Space Saving, Low Waste Drinkware for All Ages

Our kitchen isn’t tiny, but it is of course compact. One double-door cabinet above our sink holds all of our drinkware.

When selecting our glasses, cups and related accessories, we’ve tried to stick to items that will save space and reduce waste through their versatility and adaptability.

For example, when our child began to drink out of a bottle, I started to notice how many styles of drinkware for children there are. The designs are often tailored to stage and age, meaning they need to be entirely replaced at several milestones. We are certainly guilty of going through a few styles of bottles and cups before understanding what we actually needed, and how we could reduce our waste while saving space within our home. As it turns out, all we needed was a small number of stainless steel bottles that could be adapted for babies, toddlers, kids, adults, and travel via their tops.

Similarly, I had mason jars in use for a job here-or-there around the house, but I also bought soap dispensers, to-go cups, and specialty containers (which all broke or wore out over time) before realizing that the jars could function for years in a number of ways with the help of a minor accessory every now and then.

We now use the same old supply of jars for food and household cleaner refills, for toting our snacks to go, as drinkware (for adults and children), for storing food, as coffee cups, as soap dispensers, as beauty product containers, and more.

We do have a small set of recycled, stacking glasses, as well as some stemware and mugs that were gifted. But other than that, we pretty much use our collection of jars or stainless steel the majority of the time.

Having worked in the event industry and home decor world for years now, I have seen the eye rolls and heard the complaints about mason jars again and again. But on such a strained planet, it’s our responsibility to stop buying new items we don’t need, and to get the most milage and creative use out of what we’ve got.

While this certainly isn’t a zero waste system, it is lower waste than most of what I see on a daily basis. It helps us avoid single use adult and kid cups, and enables one type of object to play many roles, saving us both space and money.