Leaping aboard the plastic-free bandwagon

Unless you live on the moon or a very remote volcano I'm guessing you will be aware of the recent sudden surge of activity to save our planet from ourselves.

In human history, much like other animal history we pottered along for years and years, using things, replacing things, recycling things and just generally being fairly neutral in planetary terms. But then suddenly we had a leap into the new, we started inventing things, and we went crazy.

Over only a very, very short space of time (in planet terms) we started filling the place with junk. Using things, tossing them aside, making new things...like children let loose with new toys we just ran amok and suddenly we seem to have sat back and realised we need to take some responsibility.

People are all looking at ways to do that and actions range from nothing ("governments and big business should do that - it's not up to us, what can we do?"), through going vegan, going vegetarian, not buying new clothes (slow fashion is very much en mode), using cotton bags in place of plastic (the jury is still out on that) to not using single use plastics.

I have decided to do a small thing. There is nothing wrong with small things, and we can all do something. I am no longer buying any bathroom stuff, toiletries or make up, that is wrapped in, or uses plastic as its container.

At first this seemed really simple. Years ago I moved back to bars of soap. I love that a bar of soap in the bathroom makes the room smell good, you can store the spare bars in your wardrobe or clothes drawers and get the same lovely effect there too. Choosing only soap packed in paper was simple. There are so many choices, from Lush products and Funky Soap to small businesses on Etsy.

Next I looked at shampoo. Again a nice easy one, I already buy shampoo bars for when I go camping (no danger of spilling the shampoo) so I would just stop buying bottles at all, and use bars at home too

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I use conditioner but more importantly I use a glosser or hair serum, so I was pleased to find a few of these in glass. I usually use one that is packed in plastic, I haven't tried these new ones yet, but I have high hopes.

I'm not a huge makeup user so this wasn't difficult. I only really use facial moisturiser and lip balm. I found a few posh face creams that are packed in glass,and Funky Soap has some in glass or metal tins, and some on Etsy too (Etsy is fast becoming my go to place). Plenty of companies make little tins of lip balm. Some make little tins of hand balm too.

Of course there will be no facial wipes, nothing that is use once and bin is good for that planet. I currently use a flannel, but I am also looking at some cute washable face wipes.

I shower more than I bath, so soap and shower bars are the new go to. And for the odd bath if I really want it scented there are bath salts, bath bombs or glass bottles of bath oil or foam.

Shaving .... I am not binning everything plastic I own already, that would be silly, so I have an electric razor, but the cheap plastic disposables will have to go, I will either have to buy a new safety razor and change the blades, or stop wet shaving. (Tip on blade disposal, place used blades in a small tin until the tin is full, then pop into the metal recycling) Shaving soap is available in blocks.

Deodorant. Back to Lush again for a block of this, although Primal Suds make some too. There are several companies that make deodorant packed in cardboard . My main gripe with them is the price, often nearly 10 times the price of a cheap plastic pack, and the lack of a good antiperspirant , but I'm still hunting.

Teeth. You will all know about bamboo tooth brushes and there are lots on the market. However I do love my electric brush and I think that's something that companies need to look at. I have quite a few spare heads for the electric brush at the moment so I'll be crossing that bridge later. But what about toothpaste? Almost all toothpaste is packed in plastic. Euthymol still uses old fashioned metal tubes but it doesn't contain fluoride (that may or may not be important to you) Most organic and eco toothpastes, powders and tablets don't contain fluoride, which I was pretty annoyed about as fluoride helps protect your tooth enamel. Then I stumbled onto tooth tablets with fluoride from KickPlastic and I have immediately ordered some. What a find the website was! Lots of great plastic free options for home and bathroom.

So that's me sorted. Wood, glass and metal where once there was plastic. I'll let you know if I find any more little gems. And please comment with your own finds, especially makeup - that's not really my thing so I didn't really look for plastic free options there.

No one paid me to post this, or even sent me anything for review, more's the pity ;-)

I'm a Crafty Sew and Sew

DD being crafty

I'm not the best seamstress in the world. Maybe I would be on the Discworld...but not in this one.

I inherited a sewing machine from my MIL and I was taught needlework at school (and yes it was only the girls, boys did wood work of course!) and I learned the ways of the sewing machine under the stern eye of my needlework mistress. She was scary. "Gels! I do NOT want to see any lipstick on your thread! LADIES do not lick or bite their thread, they cut it neatly!" but she taught us well, I know the uses of the various 'feet' on a sewing machine, I can sew a button hole whether by machine or hand. I can sew a button on too - including into a coat (slightly different technique needed to avoid it being too tight) I can sew a tacking stitch, a blanket stitch and I can do a double seam on denim. I can hem too. All because I learned at school.

BUT even if you don't have all of those skills and even if they, quite frankly, terrify you, you should ensure your home has a sewing kit. Everyone, of every gender should be able to fix stuff! No one should be throwing away a pair of trousers due to a lost button or a jumper because of a frayed hem.

In the time of the internet you can even learn online using youtube tutorials or friendly bloggers and once you are feeling happy with a needle then you can craft! It needn't be perfect either. I learned to make a rather cute strawberry at a festival last year under the careful eye of RedTedArt and it was super easy and fun!

Ditch the wunda-web, the hem-bond or whatever it's called, grab a sharp and get sewing! Be not afraid.

This year I plan to learn to knit (other that finger knitting which I learned at Camp Bestival) and it looks like Wilderness Festival might be the place as they are planning a Naked Knitting Circle!

Do you sew? Do you knit? How 'crafty' are you? and did you learn at school?

So This is a Mooncup

I bang on about the Mooncup quite a bit on Twitter, and on the blog. People ask what I'm on about, why do I love it, how easy is it to use?

This video is great - it shows very simply how the Mooncup works, what it looks  like, how soft it is, and how it gets in and out!

I'll add that it works out MUCH cheaper than buying sanitary protection each month and it's MUCH greener. Buy one and never run out of sanitary protection again.

Click to go to the Mooncup Website to order a mooncup or for more info.

Disclaimer - I am part of an affiliate program and receive 20% commission on any sales via this link