lakeside Hats, and Hand-Etched Ornaments. Shop now before the sale ends!

And please don’t forget to Shop Local this weekend (and always!) - small shops need your support more than ever. This year we had four brick and mortar shops that we wholesale to close their doors… it’s a ripple effect that goes beyond that one business and impacts all the other small businesses (like mine) that they carry as well. Please support our local Stockists (tell them I sent ya), and all other local shops when you can.