Water Bottles

It's always a good idea to stay hydrated, and an even better idea to do it with a reusable water bottle! Not everyone needs a reusable water bottle. Don't go buy one if you wont actually use it. Look at your lifestyle. Do you normally buy a lot of plastic water bottles that could be prevented with a reusable one? If you are out and about, I'm sure many food places will give you free water to fill up your water bottle if you ask, or have water fountains accessible.

Side note: my new favorite part about the Philadelphia Airport is that all their water fountains now have bottle filling stations! So much easier than awkwardly trying to fill up from a normal water fountain. Go through security with an empty water bottle and never buy over priced airport water again. :)

I prefer to only put water in my bottle to prevent tastes building up, but if you don't have a problem with it (or maybe have two bottles, one just for water) then you can always ask places with soda fountains if you can use your own bottle instead of their plastic cups. Some places might say no because they can't keep track if you actually paid (so even if they do say yes, hold onto your receipt while you are there!) but many places will probably let you. I know Panera Bread lets me use my travel mug for coffee (but travel mugs will be a different post). It never hurts to ask! Just be sure you know how many fluid ounces your bottle holds so you can pay for the appropriate amount.

Oh my goodness, there are SO MANY options out there for water bottles. And everyone is looking for something different. Does it need to be small so it fits in your purse? Or super huge because you drink so much water? Insulated so it stays cold, or not insulated so it's lighter?  I'm not going to go through the thousands of options with you, but I will direct you to this link were someone DOES test out a bunch of options and gives their chosen winners:

http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-water-bottle/

If you are in the market for a new water bottle, write down a list of what's most important to you and go from there.

For example, here are the most important things for me when looking for a water bottle, to give you some ideas:

1. Dishwasher safe!
2. Can actually fit in the top rack of the dishwasher - my current plastic one is top rack dishwasher safe but is a little to tall to fit easily. I don't want to put it on the bottom because I've heard stories of top-rack only items melting if they are on the bottom because that's where the heating element is.
3. Holds a decent amount of water but is also fairly light and can fit in a medium to large purse.
4. Leak proof so I can throw it in a bag without worrying.
5. The part my mouth touches get's covered up by a lid of some sort so it stays a bit cleaner.

I have a Polar Bottle (http://polarbottle.com/) which I like well enough, but I do wish it was a little shorter (so it can fit in the dishwasher better). I don't care too much about my water staying cold, so next time I buy a water bottle I think I will do without the insulation so it can hold more water and be lighter, without taking up more space. I also wish the top had a cover so it would stay a little cleaner.

To show how much space the insulation takes up, here is my insulated 24oz bottle (left) next to my husband's non-insulated 32 oz bottle (right):


As you can see, his is shorter than mine AND holds more water (and isn't much wider). It's made by Rubbermaid and I've seen it for sale in Giant Food stores and CVS. It's dishwasher safe, freezer safe, and the lid covers the opening. The only potential issue might be sweating. Since it's not insulated, very cold water might cause the outside to sweat which would be a problem for me when putting it in my purse.

No matter what kind of water bottle you have, it wont matter if you don't use it! Make a conscious effort to fill it up and bring it with you instead of later finding yourself thirsty and forced to purchase water bottles.

Let me know if YOU have a favorite reusable water bottle in the comments!