Life Hack: Cloths NOT Wipes!

This post is about how to swap-in cloths for wipes.  Slowly add cloths to your house in place of wipes and before you know it you’ll be off and running wipe-free!  Why?  Wipes clog up our drains, litter our beaches, and are eaten by sea creatures.  It also talks about greenwashing and microfibres and sponges and the beautiful nuance of choosing the right textured cloth for the right job.  Listen up, people! 🙂

How many wipes do you think you use a day?  One for the kitchen table?  Well, maybe two or three.  One for your face this morning?  A few on your baby’s/toddler’s nappy change.  One to clean that spillage on the floor.  One for a quick wipe around the toilet seat and another for the sink.  Ah, sod it I’ll just pop it in the loo.  Listen, people:  WE NEED TO STOP USING WIPES.  And we definitely need to stop chucking them down the toilet.  Even the wipe makers ask us to do that.  *No toilets for wipes*.  As my good friend who worked in a water company said, wipes don’t go through the filtration system properly.  They sneak through and clog up the filtration, then the pipes that lead out to sea, then the drains and finally, the gullets of birds that pick them up in the ocean.  The national marine and conservation charity, Surfers Against Sewage, have had a particular issue with this over decades: Think Before You Flush!

We DO need to start using cloths!  CLOTHS CLOTHS CLOTHS CLOTHS CLOTHS!

Let me show you how and why.  Cloths are amazing.  You can use them, then wash them in the washing machine and then use them AGAIN!  YEAH!  Now, when I made the switch I had one problem with cloths – I could never find them when I needed them!  But wipes?  Well, I would buy them in their specially labelled packets and scatter them around my house.  Kitchen ones for the kitchen; bathroom ones for the bathroom; dusting ones for the sitting room; floor ones for the floors (lovely apple smell); all purpose ones for anywhere; baby wipes for the babies bum/face/hands; wipes in my bag and fancy face wipes for my face.  That is a LOT of wipes!  Dear reader, I loved them.

But I realised that I couldn’t keep using wipes because they are not at all degradable (see here: Biodegradable? Sort of… Maybe… Compostable? Well, no. Welcome to Greenwashing.)  So I got rid of all my wipes and bought more cloths.  You can get a pack of about 5 BIG cotton cloths for the kitchen from £1 and, as I said, wash and reuse them forever.  Now, cotton is great.  Microfibre is not.  DON’T be tempted to buy ‘modern’ microfibre cloths because these are another form of pollution.  Microfibres break off when washing, enter the water cycle and are eaten by plankton, fish and us!  I know:  Microfibre Bad.  (And, while we’re at it, definitely, definitely never ever buy one of those ubiquitous green and yellow scrubbing sponges.  NO, no, no, no, no, no.  Not only are they criminally ugly they break up into lots of little pieces and never, ever biodegrade.  They degrade, yes, into teeny bits that are ingested by animals and simply pollute the land.  They do NOT ‘bio’ degrade.  Leave them well alone.  For super scrubbing replacements have a look at the home-compostable safix scrubbing pad and wooden, replaceable headed brush (see post: Scrubbing Brush!))

So, *cotton* cloths.  You can buy different coloured cloths for different purposes (like they do in hotels – I was a chambermaid once).  Have one colour cloth for the loo and another for sinks and baths.  Have more for floors (or use a mop.  Or even a steam cleaner – WOO)…

Baby wipes?  You can bulk buy special cloths or re-purpose old towels or flannels for cleaning babies’ bums (that have FAR more traction than wipes and so leave bums cleaner (oh, *and* you can use the homemade, antibacterial but oh-so-gentle wipe solution I use (see earlier post on Bottom Wiping 🙂).  I put the solution in a tub next to the changing area then lay about 10 wipes in it to use as and when – just like wipes.  Dirty wipes go in a mesh bag and at the end of the day they go – you guessed it – in the wash.

You can have beautiful handmade crocheted cloths for the house too (I make these if you want some!) that you can easily learn to make yourself or buy.  Because you will come to appreciate that not all cloths are equal!  (*geek alert*)  You can have knobbly bobbly cloths for cleaning kitchen ovens and hobs.  (Next step: dip into bicarb and grapefuit essential oil solution and job’s a good’un – see post: Bicarbonate Of Soda.) You can have looser cloth weaves with flatter textures for all-purpose cleaning.  You can have a medium textured ‘grippy’ weave for cleaning surfaces and toilets.  And then there are so many colours!    And then when you’re done… you can pop them in the wash.

