Ah, the joys of traveling. And more importantly, the excitement of a brand-spanking-new hotel room. (What can I say? I have a bizarre fascination with hotels.) Used to be, the first thing I always did after checking out the view and jumping on the bed was go into the bathroom and see what kinds of toiletries they had. Tiny bottles of lotion and shampoo, and soaps in miniature all mine for the taking! So cute! It would practically make me swoon.

Now, after having stayed in enough hotel rooms that the bloom is off the rose, my reaction to those tiny bottles has become one of horror. When I think of my naivete, I am more than a little embarrassed. I have always considered myself an environmentalist, a lover of the Earth. I mean, talk about obvious! Just look at one of those teeny-tiny bottles, the amount of plastic it would have taken to make it and the manufacturing, and jeez! All just for one use? So wasteful!

If I lined up every tiny bottle of shampoo and conditioner and lotion I have ever used, well, let’s just say it would take a while to line up all those bottles. I could beat myself up for my folly, but I choose to move forward. (If you’d like to berate me, feel free to do so in the comment section below.) Resolved to do better, I assembled a travel kit from the collection of small bottles already taking up space on my bathroom shelves, and I use it faithfully. Just think, if everyone did this, the hotels would stop putting the tiny bottles in the rooms and then the companies would have to stop manufacturing them.

Bonus: I can control what kind of shampoo I am using. Those tiny bottles are too small for labels that give you a list of ingredients, so who knows what chemical horrors are in them. I bring my own, so I know exactly what is going in my hair and onto my skin.

I know those mini bottles of shampoo and conditioner are convenient, but when you consider how much plastic and processing it takes to make those tiny bottles, putting some of your shampoo from home into a little refillable bottle doesn’t seem like such a hassle after all.

Saving the world one tiny shampoo bottle at a time.