apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

"It's freeing to not be pressured to dole out extra cash to buy that product with slightly nicer packaging." - from their website.

1. WHO THE HECK DOES THIS?

2. I'm dolling out extra cash anyway, for the DH products. I'm not saving money.

3. This is only marginally eco-friendly, and probably negated by the fact that you're replacing plastic bottles with ore of the same.

Thanks for the post - this is the exact product I searched for unsuccessfully a few weeks ago. Our new bathroom has a claw foot tub and toiletry storage in the tub has been a challenge. Fortunately, I found shampoo and soap baskets that attach to the riser (the pipe that makes the tub a shower) in brushed nickel to match our hardware. I transferred all toiletries into Nalgene bottles with lotion pumps (yet another Container Store purchase) but I'm having a hard time identifying the contents as all my products seem to be pearly white. My current, homemade labels aren't working and don't look this nice.

I tend to peel off labels on bottles that are on display..handoap, lotion, dishsoap...but this might be useful for guests.

If you feel bullied by your toiletries, you're in a sad, sad way. How much product is wasted by the transfer to cool new bottles? How much time is wasted by the shopping, the schlepping, the transfer?

Why not just write on your bottles with a sharpie?

Is this post supposed to be ironic? Buying a bunch of junk you don't need to "replace" your branded products with the "Unbranded Home" brand?

I agree with Palmetto that the "shopping, the schlepping, [&] the transfer" is a time waste, not to mention an energy and materials waste. However, I would like to speak up in defense of the idea of de-branding. Since I was little, I've disliked the visual clutter in my house created by product packaging. I've been considering doing things like transferring my cereal to clear plastic containers from IKEA, but "shopping, the schlepping, [&] the transfer" make it seem like a more complex, rather than more simple way to live. I really like and support the idea of de-branding homes, but for now, I think I'll do it by buying fewer things (i.e. one all-purpose cleaner for virtually all the surfaces in my house, rather than separate cleaners for tub, mirror, kitchen, etc.) and storing "brands" out of site when possible (part of keeping an organized house anyway).

BTW, this reminds me of a couple who are friends of mine who recently had an argument about what to call their cars. The husband had a de-branding approach: he objected to calling them the Volvo and the Honda, and insisted on the wagon and the sedan.

It's an interesting point, overall, I think. Language and labels can orient us to the companies that make products or the functions the products perform. However, at this point, for me at least, doing something serious about this is #45,894 on my priority list :)

You still have to buy the product in the original bottle in order to transfer it but it does allow you to buy the huge bottle of shampoo and save some money and then transfer it. I don't have room to keep all the huge bottles in my shower anyway. I like this idea. Thanks

If I could say, I think this is a "good" idea in that people can buy what they like and not spend more for something already in a more attractive package. Sometimes brand packaging is "too cool," even in its quiet way, that sways a consumer from their more economical items in obnoxious packaging. Think about how you shop and try not to care about the pretty artful labels as opposed to the store brand. The packaging and the label aren't the product inside, so if you have some sort of chic scheme at home, you won't be as concerned.

Mostly everyone already does this with their liquid soap by the way, and many have dry goods canisters at least for sugar, coffee, etc., if not all their beans, rice, and pasta in identical jars like that one guy's pantry in the Small Cool (I think he's a finalist too), and put our salt and pepper into shakers.

I think it has more to do with how visible the items are, how accessible they need to be daily, and in most cases, it's not many. Food is one for many of us with open shelving, but I kind of see this endeavor as time-consuming and unnecessary unless you do buy in bulk, which is storage some cannot spare either. This is like the article referencing India Hicks' books all wrapped in brown paper (to emulate some habit her father had?), like the spines of books are too vulgar. Whatever pleases thee, I suppose. I live in the world and consume a variety of products as needed. Transfering them to plain and pleasing containers may be a demonstration of consumption to meditate upon, but time is a resource too.

OR.. you can peel the original label off and put a nice one on there. I always peel the stickers off anything I can. i know the purple stuff by the sink is soap- so i like the look of label-less.(sometimes you have to scrub off a little adheisive.. but if you are so busy that you can't imagine pouring soap into a different bottle.. maybe you shouldnt be online?)

i also painted over the logos on most of my electronics.. becasue i have all the time in the world.

How do you get labels off that are printed directly onto the plastic?

antimatt - It's not that I'm busy, well I guess my priorities are such that it's not in the top dozen or so. I'd have to be pretty bored and have nowhere fun I could think to go after I did everything I really should do, and then I'd go online and waste a lot more time before I get in the habit of fussing over things being in a container. I do like things to have aesthetic appeal, but not to this extreme. I think being laid-back about certain things has its rewards also.

In my case, I needed to transfer my products to narrower containers to make them fit and took the opportunity to find bottles with lotion pumps so I don't have to unscrew lids on each product every morning. I can't use the original packaging in my shower so I'm making the best of the situation. It did lead me to find a larger size of the amazingly overpriced shampoo that I use and buy it in bulk at a lower price.

No. Never will I spend my time doing THIS. That said, I try to limit the number of products I have on display in the bathroom (like actually finishing a bottle of shampoo, instead of keeping three half-empty ones in the tub).

I also think some packaging- especially food packaging- can be really beautiful. Like Twinnings tea tins and McCann's Steel Cut-Oats, which hold my craft supplies. Re-using beautiful containers with logos makes more sense than buying plain, not-so-nice ones.

I'm with you on debranding the bathroom, but have a hard time finding bottles I like -- and I work at the Container Store.

Tisha: Check out Muji. Their bottles are the only thing there that I like.

Ok, well I think this is an awesome idea, but then I have a hairdresser uncle who gives me 33 ounce bottles of Paul Mitchell Shampoo at a very steep discount. After discovering that dropping a 33 ounce bottle of shampoo on your foot while in the shower is extremely unpleasant, I started pouring it into smaller bottles. They may as well be pretty ones without tacky labels. But I made my own labels with whimsical letters cut from vinyl contact paper.

Thanks for all the interest you've shown! I wanted to briefly address a couple concerns brought up in the comments.

We do not sell bottles. Currently, we only sell packs of labels to replace manufacturer labels. These are durable, waterproof vinyl stickers rated for outdoor use so you can place them on your existing product bottles and reuse the same bottles over and over again. We want to reduce waste!

About the use of time in this process: We have provided very easy to apply labels. Our mission, in part, is to provide a solution for those who don't want to look at product advertising at home. People can also save money by buying bulk soap/shampoo/body wash and refilling their bottles. We really like Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap, an all-in-one product which is available as a refill. There is also the environmental aspect of reusing and refilling instead of buying a new bottle of a bathroom product each time it runs out. We have provided these simple, durable labels to help with all three of these issues without sacrificing nice design in your home.

Thanks for the visits and the responses to our idea and products!

Sincerely,
Ryan
Debranded Home

I'm so in love with these labels. I've just recently purchased Muji bottles for my shower and realized my shampoo and conditioner were both white. Waking up to these cool labels will be so much more pleasant than my chicken scratch in sharpie.

How do you remember what brand you like, maybe it doesn't matter, maybe you never switch? I can't help but think this is some sort of silly gimmick, now that I've been thinking about it. Your label is still a label, and an expenditure of money, time, and effort to mask the sources of items that people buy. How does this help?

Life is too short to decant stuff from one bottle to another just because you are too snooty to have a cheap brand on display in your bathroom

However, I do decant lots of toiletries into small travel bottles for when I go away and these labels would be perfect for those bottles

Just discovered Muji do stick on labels too!

http://www.muji.eu/pages/online.asp?V=1&Sec=5&Sub=28&PID=2355&CHK=Y