You can have cloths in the kitchen drawer to grab when you need to clean dirty hands and faces.  No chemicals needed – the action of rubbing with a soapy cloth is sufficiently antibacterial in itself ( see this 2017 cleaning article on usefulness of wipes).

In place of face wipes I have a konjac sponge (info here) that, just like a wipe, needs no soap on it for a quick facial cleanse or refresh with a bit of water.  For more of nighttime deep-clean I have crocheted soft, textured cotton cloths for removing eye make-up, slightly bigger ones for cleansing my face, slightly rougher ones for washing my face and ANOTHER one for a flannel.  It is a lovely set!  I use them a couple of times and then… wash them.  I make these, ask if you want any; but you can also buy cotton cloth style bits like these from the Wise House that are just lovely!

For here and there you can also reuse old clothing for casual cloths.  Use pinking shears to prevent fraying.  Old muslins from babies are fab around the house, knackered cotton clothing, old flannels etc.

The clue is to have LOTS of cloths of all different sizes, colours and textures.  Have a lovely big basket with lots of different types and sizes of cloth in.  Don’t have one or two or you won’t know where to find them when you need them.  Just like wipes you can dot them around the house.  Or hang them up even – my crocheted cloths are pretty and I like to show them off!

So there you are.  Ditch the wipes.  Look around you with new eyes and see CLOTHS in old clothing, in cotton yarn, and from budget shops.  Wash them, pop them in your basket and you’re good to go again.

CLOTHS!

 

Razor Love

Ahhh.  You may remember my excitable post about a new razor I had found that was plastic-free 🙂

Well, I have had it for a while now and I am in LOVE.  Everyone should have one!  I finished with my disposable Venus Ladyshaver and tried out my gorgeous new Lavender Safety Razor from the Old Skool: Lovely posh Razor

It is heavy.  Reassuringly heavy.  It also took me ages to work out how the heck to put a razor in it!  But it turns out you twist the bottom around and the top magically opens up!  Then you slot your double edged razor in it, twist the bottom again and it closes over the blade beautifully.  It really is lovely and rather fun.  And then you are good to go!

The razor blades are exciting and lovely too.  I bought a pack of 100 for around £7 and they come in a cardboard box of 20 cardboard boxes.  There are five blades inside each little box and they come individually wrapped in teeny little envelopes of waxed paper.  They are tiny delicate things!  (But obviously completely lethal – so be careful!)

So, the blade is in and we are ready to go.  The shaving experience is, and I am not exaggerating, amaaaaaazing.  You need to let the heaviness of the metal head guide you and hold it loosely so you don’t scratch or cut yourself – it is interesting getting the feel of the thing.  Plastic razors are obviously very light and so you manipulate them more than you need to with this one.  The shave is the closest I have ever had, my legs were incredibly and wonderfully smooth :).  You do need to be careful – you will nick yourself if you are too fast and casual about it.  But I found this was fine and the effect of the shave lasted twice as long as with my ladyshaver so it is worth taking your time over it.

Underarm shaving, I admit, was scary.  I was very worried I was going to tear myself to shreds or get awful razor burn.  But I didn’t at all!  I was careful but the shave was really close and, although I went over the same area a few times, I had no razor burn at all.  Another added advantage (!) is that the blade is on both sides of the razor so you can use one side sweeping up and another sweeping down, again letting the heaviness of the head guide it.

And finally, the bikini shave.  I cannot shave this area because it always grows back too itchy or with ingrowing hairs.  I am a swimmer so I do like to keep trim but it is just awful, sore, red and totally defeats the object of trying to make a tidy lady garden 😦  But this WORKS.  I did not think it would work.  I really didn’t.  I thought this would be worse than Ladyshavers because Ladyshaver marketing tells me about my better, smoother, closer, safer and longer-lasting bikini shave with their triple blades, aloe vera conditioning strips and protective bars.  But they don’t get anywhere as close as this or as neat and smooth.  It is one blade and with no conditioning apart from a bar of soap.  There are no protective bars so if you are shaky of hand or on a mission to be the fastest shaver in the west best avoid this baby.  But honestly, if you have issues in this area – which if you have dark hair you are genetically predisposed to have – try one of these razors.

And what about the post-shave aftercare?  Dove et al have a thing about selling chemicalised (yes, er, it is a word…) moisturising deodorants to cope with your distressed post-shave underarms.  You use this razor and have a lovely close shave and then what do you do?  Rub in some deodorant balm made with kitchen ingredients, essential oils and shea butter in it of course!  My favourite is the grapefuit and mint one from the Natural Deodorant Company.  Pots are pricey but long lasting and, anyway, if you use this razor and the blades instead of buying disposable razors you can totally afford some lovely smelling, nourishing natural deodorant 🙂

Ahhhh!  Love this stuff.

