How to go low-waste in the bathroom
This includes bathing and skin-care, mostly.
Tips
- Use less shampoo. For example, focus on shampooing your scalp rather than the length of your hair.
- Shampoo less often. If you shampoo every day, try every other day, then every third day. You’ll find that you can go a whole week with no shampoo!.
- Buy shampoo that comes in a returnable, refillable, or glass bottle.
- Buy your shampoo in bulk (and bring your own container) if you have a extensive bulk store nearby.
- Make your own shampoo. This can be as simple as using bar soap or liquid soap on your hair, or you could make really fancy concoctions.
- Go low or no ‘poo. There are many alternative haircare routines that generate less (plastic) waste, are cheaper, and are better for you.
- Take navy showers. Only have the water on to get yourself wet and to rinse.
- Make your own exfoliating scrub. A classic is sugar and/or baking soda in oil. Commercial scrubs often contain plastic microbeads, which aren’t removed in the water treatment process and end up polluting the environment.
- Use a washcloth, bath brush, natural loofah (compostable) in place of plastic loofahs (those mesh scrubby things).
- Use less soap on your body. Soap up less often. The oils you’re taking off keep your skin moisturized.
- Use bar soap for washing your hands and body in place of body wash and liquid soap. Bar soap can be bought loose (no packaging) or in paper, which can be easily recycled.
- Use oil as lotion. But if you’re using it on your face, make sure to check comeodogenic ratings first. These tell you how likely an ingredient is to cause acne. The lower the number, the better.
- Use a menstrual cup and cloth menstrual pads (or use prescription birth control to get rid of your period).
- Use a straight razor of double-edge razor instead of a disposable razor or razor with disposable heads. Here’s help to get you started!
- As always, don’t use disposables. Question if you really need that disposable item. If you do, then see if you can find a reusable replacement.
It’s been so long since I de-wastified my shower and skincare routines that it’s hard for me to think of suggestions for this. If you have any questions, like what to replace a particular product with, just ask!
Purisima Creek Trail
A few weekends ago, J, friend A who likes bugs, friend S who is a friend of friend A, friend S’s college friends, and I took a trip to the Purisima Creek Open Space Preserve. We hiked on the Purisima Creek Trail a total distance of 12 miles!! That was much longer than anticipated, but J and I were surprisingly not in bad shape the next day. My calves were a little sore, but that was it. J and I do walk a lot now (at least 2 miles a day, just to the train station and back. If we do any extra activities, like on the weekends, then we easily reach 6+ miles in a day.).
We saw a tooon of banana slugs. They’re famous for being yellow and living in redwood forests. It would seem that they have aposematic coloration, but they’re not toxic. In fact, there’s an (annual?) banana slug recipe contest in Russian River, CA.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos of this trip. J brought his fancy camera, though, so I’ll have him upload something soon.
Mattress update!
I worked on my wool mattress last Saturday. I was just stuffing it (and worked all day!), but got barely halfway done. I can’t imagine making wool mattresses for a living…
It’s been taking up so much room on the floor. And the wool I’m using is really dirty, so there’s dirt and wool everywhere. The apartment is going to get a thorough cleaning once I’m completely done with the mattress. There’s even wool fluff under the sofa.
Despite all the work, I’m glad I didn’t buy a commercial wool mattress. Mine is almost certainly going to be higher quality than most of those available in the US. And now I know how to make a mattress!
Pressure cooker!
My mom sent me a pressure cooker!
Keeping track of the books I read
I made a Goodreads account to keep track of books I read that are relevant to this blog. If you want to see what I’ve read and what I want to read, take a look at my profile.
Goodreads is a website that allows you to rate, review, and track books you’ve read. There’s enough detail for you to track how far you are through a book (60% or 70%?) and when you started and finished a book. The reviews are quite thoughtful and helpful when choosing a new book to read. Check it out!
Awesome Japanese, ethical, slow fashion clothing brand!!
After the Mahouka movie and my thrift store finds, we browsed the Japantown mall. In the atrium area, there was an amazing Japanese clothing brand~ They were having an exhibition to advertise and sell their products, and I totally got sucked in. Everything was amazing!!! I could tell even from a distance that it was my type of clothing, from the colors to the cut.
The company is called Usaato, a contraction of Usaburo Sato, the designer’s name. It’s a pun: “usaato” also means “rabbit” (although it’s a less common word than “usagi”), which they use in their logo. Here’s their Facebook page (in Japanese) and their USA page, which still has quite a bit of Japanese.
Continue reading “Awesome Japanese, ethical, slow fashion clothing brand!!”
Redwoods and Cacti
A few weeks ago, J and I had an uncharacteristically adventurous and nature-filled weekend with our friend A. It turns out A really likes hiking and such, especially since he can look for cool bugs! I’m more into plants, but it’s good to learn about native insects too. Sadly, we didn’t see any banana slugs 🙁
Mahouka alternative activity- thrift shopping!
While J and co were watching the Mahouka movie, I went to… the thrift store!! I do love a good browse, but usually can’t get J to wait for me, so this was the perfect opportunity.
I’ve been on the lookout for linen pants or shorts to wear in the summer, small weights for arm and wrist exercises, a basket to organize J’s receipts, and maybe a loaf pan. I’ll tell you what I found! Continue reading “Mahouka alternative activity- thrift shopping!”
Gochujang recipe
There aren’t a lot of gochujang recipes online (in English). They don’t explain what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, so it’s hard to tell if it’s working. Because gochujang takes several months to ferment, I wanted to be extra sure that it would work. So I combined three different recipes with some advice from the beer-brewing community. Of course I started with Maangchi’s recipe, but I also consulted this video and Eating Korean. I’ll give you the recipe I ended up using, with some explanation at the end of what we’re doing.