Zero Waste July Day 13: A Very Honest Look at My Bathroom

Greetings! It is me, I am alive!

I have been taking some time for self-care, R&R, and reconnecting with friends, which inevitably has led to me taking several days off from blogging. Finding the time and willpower to write every day has been a struggle. But I’m here, gender-queer, and ready to talk to you about my bathroom and all the things I use within it.

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Teeth

Here I have a bamboo toothbrush, my partner (J’s) toothbrush, and my copper tongue scraper. If you haven’t found one already, you should definitely get a tongue scraper. Most bacteria responsible for bad breath resides on the tongue, and it’s disgustingly satisfying to scrape it off. For toothpaste, I have been hopping around between brands, but I really like Jason Sea Fresh. Yes, it’s in a plastic tube, am I just the worst? I haven’t found a DIY recipe for toothpaste that I like and that doesn’t make my mouth taste like a dumpster in the morning. I make my own mouthwash with water, baking soda, and peppermint essential oils. For floss, I currently am using a combo of vegan waxed floss in a paper box, a freebie of coconut fiber floss from my dentist, and when those are gone, I’ll start using the biodegradable floss in a refillable glass tube that I found here.

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Hair

My hair is the longest it’s ever been in my life, and it requires a little more maintenance now. I use a bamboo hair brush with natural bristles that don’t yank my hair out whenever I brush. I have superfine hair and a sensitive scalp, so this brush is just gentle enough without leaving a rat’s nest. I make my own dry shampoo out of cornstarch (absorbs oils) and cocoa powder (for my darker blonde locks; doesn’t make my hair look gray). I use a soft and fat makeup brush to brush the dry shampoo from my roots down through greasy sections of my hair, wait a little bit, and then brush it through my hair to disperse oils. I use a small amount of leave-in conditioner made from macadamia oil that I bought in this plastic spray bottle probably close to 6 years ago. I keep adding water to it to make it last longer, and with the dry shampoo, it makes my hair smell like cookies! I also use a solid hair conditioner that I got from Lush. I wet my hands, scoop out a dime-sized dollop, rub into hands, and then into my strands. It works fantastically.

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Rest of the Bod

I found compostable cotton swabs because my ears produce a LOT of wax, and it affects my hearing, which is already terrible. I use an acne prevention medication, tiger balm for those sore baker hands, homemade deodorant (recipe and link to blog post here), and a DIY whipped body butter I made two years ago with loving ingredients like cocoa butter, shea butter, coconut oil, and mint essential oil. Also smells like cookies. I’m noticing a trend here in my hygiene products.

 

The toilet-brush looking thing at the top is my body dry brush. I really don’t like using body scrubs that are oil based and wash down the drain, so I gently use the brush to exfoliate, massaging skin with small circles. I have exactly one color of nail polish. A small bottle of natural throat spray for those allergy-related sore throats. We have a container of cut up soft cloth for tissues and cleaning the bathroom counter. A small tin of Burt’s Bees miracle salve for bug bites or sunburns, pretty much anything. A small tin of antifungal foot balm for that very real rock climber’s foot gnar. When these two tins run out, I’ll reuse them for making my own balms and salves, or for bar shampoo and soap while travelling.

These are all of the things that live in my shower right now. As you can see, this is not a perfectly zero waste shower. The white bottle of conditioner was grandfathered in, and I have been trying to use it up. The middle bottle was something I got for free from work, and it’s hard for me to pass up free things like $12 vegan shampoo that would have otherwise been thrown away. I also have another bottle of conditioner that I’m also trying to use up before switching to solid, package-free conditioner or apple cider vinegar rinses, I haven’t decided yet. I also have a sliver of bar shampoo from Lush that I fell in love with instantly. I may buy more, we’ll see. Package-free soap (only has a plastic sticker on the back for a barcode). A ceramic shaving mug with a small disk of my remaining William’s Mug Shaving soap, which you can get for less than $2 at most grocery stores! A vegan bristled shaving brush for a decadent lather and my safety razor. I bought a box of over 100 razor blades for about $12 and haven’t even put a dent in it since I switched to a safety razor over a year ago. Zero waste changes can be thrifty AF.

