Blueland Cofounder Sarah Paiji Yoo’s Home Picks are Chic, Clean, and Eco-Conscious

For Sarah Paiji Yoo, cofounder of Blueland, creating a line of eco-conscious and refillable cleaning products wasn’t the initial goal. Instead, her mission was more straightforward than that: a desire to eliminate single-use plastic packaging within her home. 

"I had gone through this whole journey when I became a new mom learning about microplastics and how it’s contaminating our drinking water, our food, and every area of our bodies and our planet," she says. After the birth of her son, Yoo was cleaning his high chair with a generic multi-surface cleaner when it gave her pause. "I stepped back and looked around — there are so many products, especially in the cleaning category, where you’re unnecessarily buying a new plastic bottle every time and you’re mostly paying for water." The term microplastics may be commonplace today but Yoo recalls that seven years ago when she began conceiving the idea for Blueland, it wasn’t as easy to find information about how to avoid them. "Ultimately, we wanted to create [a line of plastic-free products] that people could actually adopt since we know how hard it is to change people’s behaviors." (Yoo can attest to the difficulty of living free of single-use plastics — she went zero-waste for the first two years when Blueland was launching, saying she "did the whole cloth diaper thing, the whole nine yards.")

Blueland’s first hire was Syed Naqvi, the Chief Innovation Officer (previously, he had been at Method where he was the Director of Formulation). Naqvi, who also had a long career in probiotics and nutritional supplements, developed what is now Blueland’s signature format: fully concentrated cleaning tablets. All customers have to do is add water to a reusable glass Blueland bottle, drop in a tablet, then let it dissolve into a cleaning formula. Blueland’s lineup of products include dishwasher and laundry tablets, a toilet bowl cleaner, a hand soap, a multi-surface and glass/mirror cleaner, and bath and body products.

Yoo, who lives in an apartment in the Upper West Side of Manhattan with her family (now with two young boys, aged three and seven), is equally conscious about where her furnishings come from. She opts to buy secondhand or vintage as much as possible, which can result in a fun and unexpected mix of design eras and aesthetics. There’s a 1940s Danish banana sofa that Yoo found on Etsy that was originally hot pink but was recently reupholstered. She scored two "crazy orange" Pierre Paulin chairs and a vintage Italian Murano chandelier from another vintage retailer. Her coffee table was sourced from friends. Every room embodies a specific energy with painted walls to match: "What we call our playroom or TV room is dark blue and we have a big bright blue Ethan Cook piece in there," says Yoo. "My older son’s bedroom is a mustardy yellow; my younger son’s room is green; my office is pink; and I wanted our living room to be really tidy, peaceful, Zen, and white."

Yoo’s process for figuring out what to bring into her home is a thoughtful process. She doesn’t acquire more than what’s necessary, especially for a New York City apartment that’s limited in square footage. "I’m never shopping for fun, if that makes sense. Now that we’re settled and we have everything we need, I unfollowed a bunch of vintage accounts on Instagram," she says. Yoo also acknowledges that buying new home items is often unavoidable — especially when having kids — but because of her work with Blueland, she tries to be as thorough as possible when looking at materials and ingredients. "There’s a lot of greenwashing out there so I’m always looking for the certifications or watching out for cherry picking of language," she says. "To some extent you can only control what you can control. You have to live. I love things like Facebook Marketplace and we’re often getting a lot of hand-me-downs from friends with kids. It’s such an easy and great way to find gently used things in your community."

Life Straw BPA-Free Plastic Filter Pitcher

"This water filter pitcher is one of my favorite household essentials! It’s made from BPA-free plastic and removes microplastics and PFAS (‘forever chemicals’) from tap water. It’s also the perfect size to store on the countertop or in the fridge."

Dyson Air Purifier

"Gas ovens and cooktops release these harmful pollutants into the air we breathe and this HEPA filter can purify the whole room while keeping it nice and cool! We don’t use any VOCs [volatile organic compounds] in our Blueland products but for those who are using conventional cleaners, an air purifier like this one is a must to make sure the harmful VOCs aren’t lingering around in the air."

Tushy Bidet

"Bidets are more beneficial for the environment than you might realize. We’re flushing 10 million trees every year, so this is a must-have."

Who Gives a Crap TP

"Bamboo toilet paper goes hand-in-hand with the bidet! It uses significantly fewer resources compared to conventional toilet paper coated with chemicals."

Stasher Starter Kit 5-Pack

"As a mom of two, I’m never without my Stasher bags. I‘m constantly packing various bulk snacks in there to keep on hand!"

Stojo 

"This one is simple but a no-brainer. I love my reusable cup because it’s collapsible and convenient for whenever I’m on the go. I bring it with me to coffee shops and to our office all the time."

Lomi Bloom

"I’ve had my Lomi for years! It turns leftover food scraps like veggie peels and old bread into fertilizer and keeps them out of landfills."

Blueland Dishwasher and Laundry Duo

"If I absolutely had to choose my favorite Blueland product, I’d have to say it’s our Dishwasher and Laundry Duo. They’re effective, single-dose, made with clean ingredients, and most importantly, they’re 100% plastic-free. All conventional detergent pods are wrapped in a plastic called Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) that research has found to pollute our oceans, rivers, and soil."

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