 

 

Razors FYI

OK.  I don’t normally double post but this is really interesting.  I write about everyday plasticky issues on my Plastic Free Truro Facebook page (formerly ecotykki) and how to stop using them.  Today I had to look at razors, which was great because I have always wondered what I am meant to do when my razors run out.  And I discovered safety razors!  Proper old fashioned type razors with actual blades – for ladies!  I was so excited I had to share it here too.  Also found a fantastic lady who writes about all things anti-plastic:  Cellist Goes Green

My post:

Todays Infiltrator is… RAZORS! Ok, step one: do NOT use disposable razors but instead use the disposable cartridges as this at least minimises landfill space and waste… Like a venus ladyshaver. Men obviously can use leccy shavers! Ladies, we have the choice of plastic, plastic, plastic razors, epilating (expensive and time consuming), waxing (not environmentally friendly/recyclable) or being hirsute. (For what it is worth I LOVE anyone who refuses to shave: shaving is ridiculous and completely misogynistic. It means we ladies buy incredibly expensive razors (£8.49 for a classic venus refill razor from Superdrug (£8.25 for 4 refills); shower holders; expensive shaving creams; expensive after-shave moisturisers and all for NO reasonable reason…)  But, personally, I like to shave. And I know most of you do too, so we have to address this (admittedly daft and everso slightly first world) topic. 

So, what are we to do? It is clear that traditional products are all made of crappy plastic.  There is a service that sells razors made out of recycled plastic and then once you are done with it you can send them back for recycling.  We are all for a closed loop here so it looks good.  Well, the product advertises itself as recyclable but I can’t see where we are to send it back to and it costs £6 😦  It is here

Well, finally Cellist Goes Green suggests using a safety razor. WHAT THE… ?!!  These are old school razors made of stainless steel which last forever. Literally. They will not go moldy (like plastic lady shaver handles do!) and they look so classy. This first one is so cool and only £11.99. You only need to replace the blades which are metal (recyclable) and cost £7.99 for… 100! No, really. 100 blades. In comparison, 100 plastic ladyshaver replacements have cost you £159! And this calculation takes bulk buy discounts into consideration which, at your convenience, I bet you haven’t been using – preferring instead to buy as you go (£206). HOLY ****!! (So these people are using a CHEAPER, LESS ROBUST product and selling at us for 25 times the price! WOW!)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Natural-Sustai…/…/ref=sr_1_44_sspa…

This second one is more specifically for ladies (it is pinky) CHROME plated and well, just beautiful!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Parker-29L-Lave…/…/ref=sr_1_3_s_it…

It is twice the price at £23.99 but it really is lovely. This, 100 blades and free funky shaving soap cost me £30 on Amazon.  I am so very excited about this baby.  I love products and know that anyone who sees it in my bathroom would want one!  Not that anyone goes into my bathroom very often…

Now, it does seem to be a thing that we might want to ‘oil our blades’.  I have olive oil in my bathroom anyway for my homemade baby wipe solution so would just rub a little over the blade – gthis will stop it rusting apparently.  Though it this price I could use a new one every shave (what?!  You do that already?!  Ohhhhhh… *sits on mucky hands*) and feel like P Diddy for the price of it (reference: he wears new socks every day instead of washing them.  Tw*t.)  How marvellous!

But what do we do about our blades when we have finished with them?  Well, it is suggested that you put them in what is called a ‘blade bank’.  This sounds very exotic and exciting!  Actually there is only one on Amazon – it is £18 and clearly the same as a plain ol’ piggy bank.  So get yourself a nice wee coin jar (and shock the burglers when a fistful of rusty razor blades lands in their grabby maws) OR just use an old tin kept up high and pop your used blades in it when you’re done.  When it is full safely put it out for recycling with your tins or take to a metal recycling place and pop in with the stainless steel.  You could get excitable and post it off to a sharps place too.  Many options!  But not one we have to consider for a while 🙂

I shall post about how it goes when this lovely arrives!

