Hey guys.

It's Chelsea from The Financial Diet. And this week's video was brought to you by Skill Share.

Something that we talk a lot about on this channel is all of the things that are really smart to invest in because they're something that you use often and something that can potentially last for years. Some of the recent ones that I've talked about are things like a dutch oven for cooking, things like good outerwear and shoes for long winters, and even things like cars or electronics that you know you're going to want to be using for the long term and not constantly fixing. A lot of times paying more upfront means that you're going to save a lot more in the long run.

But this mentality of buy it once and use it for as long as possible is not applicable to everything. There are certain items in our everyday lives which you should, frankly, be replacing very regularly, and chances are you might not be. So we wanted to round up some of those items you should be regularly replacing, because not only should you check to make sure the ones you have are still good, but you should also be thinking in terms of getting the most use out of these items while you have them.

There's nothing more frustrating than realizing something that you bought has been on the shelf or in a basket too long and you never even got a chance to use it before it's no good. And one of the easiest ways to stop wasting that money is to make sure you have stock of the items that need to be replaced and when they need to be replaced by. So without further ado, here are 12 of the everyday items you should be replacing regularly.

Number one is your toothbrush. Now, you probably already knew this. But it's something that always bears repeating.

Your toothbrush should be replaced at least once every few months. And as obvious as that might sound, a lot of people simply forget to do it and end up replacing their toothbrush way closer to every six or eight months, which is not good. Not only do the bristles themselves become much less effective at cleaning your teeth, you're also basically putting something in your mouth that's meant to clean it which is itself super dirty.

The easiest way to make sure you're always doing this is just to buy those packs of toothbrushes so that every time you need a new one you don't have to run out to the store and get it. Number two is kitchen sponges. Do me a favor and take a look at your kitchen sponge.

On a scale from 1 to 10, rate its utter grossness. There's a strong chance that you're going to be somewhere between the 6 and the 10 on that scale. This is another one of those obvious everyday items that we tend to go way longer than we should without replacing or properly cleaning.

And especially if you don't have a dishwasher and are using those sponges to fully clean your dishes, it being clean is of the utmost importance. Now, this may sound frequent, but the science backs it up. A sponge should be properly cleaned and sanitized after almost every use, and should be replaced every one to two weeks.

At the very least you should be putting your sponge in the dishwasher every time you run it, and should be throwing it out any time it has any kind of odor. Number three is your pillows and pillow cases. Pillows are full of dead skin, dirt, and dust mites.

Pillow cases need to be washed frequently, especially if you have more sensitive skin. And that means that the very most you should be going two weeks between pillowcase washes. I personally do once a week because I always have skin problems, and dirty pillowcases make it way worse.

But pillows themselves should be washed too. They should be washed at least every two months. And you should be replacing them about twice a year.

Yes, this may sound very frequent, but if you actually knew the level of disgusting of that item that you are placing your head directly on for eight hours a day really was, would probably feel OK with that level of replacement. This is the item that on a nightly basis you are literally sweating, drooling, and God knows what else-ing on. Clean it.

Number four is sunblock. So here's the thing about sunblock-- like most cosmetic products, it expires. And unlike other cosmetic products, which you can sometimes get away with using well after the expiration date, sunblock actually becomes pretty much ineffective after it's expired.

It loses its sun blocking properties, which basically means you're slathering shitty coconut scented lotion all over yourself for no reason. But the good news is that it tends to last about a year to two years before it expires. A good thing to do with products like this that have a pretty hard expiration date is just to take a little piece of tape and write the date on the front of the bottle so that you'll be sure to use it up before it hits that date.

There's nothing worse than having to throw out a $10 bottle of sunscreen that you've barely touched because it's somehow got worked all the way to the back of your medicine cabinet. Number five is bath sponges or loofahs. Now, I should say here that I am firmly team no loofahs because the idea of rubbing yourself with this porous, bacteria-filled cluster in the effort to get clean feels disgusting to me.

I am much more team washcloth, which you can put directly into the laundry after every use. But if for whatever reason you are very much a bath sponge slash loofah person yourself, make sure you are replacing this item at least once a month. Because they become so bacteria filled that you don't even want to know the kind of stuff that you're putting back onto your body in the shower.

Not to mention, as it stays in a damp place and is itself damp, it's a breeding ground for potentially dangerous mold. Number six is mascara. Now, technically you should be replacing most of your makeup fairly frequently.

But the most important one by far is mascara. Even if you're not replacing any of your other stuff, you'd better be doing it with mascara. Mascara very easily gets into your actual eyeballs and tear ducts.

