diff --git a/libnm-core/nm-setting-bond.c b/libnm-core/nm-setting-bond.c
index 44219bfe2..13bb4a8a7 100644
--- a/libnm-core/nm-setting-bond.c
+++ b/libnm-core/nm-setting-bond.c
@@ -159,9 +159,7 @@ nm_setting_bond_get_option (NMSettingBond *setting,
                             const char **out_value)
 {
 	NMSettingBondPrivate *priv;
-	guint i, len;
-	GHashTableIter iter;
-	const char *key, *value;
+	guint len;
 
 	g_return_val_if_fail (NM_IS_SETTING_BOND (setting), FALSE);
 
@@ -171,23 +169,8 @@ nm_setting_bond_get_option (NMSettingBond *setting,
 	if (idx >= len)
 		return FALSE;
 
-	if (!G_UNLIKELY (priv->options_idx_cache)) {
-		NMUtilsNamedValue *options;
-
-		i = 0;
-		options = g_new (NMUtilsNamedValue, len);
-		g_hash_table_iter_init (&iter, priv->options);
-		while (g_hash_table_iter_next (&iter, (gpointer *) &key, (gpointer *) &value)) {
-			options[i].name = key;
-			options[i].value_str = value;
-			i++;
-		}
-		nm_assert (i == len);
-
-		g_qsort_with_data (options, len, sizeof (options[0]),
-		                   nm_utils_named_entry_cmp_with_data, NULL);
-		priv->options_idx_cache = options;
-	}
+	if (!G_UNLIKELY (priv->options_idx_cache))
+		priv->options_idx_cache = nm_utils_named_values_from_str_dict (priv->options, NULL);
 
 	NM_SET_OUT (out_name, priv->options_idx_cache[idx].name);
 	NM_SET_OUT (out_value, priv->options_idx_cache[idx].value_str);
diff --git a/libnm-core/nm-utils.c b/libnm-core/nm-utils.c
index da297f7a2..5237d2083 100644
--- a/libnm-core/nm-utils.c
+++ b/libnm-core/nm-utils.c
@@ -5531,8 +5531,8 @@ nm_utils_format_variant_attributes (GHashTable *attributes,
 	const char *name, *value;
 	char *escaped;
 	char buf[64];
-	gs_free_list GList *keys = NULL;
-	GList *iter;
+	gs_free NMUtilsNamedValue *values = NULL;
+	guint i, len;
 
 	g_return_val_if_fail (attr_separator, NULL);
 	g_return_val_if_fail (key_value_separator, NULL);
@@ -5540,12 +5540,13 @@ nm_utils_format_variant_attributes (GHashTable *attributes,
 	if (!attributes || !g_hash_table_size (attributes))
 		return NULL;
 
-	keys = g_list_sort (g_hash_table_get_keys (attributes), (GCompareFunc) g_strcmp0);
+	values = nm_utils_named_values_from_str_dict (attributes, &len);
+
 	str = g_string_new ("");
 
-	for (iter = keys; iter; iter = g_list_next (iter)) {
-		name = iter->data;
-		variant = g_hash_table_lookup (attributes, name);
+	for (i = 0; i < len; i++) {
+		name = values[i].name;
+		variant = (GVariant *) values[i].value_ptr;
 		value = NULL;
 
 		if (g_variant_is_of_type (variant, G_VARIANT_TYPE_UINT32))