 

Bottom Wiping :)

Ah yes.  Bottom wiping; the joys, the fancies, the silliness of it.  And how many ways in which we do it!  We can use loo roll or bidets, our left hand, or flushable (and very often non-flushable) ‘moistening’ wipes.  And our babies!  Obviously in the west we use baby wipes with little variation unless you are a bit alternative.  Which is a gosh darned shame for our lovely oceans!  I have spoken of this before and will again 🙂

So, firstly, the toilet roll.  A peculiar western fancy that is really gross when you’ve travelled around a bit.  It was incredibly strange using water in South East Asia and then again in India but when you think about it we do like to use water to get clean.  We don’t smear paper around our faces to get clean, we like wet stuff.  But with poo it’s ok just to smear paper around and look down on people who use water.  It really is backwards.  A fine example of common knowledge being mistaken for wisdom.  And this is not to say that I use water, I do not, that would be gross!  Ah, sweet Orwellian doublethink – when one holds two contradictory thoughts at the same time, knowing one is more correct while doing the other…  This is how marketeers corner us as a herd and prevent us thinking too much about what we are up to.  We can buy toilet roll that is marketed as environmentally friendly while it is wrapped in plastic…  we can buy food that is organic but not free range, we can buy diamonds knowing they fuel conflict in Sierra Leone while having a monthly direct debit donation to Oxfam  This is how we function as humans – to know and be in complete unison would be absolutely impossible in a busy world, this is why monks and nuns seek isolation: to concentrate and focus and limit the doublethink.

So we use paper in the west, fact.  But how can we buy this paper without the plastic wrapping?!  At the moment I am being marketed at by a lovely looking company called www.whogivesacrap.org.  A fantastic write up of this company’s product is here by myplasticfreelife (dated September 2017, so very up to date, and thorough – checkit! :)) Here she says that she generally used a product called ‘Seventh Generation’ loo roll that came without plastic although sometimes used plastic to post it – but having had a squizz myself this is only available in America anyways.  She moved to using whogivesacrap though, as they definitely did not use any plastic.  We can use them too!  The rolls are 3x more expensive compared to recycled normal rolls at Sainsburys though, so for me they are not an option at the moment.  An interesting point of their business is that they give 50% of their profits to water and sanitation charities that help in the ‘developing world’.  I am not sure about how helpful this aspect is in reality, but for now I’ll leave that decision up to you.

The point now is to contact Sainsbury’s and ask them to stock their toilet paper in cardboard cartons and paper wrapping.

And on to wipes.  Oh, sweet wipes.  Wipes are so convenient!  Wrapped in a waterproof plastic container to keep them fresh; portable; easy to grab one-handed; hundreds in one small packet; and wonderfully multi-purpose.  Snotty noses, chocolatey chops, grazed mitts, and, of course, mucky bums.  And now, the increasingly ubiquitous household wipe.  Cleans your floor!  Your kitchen surfaces – better than a reusable cloth because using a cloth is the equivalent of rubbing raw chicken on your baby’s high chair (really, you know the advert)!  Your toilet and bathrooms!  BUT THEY ARE COMPLETELY ANTI-SOCIAL!  ANTI, ANTI, ANTI!  ANTI!  Anti-actual life, anti water, anti-waste pipes, anti-toilet, anti-landfill, anti-nature.

They get stuck in water pipes from toilet to sea.  They are eaten by birds.  They do NOT degrade, whatever the packaging tries to say.  They contain drying chemicals for bottoms, even sensitive ones.  And this is another example of doublethink:  we are buying chemically composed wipes for our babies that work really hard to boast that they are as cleansing as WATER.  As pure for your baby as WATER.  As sensitive to your baby’s skin as…  WATER.  If only we could actually use this halcyon product, ‘water’!  Instead we: a) buy wipes; b) use wipes that even the manufacturers say are NOT as good for your child as this thing ‘water’; c) throw wipes down the toilet because we are told on the packaging that they are ‘flushable’, ‘disposable’, and ‘degradable’.

So instead of uncritically absorbing marketing claims as ‘truth’ let us unpack what they are really saying a little bit.  Engage brain, AND:

‘Flushable’ does not mean biodegradable.

‘Flushable’ does not mean ‘won’t be eaten by wildlife’.

‘Flushable’ does not mean ‘won’t clog wastepipes that lead into the sea, backing sewage up into rivers’.

and

‘Disposable’ is a joyfully cheeky term used by Wipe-Makers that is actually a myth.  These wipes are the very opposite of disposable!  I mean, anything is disposable – arsenic, battery acid and asbestos are disposable.  Does this mean they should be disposed of, all casual like, in our domestic waste?!  Does it mean that when they can no longer be seen by us, from our houses, that they are benign or, ta-da, ‘disappeared’?  No, of course not.  And the same goes for these convenience wipes.  They are not actually disposable because when they are in the bin they are then taken away and…  they stay as wipes.  In wipe form.  For donkeys years.  In the sea or rivers, in hedges, on verges, in animals (I know it’s emotive, but it is true I’m afraid :()  They are not made benign.  They are not disappeared.  Bamboo wipes, however, are actually disposable.  Cotton cloths are disposable: they are benign and will disappear.  So why don’t we use and throw these away several times a day instead?!  Because we have made them to be valuable.  They are re-usable, they are for a purpose, and so we hold onto them and care about them.

