"My husband David and I are always striving to be a plastic-free home, or at least to do as much as we possibly can to reduce our environmental impact. A few months ago, a revolutionary start-up company called Blueland sent me a beginner's kit containing their eco-friendly and non-toxic cleaning solutions—four empty bottles for essential household cleaning; one for multi-surfaces,  one for glass, another for bathrooms, plus a nice foaming hand soap. They each come with correlating tablets and the whole thing is really easy: You fill the bottle with warm water and pop each tablet in, then wait ten minutes for it to dissolve.

After the first starter pack, you only buy the tablets, which come in tiny paper packs. Then you have your pretty color-coded reusable bottle to keep forever instead of throwing out bottle after bottle; even if you’re recycling, that’s a lot of waste. There's a fact on the company's website that really hit home, which is that 8 billion tons of plastic trash are still on the planet, including the iced coffee cup you had last week, or the toothbrush you used when you were four. It definitely made me think (and got me that much more excited to launch Westman Atelier's refillable compacts later this year—more on that soon!). My daughter Gray actually really likes to dissolve the tablets when it’s time for the next refill. I love that because we’re always trying to create small ways for our kids to think about the environment and participate in something more beneficial for the earth.   

As for the cleansers themselves, they absolutely work as well as anything else we've tried, but they're made without any harsh chemicals and they have a nice mild scent. A lot of traditional household name cleaning products are made with such intense ingredients—I worry about that day after day, year after year. Everything about it just feels really good, including that it's the incredibly smart brainchild of a female founder and mother, and one of those things where you wonder 'what took so long?' Basically, I'm never going back.” 

Blueland The Clean Essentials starter kit, $39; available at blueland.com 

** For more on Westman Atelier's clean beauty mission and clean active ingredients, click here!