I’ve always been into recycling since the movement started in the 90s. Apparently, household recycling started in my area in 1988 according to the Department of Environmental Protection but I digress… I hate throwing something in the trash if I know it can be recycled. Am I perfect all the time? No but I try my hardest. I see landfills get bigger and bigger and it annoys me to no end. It could be a nice grazing field for farm animals or still a wooded area for wild animals. Am I an environmental activist? No I have no time for that. I have a family to raise but I try to do my part as much as possible to help things get reused and reduced. I happened upon the UK based LessPlasticUK twitter account. It got me thinking how bad the plastic load has gotten in this world. It is just sad how much plastic we use in this world today. Having kids you realize how much gets used and wasted. When I was pregnant I read up on how much plastic can effect your endocrine system (the system that controls your hormone levels) and how that can effect your unborn child. I tried my hardest to eliminate the use of plastics during my pregnancies. Lately, I’m realizing how much I use reusable plastics and it kind of bugs me. I really want to make the effort to change our household over to more glass. This year I want to totally change my tupperware and rubbermaid products over to glass. I’d really like to get square containers because they fit better in the fridge.
I’d like to switch my plastic drinking bottles to glass with the rubber silicone around them because let’s face it having kids there could be drops! I would have loved to get glass baby bottles for the second born but wow were they expensive compared to plastic! I know things are BPA but still! I’d also love to start getting milk delivered, especially because they use glass bottles. But again that can be a little more expensive especially if you normally get a gallon. The deliveries usually come by half gallons. Also, I found these cool cloth zipper bags for the kids’ snacks on the go.
I found them at a steal! 10 cents a piece at a yard sale last year! I told you I love yard sales! I love them especially in big developments where you can cover a lot of ground and find a lot (hopefully) in one place! Now that I’m eating more fruit, I’m thinking about buying those reusable produce drawstring bags for veggies and fruit. I just need to remember to bring them into the store with me!
Also, not plastic related but chemical related. I’m seriously planning on trying the ClayDry Bold deodorant in Black Cherry. The bold is like an extra strength version. So I am going to check that out and see how it goes. I also bought bars of soap from a local business after talking to the owner. He said a lot of younger people are no longer buying plastic bottles of body wash because of what it is doing to the environment. Here is a good article on why homemade soap is better and actually is quite naturally emollient. This article opened my eyes even wider and kind of made me angry! I deal with dry skin and this year it was to the point my thumb cracked open repeatedly!
The biggest thing with going natural is that it is more expensive. WHY?!? I think that is so ridiculous! I mean I understand that Organic way of making things you can’t produce as much especially fruits and vegetables quickly for our population but still…ok I digress, again.
Not only have I been getting into reducing and reusing products, I have been getting into using old and vintage items in my decor. Instead of always buying the new thing at Hobby Lobby (which do NOT get me wrong I love Hobby Lobby and so glad we are getting one closer to us this year!) I am heading to my favorite antique store and shopping around. Because let’s be real, there’s a lot of times something ‘new’ to me there. I love going on my lunch break once a week when I am working and look around. It relaxes me and makes me excited! Win-win! And sometimes, I find something great…
For instance the letter press drawer (or printing press drawer, if you will) in this picture, I have had my eye on for months. Finally I told myself to just buy it (it wasn’t that much) and that I would use it as a back drop to my vinigette on my book shelf. When I went in that day, guess what, there was a 20% off sale in that booth! woohoo! See it was meant to be! In that same booth, months ago they had letter blocks and I found an ‘H’ for our last name so I bought that (see pic) and have loved it ever since. For some reason I’m really drawn to that stuff. Maybe it’s because I like to write and that is a form of writing? Anyway, I also recently scored an old ladder after painstakingly trying to find the perfect one. I wanted one with the hardware still on it but not really paint splattered. My mom told me about a place near our house that had a bunch of them outside. So around Christmas time we stopped and guess what?!? super cheap! A great price compared to what I’ve been seeing! Score! I am drawn to industrial, rustic stuff for some reason too. Again, just doing my part to reclaim stuff and reuse!
So basically what I am saying is, I try my hardest to not have so many chemicals in our house but it is hard. My husband has my back and agrees with and is astounded when I share these findings with him. So this year, 2018, I am going to try harder to do my part, reduce and reuse and go more natural in products I use.
Hopefully this help, and it wasn’t a lot of rambling! Hopefully you learned something and it spurred you to think about how you use things!