‘Disposable’ does not mean we can throw them away.  It means we don’t need to care about them.  They have no value to us.  Their use, their memory, their imprint, is what is disposable, rather than the physical wipe.  I think we can value what happens to our ‘disposable’ wipes by critically questioning why they are termed ‘disposable’ and, ultimately, reject this term as a marketing myth.

‘Anti-bacterial’ in reference to household cleaning wipes does not mean more sanitary than a cloth and spray.  Using a convenience wipe with anti-flu, anti-norovirus and anti-bac properties is not actually better than using a reusable cotton cloth.  Just like anti-bac hand-wash is only anti-bacterial in the way it is soap that is rubbed over your hands, wipes are anti-bacterial, anti-noro and anti-flu germs in the use of an antiseptic cleaning agent and the action of rubbing or cleaning.  So there are no special properties inherent to a wipe that cannot also be found in an ecologically sound cleaning spray like Method or even kitchen ingredients (more of which later!), and the action of cleaning.  A TV advert disputes this fact by likening the efficacy of a kitchen cloth to that of wiping raw chicken around your child and kitchen.  This is categorically untrue at worst and misleading at best.  This plays on our idea of ‘disposable’ as if we throw germs away.  As if using a cloth is smearing, not cleaning, and reusing is fundamentally unhygienic.  Which it is, if you never wash it.  Which you can do in your washing machine, even after one use.  (Like you do your clothes?!  Is the re-using of clothes, unless you are P-Diddy who apparently wears a new pair of socks every day but is also considered a bit, er, silly, also unsanitary?)

Actually, it could be argued that a scrubby cloth rubs off stuck on stains BETTER and more EASILY than a slippery wipe.  It could be argued that a scrubby cloth can look really rather lovely in a kitchen or bathroom, compared to an ugly plastic pack of wipes.  It can be argued that cloths are cheaper because they are longer lasting than wipes you throw away.  And it can be argued that a cloth used with a naturally made cleaning product is better for your child because it is chemical and bleach free.  Wipe Makers say cloths are gross because they, apparently, harbour germs.  But aren’t wipes unpleasant because they contain bleaches and chlorine that you would never let your child near normally.  But on a highchair it is ok?

And, finally, hold onto your hats,

‘Degradable’ does not mean bio-degradable.  It means that at some point in the future, maybe even a few hundred years away, they will degrade.  Biodegradable means it will easily return to the earth, be consumed by nature in a harmless, eco-sustainable fashion.  We are biodegradable.  Plastics can be called ‘degradable’ – but this isn’t in a good way as we know.  It is marketing gumph, really to make you feel that the wipes you are using are natural, easily gotten rid off, leaving no trace.

This is incredibly misleading.

And so, what to do?!  Well, re: baby wipes, I have written about this before.

I use an old takeaway tub or ice cream box.

I fill it half full with WATER (!!), add a tablespoon of olive oil and two drops of either lavender or tea tree essential oil.

Olive oil is a moisturiser for your baby’s bott and also helps wipe gooey poo off (especially the nightmare that is meconium!!  It is FAB for that :))

Lavender or tea tree essential oils are antiseptic (science fact, not hippy nonsense) and leave a lovely fresh, utterly harmless fragrance.

I then put about 10 or so washable, cotton cloths in the tub to get all moist and ready to use. You can get funky cloths from Amazon, or from cheekywipes:  Cheekywipes have 25 bamboo cloths for £13.50 and free delivery, which works out at about 54p a wipe.  ‘Disposable’ wipes are around £15 for 18 packs if you bulk buy, though you can frequently buy wipes for £1 a pack, making them about 1p a wipe.  Average 3 changes a day, 3 wipes a change = 9p on wipes every day.  So after a week you could have saved the world 60-70 disposable wipes and exchanged them for your first reusable cloth.

After a month you could have saved 270 wipes and exchanged them for the price of 5 reusables.

Upscale this to 6 months and you would have thrown away 1620 wipes.  1620!  Jeez Louise, I can’t believe that.  And the cost of this would be the equivalent of your 25 reusable bamboo (actually biodegradable!) wipes and your essential oil.  And then you’re sitting pretty for the rest of your wipe-using life, which if you have more than one child can last for around 5/6 years.  So your lovely reusables, the (woohoo!) ‘WATER’, oil and essential oil will save you around…. *drum roll please*:

£178 – £250 per child

Which is LOADS on something you don’t need.  Imagine the reverse-marketing.  Pampers are saying to you, ‘WOW!  We have a product here that is not at all biodegradable, cannot be flushed down the toilet or reused, is nothing like water and might irritate your baby’s skin 🙂  A bargain at only £200 per child!’ 🙂 🙂 🙂

So…  Imagine you have to pay this outlay before you even have your baby.  £200!