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Le Toilette 

I buy recycled toilet paper in a recyclable paper package in single rolls from the Co-Op. I just ordered a bidet and am honestly stoked to start using it instead of toilet paper. Apart from using less water, it also is better for ya bum than TP. For scrubbing our toilet, we use Bon Ami and it works well. Instead of buying toxic air fresheners, I like to use Palo Santo smudge sticks. You burn them for only a few seconds and they fill the room with a woodsy, spicy smell, and are traditionally used in Central and South America to cleanse spaces of negative energy and prepare for ceremonies.

Storytime. For the longest time, every day when I would come home, I was immediately greeted with an intense musty smell that would make me wrinkle my nose. The apartment could be super clean, trash was taken out, no food left around, no exact cause for the smell, and yet every day I would smell it. When I come home, I want the space to be welcoming and homey, which includes not smelling like something rotting. It was making me grumpy, searching for the root of the cause, obsessively cleaning, and overall putting myself in a bad mood. Sounds petty, I know, but the nose I was given is a blessing and a curse, I smell everything, good or bad. We tried incense, candles, fans to air out the apartment, baking soda, nothing worked. I bought some Palo Santo sticks mostly out of impulse, and because incense sticks are a bit too smoky for me. I burned the sticks for about 30 seconds in each room, and our whole apartment suddenly felt homier. The next day, this smell that was driving me batshit crazy was GONE. I haven’t smelled it since. I’m convinced there was some looming negative energy that was finding its way into my nostrils. Not to be all hippie dippy but the space feels much more welcoming and homey than it did.

So there you have it! All this being said, there are still more things in my bathroom than what I’ve shown you, but not much. I’ve pared it down to things I use very regularly. I keep it simple with my hygiene routine. I wash my hair 1-2 times per week, wash my face with any ol’ bar soap, occasionally slap some lotion on the dry spots, and dab the occasional acne problem zone with some zip-zapper. I stopped wearing makeup because it is just too much work, and I rub my face too much from the sleepies. I used to wear it all the time and would feel naked without it. But I’ve been really diggin’ myself without it. If you do wear makeup and want to go to a more zero waste routine, I recommend Clean-Faced Cosmetics. They have an Etsy shop and are an all vegan makeup company! You can also ask them to ship things to you in reusable or recyclable packaging.

Love (and bar soap),

Ollie

Zero Waste Cleaning

Hello hello! I am a few days behind on writing blog posts. We went camping over the weekend and substituted technology for margaritas.

This blog will mostly be a picture blog showing you what I use to clean my old dusty 60’s apartment with! I don’t use any bleach, but it is recommended to disinfect things. Used with proper dilutions, bleach can disinfect and protect you against certain bad bacteria. Here’s a good chart to see what kind of things you should be disinfecting and the proper bleach dilutions. I use vinegar to clean and as a weak disinfectant. I use all natural ingredients that are non-toxic and typically non-scented. I’m very sensitive to chemically smells and they give me headaches, therefore I haven’t used bleach in a really long time.

 

This is a ceramic tool holder that I made in my ceramics class last year. It used to have a nice thick handle and ceramic crystals on it, but it’s been dropped in our ceramic sink so many times that it’s looking a little rough, but I still like it. It has drainage holes in the bottom and it lives on the back edge of the sink.

I think our culture is germaphobic, and we must kill all bacteria! Kill it with fire! What does it mean to really get something ‘clean?’ Cleaning means getting dirt and grime and stuff off of things, disinfecting gets rid of spreadable and possibly dangerous germs. Although a lovable alternative to bleach, vinegar may not always get rid of the things that can make us sick.

We really only disinfect our kitchen counters and lots of surfaces after we’ve been sick.