So you want to make sure that that stuff is not full of bacteria, which mascara tends to become every time we take the brush in and out of the tube. For things like makeup brushes, you can easily use brush cleaner. I tend to use a dry one, that's kind of like dry shampoo, to keep it nice and bacteria free.

For things like lipstick, you can take a little antibacterial swipe and wipe just the top of the lipstick. But for mascara there's really no way to disinfect it without ruining the product or potentially putting something even more dangerous in your eyes. Air to the side of caution and replace your mascara at least once a month.

Number seven is the batteries in your safety equipment, everything from your fire detector to your gas detector to flashlights to any other thing that you would need or use in an emergency should always have fresh, not expired, and not dead batteries in them. That means at least once a year checking to make sure all of that stuff works and that you don't need to be adding batteries. As a rule I find it's extremely useful to just keep a little drawer with a variety of batteries in them, because you always need them.

And trust me, you will never hate yourself more than the moment when your power goes out and you realize you forgot to replace the batteries in your only flashlight. Number eight is old plastic tupperware containers. So microwaving your food in plastic containers is not always the safest thing to do, especially if those containers are old.

They can be leaking dangerous chemicals into your food, especially if they're cracked. And also, most Tupperware made before 2010 contain BPA. So it's probably time to upgrade to BPA-free Tupperware.

Who the hell uses plastic Tupperware for 10 years anyway? Number is your bath mat. Now, these get dirty very quickly, even with regular washing.

Everything from hair to dirt to debris to the oils from your feet just wear down the fabric and make them so full of that grossness that not even a regular wash can really clean them. You should be replacing your bath mat at least once a year, and in the meantime, you should be hanging up your bath mat after every use so it has time to properly dry out and not become full of that dangerous bathroom mold that could really hurt your lungs. If you want one that will last longer consider, a bamboo bath mat, which is easier to clean, and generally will last a lot longer than a fabric one.

Number 10 are old spices. So here's the thing about spices and dried herbs. They don't last forever.

And in fact, as time goes on, they become way less flavorful. So make it a point every year to go through your spice cabinet, see what needs to be used because it's coming up on expiration, and make sure that the spices that you have are fresh, so they will be as flavorful and easy to use as possible. Making yourself frequently clean out your spices not only forces you to get the most use out of them, but it also challenges you to make the stuff that you tend not to use.

For example, I recently went through my spice cabinet and found that there was some cumin that I hadn't used in a long time and needed to get rid of before it eventually expired. So I made a big batch of tortilla soup. It was delicious, and ensured that that cumin I bought didn't go to waste.

Number 11 is your toilet brush and plunger. Now, at the very least, you should be regularly cleaning and disinfecting these items because they are literally just sitting there in your bathroom sort of evaporating their disgusting-ness into the air. But you should also be replacing them frequently.

Because not only can the plastic and rubber they're made of crack and get unusable, like with the plunger, it's also just disgusting to keep such items for years on end. Replacing them about once every 18 months combined with regular cleaning and disinfecting should be good. And finally number 12 is expired medication.

Now, you probably have a lot of over-the-counter medication in your cabinet. But what you may not know is that all of them are FTC required to have an expiration date printed on them. Usually you can find this on the bottom.

Now, while these dates are not going to be exact, they're going to give you a pretty good idea of when this medication is no longer effective or even no longer safe. So do yourself a big favor and always arrange your medicine cabinet with the oldest stuff in the front so that you know to use it first, and don't replace bottles of any medication until you've used the rest of the first bottle. Having too much of something is the easiest way to ensure that A you're wasting money on it and B you're not going to use the other stuff until it's already expired.

Now, is most of your over-the-counter medication going to kill you if you take it a few months after its expiration date? No. But it could make you sick.

And at the very least, could be ineffective. Plus, even over-the-counter medication tends to be fairly expensive, so you don't want to see it go to waste. Now, obviously, wherever we can in life, it is very smart to invest in the right items.

But there are always going to be things that we buy that just by necessity need to be replaced fairly frequently. And the best thing you can do to mitigate that cost is to make sure you're getting all of the use you can out of them and not letting them go to waste. But one irreplaceable thing that you can always be sure is a good investment is your own skill set, which is why the Financial Diet partners with Skill Share.

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An annual subscription is less than $10 a month. And since Skill Share is sponsoring this video, the first 500 people to use the promo link in the description will get their first two months free to try it out risk free. Try Skill Share today and start getting better at what you love.

So as always, guys, thank you for watching. And don't forget to hit the Subscribe button and to come back every Tuesday for new and awesome videos. Bye