And then imagine you have to dispose of them in your own garden!

Imagine 18000 wipes ‘degrading’ in your garden!  Per child!  Summer would SUCK.

Alternatively, see your neighbour who relies on reusable, bamboo wipes…  And washes them in the washing machine and so has nothing in their garden but grass.  And they paid around £30 for their lifestyle instead of £200.  Jealous, much?!

So, with that hugely emotive rhetoric I leave you, dear friends!  And I implore you from the bottom of my heart to leave the wipes on the shelf and make yourself a tub of actually water-based, reusable, BIO-degradable, earth friendly, bamboo wipes for your baby.  And tell your friends.  And show off the funky designs on them.  And then, when your babies are grown you can use them to clean your bathroom.  And then, when they are old and need retiring they will go back to nature, naturally.

I know it hurts to hear that wipes are, er, crap.  Big hugs.  And actually, it is ok to use wipes if you need to.  I do, because, like you, I am human.  I use my bamboo as much as I can but sometimes I fail, or need a pack of wipes in my bag when I am out or need a quick clean of my bathroom because I don’t have my cloths quickly enough to hand.

I get it.  I just want to share information, for knowledge is power 🙂

xx

Adventures with My Mooncup: A Guest Blog

Yes, dear reader, a guest has blogged for me!  YAY!  She tried out a Mooncup – a reusable sanitary product for periods that is plastic and toxin free and wrote about it for me 🙂  Here she is:

Remember your first reaction to discovering the existence of the menstrual cup – EWWW. It sounds messy, and germy, and for hippies. How do you clean it? In a dishwasher? Whaaat? Nobody told me about this at school. Gross. Vom.

 

Yes well. A few years, lots of periods, one childbirth later and tampons are getting annoying. And look in the bin – my bathroom bin was literally overflowing with wrappers and all manner of horrid mess. Plastic wrappers, plastic applicators, more plastic wrappers, bits of backing paper which feel a bit like plastic so I didn’t know if they could go in the green bin or not. Periods are not Earth-friendly. Sad.Face.

One of my favourite pairs of sexy (*coughcough* actually bright yellow Pokemon but whatever *cough*) pants became a casualty that month.  Double sadface.

 

So I decided to actually listen to the billions of times my friend had recommended it and popped to town for a Mooncup and now you all get to read TMI about my period this month. Lucky!

 

Day 1!

Hello, silicone cup with a dangly bit. Really, really long dangly bit! Thankfully the instruction leaflet has, along with an idiot’s guide to inserting the cup (squish, fold, shove), the reassuring news that you’re meant to snip the dangly bit to whatever length you please.

 

So…. squish, fold, shove. Easy peasy! The cup made a satisfying little popping noise when it unfolded itself. Had a poke around, decided where to snip, took it out, snipped off the dangledangle and squishfoldshoved it back in. Washed hands, a lot.

Because it was easy I assumed I’d done it wrong. I didn’t trust it, so I treated myself to a backup disposable towel from a nice plastic wrapper.

 

Huzzah, that was totally unnecessary – not a jot leaked out. But this is a light day 1….

 

The Mooncup leaflet says to empty it every 4-8hrs, so after a few hours (during which, I could feel literally nothing at all and enjoyed going for a wee without a little string getting in the way) I thought I’d better take it out!

Pulled the dangly and… it’s stuck. Ha! My cervix is an almighty vacuum, destined to have a Mooncup on it for all time. The leaflet promises me that there’s no chance of Toxic Shock, because it has no weird chemicals like a tampon. Phew..? Not phew, it’s still stuck. Mild panic.

Alas, friends. Don’t panic. Don’t just pull the dangly bit – give the bottom of the cup a little squeeze-n’-twist, enjoy the hilarious little squelch sound and all will be well. Tip it out into the lav, wash under the tap and pop it back in.

 

EVIL DAY 3!

 

Day 3. You know, when you wake up too scared to move in case something bad happens. I woke up with the dread, even though Mooncup had been gloriously clean so far.

Then the thing that probably would have cost me another pair of Pokemon pants in a normal month – the worst thing that can happen when you first wake up on a heavy day – so awful – a SNEEZING FIT. Help me, Baby Jesus: I am on my last pair of Pokemon pants and have white bedsheets.