For doing dishes, I fill up on liquid dishwashing soap from the bulk bins at the Co-Op. It’s super concentrated and we only use a few drops for doing dishes. Our dish soap lives in a repurposed tequila bottle with a nice cork top. We have a natural fiber dish brush that sits in a little dish with re-soaping spring to add soap to the brush when we need it. We also use a compostable scrubby and bottle brush from Tiny Yellow Bungalow. We have two different sized straw brushes for cleaning out our reusable straws and a recyclable copper metal scrubby. We CONSTANTLY have dishes and no dishwasher. The struggles of living zero waste and loving to cook include a shit ton of dishes, all the time. So much that we have two dish racks that are pretty much always full.

 

I used to have a different cleaning product for cleaning every single thing in my apartment. Dusting spray, window cleaner, sink spray, etc. What I learned is that products are marketed to you so you can have a product for everything. More products = more packaging = more waste. I’ve learned that you can clean just about anything with baking soda and vinegar. SO CHEAP. You can dust, wipe off counters, clean glass, scrub sinks, yada yada with baking soda and vinegar.

We don’t use paper towels for general house cleaning things, but we do use them for wiping oil and food off of our cast iron skillets. Unfortunately, the can’t be composted because it interrupts the air flow around other materials in a compost heap, and can hinder decomposition. We will probably switch to only using cloth scraps to wipe out the cast iron after we run out of paper towels.

As the for the rest of the cleaning projects, we use washcloths and towels, of which we have an entire drawer. They’re used for everything. Cleaning up spills, drying dishes, wiping down counters.

When they get dirty, they go under the sink in this repurposed bucket that I took from the dumpster at work. We wash them about every couple of weeks.

I don’t think I have ever bought towels new. My mom likes to update her towels every once in a while, so I get all of her old ones. I use towels my great grandma has passed down to my grandma and my mom. Lots of repurposing!

When towels get too ratty and old, I cut them up to use them for cleaning things like the bathroom, or for tissues.

Here’s a jar of cut up scraps that lives on the bathroom counter. We wipe down the counter, dust off the toilet, clean the mirror, and wipe down the shower with them. I keep separate, softer fabric scraps tucked away for tissues.

For cleaning our super old apartment, I like to use Bon Ami on the toilet, sinks, and bathtub to really get the grime off. I use an old dish scrubbing brush that has funky bristles.

To make the house smell nice and get rid of the funk that sometimes occurs, I like burning Palo Santo wood sticks. You only need to burn them for a few seconds to have a house full of smelly good smells. You can find them at Mountain Rose Herbs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that’s pretty much it! Keeping it simple and cleaning with only a few ingredients can be better for your health, your wallet, and your overall sense of cleanliness. I recommend using up any products you currently have before making the switch. It’s not an overnight process, so have patience. Cut up old tee shirts or sheets for cleaning rags to get paper towels out of your life. Keep an eye out for free spray bottles, and avoid buying new ones.

Love (and dishes forever),

Ollie

 

 

Compost!

Hi, Hello, Welcome.

My rambling for today will be on compost! One of my favorite things ever!

What the hell is compost? It’s beautiful, dark, moist, fragrant stuff that results from decaying organic matter, kind of like hummus, the decadent top layer of soils (not hummus, the delicious pulverized bean snack).

Why is compost so important? It’s nature’s way of recycling nutrients back into the earth. Compost comes in all shapes and forms. From manure (including humans, a fun term called ‘humanure’), decaying food waste and scraps, to decomposing weeds and plant matter. If you have a garden, you’ve likely used compost as a nutritional treat for your plants. Compost, like recycling, is absolutely essential for the planet’s health. Decomposition (death) is the coolest part of the nutrient life cycle. Watch this suh-weet video from Crash Course about Fungi! In the forest, fallen leaves decompose with the help of soil microbes, fungi, and bacteria, which munch the yummy leaves into the rich soil. Literally, everything alive turns into dead things which turn back into living things.

Organic matter breaks down and allows for other organic matter to take its place. Compost is a microbial paradise of decaying goodness for everything, from the soil to the nutrients in the food that grows from it.

