Avoiding Hotel Toiletry Clutter

Do you take home unused hotel toiletries? If you do, and you also do one of the following:

• Use them (almost) right away.
• Keep a reasonable number just for guests.
• Give them away to homeless shelters or similar organizations, on a timely basis.

then you don’t have a clutter problem. I took home the ProTerra body wash from a B&B because I really liked it and thought I might want to buy some (in a larger size).

But a lot of people take the bottles home and toss them in a closet — where they join other similar bottles and take up permanent residence.

If this is a habit you’d like to break, you’re going to get some help from two sources.

1. Legislation —at least in California. California is considering a bill to ban those little bottles, for environmental reasons. The city of Santa Cruz has already passed a similar bill; its restrictions will take effect in December 2020.

2. Hotels. Marriott and Intercontinental hotels are moving away from small shampoo and conditioner bottles, replacing them with larger pump bottles. Ash Kaira, a California State Assembly Member, said on Twitter, “By the end of this year, @Marriott will have already switched 1,500 of their North American hotels to dispensers instead of single use plastic bottles.” Lodging reports that Managed by Marriott hotels will be using Paul Mitchell products.