 

BUT I felt nothing. I bravely stood up and felt all clean and human and normal. Bathroom trip was 100% successful – after wearing (is that the right term?) the Mooncup all night everything was just fine. Not a single dot. My mind, and nothing else, was blown.

 

Bin update: still just the solitary pad wrapper from Day 1. Wowzers. For someone who always forgets to put the bins out of a Wednesday, this is awesome.

 

Day 4

 

By this point, folks, I had decided this was a glorious life-changer. I experienced a whole load of sadness for all the years of messy and faff-some periods, and all the squillions of tonnes of landfill applicators. It’s so easy, and convenient, and not nearly as messy or gross as I expected. You can’t feel it, even when it’s full. I feel like a clean person. No looking back!

 

However, the main discovery of the day was that on the side of the Mooncup are measurements in mililitres! Presumably this is for medical reasons, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t briefly consider setting up a little spreadsheet.

 

The End!

 

Ah, after a few days of major surprises at the complete ease and comfort of the poor, underappreciated Mooncup, I just gave it a really massive hot wash (decided against putting it in the dishwasher…) and put it back in its little bag.

My period kit now doesn’t take up the whole bottom shelf in the bathroom cupboard. My bin is not full of mountains of plastic crap and yucky things wrapped in wasted TP or yet more plastic.

 

We should be educated about these. We should be putting these in the Foodbank box – one £20 cup claims to last for years and years. We should apologise to the sea fishes for being attacked by applicators. (Yes,I am an overly excited Cup Convert).

 

Ron xx

 

P.s. I didn’t set up a spreadsheet on this occasion.

 

 

Don’t Put Me In The Loo! :(

This is an obvious and yet necessary post about what we cannot put down our toilets here in in the UK.

We cannot put:

• Wipes.  Bum wipes, baby wipes, kitchen wipes, bathroom wipes.  Do not put wipes down the toilet.  Please.  Please.
• Cotton Buds.  These are the fourth biggest polluter of the oceans.  FOURTH!  They are everywhere.  Do not put them in the loo, they go in the bin.
• Tampons.  Wrap it up in some tissue and put it in the bin.  These cannot go down the toilet!
• Sanitary Towels.  These are a nightmare.  They smell yummy and are eaten by sealife.  They are not yummy, they are chemical plastic crap.  Wrap them up in some toilet roll and put them in the bin.  Do not put them in the toilet.
• Items labelled ‘Harmful to Aquatic Life’.  Bleach!  BLEACH!  (Fairy liquid too, but I digress.)  I swear in the future our kids will think we were prehistoric putting stuff like bleach into our ecosystem without a second thought.

 

What SHALL I do then?

Easy Level Answer:  Put it all in the bin instead.

Tricksier, more thoughtful answers:

• Wipes.  Don’t use wipes if you can help it.  Use cotton cloths and put them in the washing machine after use.  I make and sell pretty crocheted ones that are different colours for different jobs 🙂  (See Tykki Dew on Facebook/PM me for deets!)  For babies you can make your own bum solution with olive oil, water and tea tree for antiseptic (see homemade solutions tag :)) and use microfibre cloths or cut up some terry towelling or use flannels.  Is very easy.
• Cotton Buds.  Use wooden ones instead of plastic ones.  Or don’t use them at all?!
• Tampons and Sanitary Towels.  Use a mooncup!  Or buy a magnificently named ‘Jam Sponge’ 🙂  See here: Sanitary Solutions
• Bleach. Use Ecover – it’s in all the stores and made of natural ingredients.  Is £1 a bottle in Sainsbury’s as of last week which is the same price as a bottle of own brand bleach (November 2017).  Also feel free to try Method, they have nice natural products too.
• OR go crazy and make your own solutions with white vinegar, bicarb and essential oils.  I haven’t done this yet but you can buy in bulk for these things off of Amazon – it’s a pretty common thing to do.

Thank you!

Lush Invented Shampoo Bars

I didn’t know this!

This is a great article on the value of a shampoo bar vs a bottle and Lush’s approach to ‘naked’ packaging:

https://uk.lush.com/article/naked-revolution

Basically the article says:

• Shampoo bars don’t need synthetic preservatives because they are naturally preserving – lasting for ever and ages
• Each shampoo bar lasts on average 3 times as long as a 200ml bottle – so each bar you have saves 3 bottles from landfill
• Shampoo bars can travel easily – they are light and can be put in a tin

 

Not everyone likes Lush – I know sometimes the smells can be too intense.  I do like them though and am excited by their ‘naked’ approach 🙂

Shampoo Bar Update

Just to say, I had really skanky hair this morning, not having washed it for two whole days.  I thought I would use my lovely Herbal essences, for some reason I had the idea that the froth would make me feel cleaner.  I used my soap bar though because (oh the shame) I have just realised it was at face height on my soap dish.  I would have had to bend down to pick my shampoo off the floor and that is too much to ask.  Too much!  So, out of sheer laziness I used it, it felt way too squeaky clean, but then I brushed it and it was lovely.  And now it is drying a treat and still being clean and lovely.