Landfilling food and organic waste contributes heavily to excessive emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more powerful than CO2. Decaying organic matter, mixed in with every other type of waste we produce as humans, does not make a productive breeding ground for the good fungi, bacteria, and microbes that would normally devour that organic waste. Food waste is rampant in the U.S., and accounts for nearly 22% of all discarded material in municipal (people’s) waste.

One of my main pet peeves is food waste, but not just the leftovers that I forgot to eat that were pushed to the back of my fridge. I cringe when I see berry tops, kale stems, and banana peels go straight into the plastic trash bag. Putting food waste (or other organic waste) into trash bags traps the gases released during decomposition, and creates more methane than it would have in a compost heap, for instance.

Why then, isn’t composting part of everyone’s waste management system? Because it makes too much sense, and most people aren’t exactly in love with the idea of sorting their trash. There also comes some minor organizational details required of waste management facilities, but it is a relatively easy practice. It may soon become a requirement for you to sort your trash!

Composting doesn’t have to be painful, complicated, smelly (well, maybe just a little bit), or incredibly time-consuming. There are LOTS of different ways to go about composting your food scraps and organic waste. You can:

• Start a compost pile in your backyard! Not sure how? Look at this website I just Googled for you!
• Keep your food scraps in a bucket in a cool place in your house, or in a small bucket in the freezer (like me!) and take it to a local community garden and dump on their compost pile (I asked permission first).
• Start a vermicomposting bin (like me!) with red wiggler worms, two plastic tubs, and newspaper.
• Ask a neighbor, family member, or friend if you can dump your scraps on their pile

There are lots of ways to get yourself composting. Just have to do a little diggin’!

Compost is COOLIO and if you’re interested in learning more, or want to make your own worm bin, use that noggin’ of yours and get to Googlin’ about it. The internet is a wonderful place, for at least a little while longer (R.I.P. Net Neutrality).

Anywayyyy, here is my composting setup!

My red wigglers from UncleJimsWormFarm.com happily munching away on some gross old spinach (You CAN mail-order live worms!). finally the future we’ve been waiting for.

I feed my worms about 1 cup of food scraps per week right now (I just emptied the bin, and I’m giving them some time to recoop. They eat a lot of newspaper (printed with soy ink) and produce a lovely dark compost medium known as “worm castings,” (AKA worm poop!) No, it doesn’t stink. No, it isn’t high-maintenance. Yes, I love my worms like my own children.

Where all my worms live. This is just two 5 gallon plastic totes, the bottom one with holes drilled in the bottom and side for drainage. I covered it in space duct tape for pizzaz.

You don’t have to add pizzaz to your worm bin, but I’m pretty sure a little customization makes your worms much happier in their home.

This plastic bucket (*cough and the container on top of it) is used for fruit and veggie scraps, food waste, and gross things from the counter. I use my fruit and veggie peels and scraps for anything I can before composting them (vinegar, vegetable broth, smoothie additions, etc.).

Since we eat a lot of vegetables and fruit, our compost bucket in the freezer has looked like this basically non-stop all summer. Note the pineapple top, too large and in charge for our measly bucket. When it’s time to take it to the local community garden, we let it thaw for awhile so that it comes out in one nice… plop.

In the colder months, we keep food scraps in a plastic bucket outside. Keeping a bucket outside during the summer months is bad news for attracting flies and *gag* maggots to the compost bucket. Freezing it has been much better on our gag reflex. 10/10 recommend.

Food waste in plastic bags = Bad. Compost = Good. Compost + Learning how to cook and use food scraps better = BEST.

I love composting, and I’ll never stop. It may feel like another chore sometimes, but I feel much better about it than tossing food into the trash can. There’s something I romanticize about taking my bucket of food scraps to the organic community garden, where I get to peer at everyone’s garden beds and listen to the birds in the trees and really inhale that stinky, steamy, heap of love smoldering in the corner in the garden.

Love (and compost),

Ollie