I just need it to smell!  I love smelly hair.  So next time I will probs go to Lush – they are renowned for their smellyness aren’t they.  Oooh here is a FAB article about shampoo bars by actual Lush https://uk.lush.com/article/mighty-shampoo-bar.  They describe their shampoo bars as being ‘naked’ which while it is a bit too lingo-OTM for my liking, it is actually a perfect way of describing the pleasingness (pleasingality?) of the bar.  You just use it – it is right there, being accessible and easy and naked.

Ooh they also sell travel tins!  YEAH.

Laters!

Deodorant Balm

So roll-on deodorant is on the List of Evil.  (I think it is also fairly obvious that spray-on is also on the List of Evil seeing as the stink of it is harmful if breathed in at close quarters, let alone worrying about the packaging.)  The plastic never degrades, it falls apart and the little ocean-faring animals get the roll-on balls stuck in their throats.  Poor bastards.

So, what do we DO?!

Well, I have discovered deodorant balm and I COMPLETELY LOVE IT.  I will never ever buy a traditional roll-on again (within the reason of all reason of course).  I bought my balm from the Shop Natural Company who sell on behalf of The Natural Deodorant Company.  Unfortunately, despite reassurance to the contrary (I contacted them about their plastic policy and if they could have a sub-section of plastic-free products), the teensy pot did arrive in a bubble-wrapped parcel and the pot itself wasn’t made of glass but of plastic.  This is ok, it is reusable… (but I don’t need it so it just clogs up my house with all my other bits of plastic I don’t bloody need or want to be responsible for).  *Deep breath*

So!  The balm.  The balm is a paste that you rub into your underarms with your fingers.  There is absolutely no residue left on your fingers and it rubs in easy as pie so within seconds you forget you have done it.  Like when you use moisturiser you don’t need to wash your hands afterwards unless you want to – the stuff is completely natural.  It doesn’t have a strong smell – I got the grapefruit and mint one – but it does have a lovely, light scent that smells and feels clean.  And, dear reader, it works.  It works BETTER than my traditional roll-on stalwarts from Dove and Sure.  It keeps one lovely and dry, there are no white patches seeing as there are no weird chemicals, and I don’t smell (I kept asking Husband for reassurance and he agreed that I was body odour free ;)).  Because it isn’t weird chemicals you can even reapply easily if you so want, again like moisturiser.

It is a truly pleasing no-brainer of a product.  They have different scents, there is an ‘active wear’ one for 24 hour protection, and there is a masculine smelling one (?! I know what that means and then I think about it and wonder what generic man-smell actually is?!)  My husband is enthused by my rantings and will try it too – I’d be interested in his response seeing as he has hairy underarms (will it stick to the hair and be gross?) and also an absolute paranoia about having B.O.

Well almost.  At the moment a sticking point is the price.  At shopnatural they sell 6ml pots at £2.50.  I have one of these and so far it has lasted me almost a week, which I am most pleased with because it is a seriously teeny pot.  However, they sell 60ml pots for £11 – half the price.  Now, I know that normal deodorant is around the £1-2.50 mark and lasts for yonks.  The price of mass-producing synthetic chemicals and plastic packaging cannot yet be challenged.  However, and please stick with me here, this is a lovely product.

• It is kind both to your body and to the environment.
• The pot is reusable and possibly refillable so you don’t really need to think about it (am thinking about refilling them, say monthly, for people at the half-price, price.  It could be like the Amazon ‘Dash’ button except you know, not Evil).
• We spend way more on moisturing products that promise no cellulite, fat-busting, pore reducing, wrinkle decreasing…
• There is money to be saved elsewhere in this anti-plastic save mother earth shenanigans (see future post on ‘soapnuts’.  Yes, really.)  Is like having a certain budget and just spending it a bit differently (challenging normal!).  So in our current normal we spend a lot on washing detergent but not much on deodorant.  In our NEW normal it is the other way around 😉

So there we have it.  Deodorant balm.  Get some, treat yourself.  Or PM me and I’ll be your dealer.

Laters!