Day 15 - produce bags. Since our last 30 day challenge reusable bags have become the norm. However the produce bag still exists. However since then some companies have tried to cash in creating them. Some good and some not so good. The best ones I have found are from Harris farm. They have organic cotton ones that are great. There are a lot of mesh ones out there that are ok but still pretty cheap. The ones in the pictures are from Coles and hsw. The problems with these ones is that the mesh is cheap and it breaks easily. The hsw one is better but still not as good as the others we have used. I would suggest getting the ones that are better quality like you can get online or from Harris farm. I wish we had one in Penrith if we get stuck we use mushroom bags that can be recycled or composted.
Day 16 - deodorant. I made some deodorant. It seems to work well. I made it out of Shea butter and coconut oil and corn flour and an essential oil. It can get a bit less solid in the extreme heat but otherwise has been good. Here is the recipe. It took me a little effort to find Shea butter. But I found it in the rainbow shop in Penrith.
https://wellnessmama.com/1523/natural-deodorant/
Edit: actually after reading this I remember dad saying he used a small sponge to apply the deodorant. I usually use my finger but I just remembered I salvaged a makeup sponge from my wedding makeup that I didn’t throw away and I could probably use that to apply!
Day 17 - travel toiletries kit! My travel kit includes wooden toothbrush, soap and tin, body wash, shampoo and conditioner bottles, deodorant and spare jar. The shampoo bottle could be replaced with a shampoo bar. Is there anything else I am missing?
Day 18 - Reusing/repurposing. Deniz made a soap holder out of an old bottle. I’m now using an old makeup sponge for my deodorant and we have refilled the same Ajax bottle full of vinegar solution for ages. There was an episode of blues clues yesterday and they reused a whole bunch of old stuff to make new things for kids like musical instruments. There are a whole bunch of things you can reuse!
Day 19 - buy local and Australian made. Today I was in Hobart and at the airport in the 15 minutes spare time I had I got some locally made stuff. It has some bags it’s in but the bags could be reused. Tasmania is always great for that sort of stuff but the idea is that it’s local and it’s supporting local businesses. The food has less to travel and so has a smaller footprint!
Day 20 - water. Today we bought. Bucket that can collect excess water waste. We use a lot of water actually because washing nappies takes lots of rinses to get clean. So our little bucket is nothing really. I watered the plants today without a sprinkler and just targeted the plants needed rather than a random spray. Of course there is normal ways like turning the tap off when you brush your teeth. It’s interesting but when I listen to a tap running needlessly it sounds like nails on a chalkboard to me!
Day 21 - drinks. Since the last challenge I was bought a sofa stream as a present. I am not a huge fan of fizzy sugar drinks but I like fizzy water. We really should try and make some cordial to put in it maybe. I have a pineapple cordial recipe that uses only the offcuts from a pineapple. The other day I also used my tea infuser bottle. It was great for a tea on the go!
https://www.facebook.com/angesweeney/videos/10161551618270405/
Day 22 - bread. As for last time we have our bread bag, but I love to make a loaf of bread. Next thing is to start a sour dough!
Day 23 - buy less! Buying less means looking at what you buy and not buying junk or things you don’t need. This is super difficult with a child because she wants everything. But we are trying to buy less so as to save more money also.
Day 24 - old clothes. There are lots of things you can do with old clothes but I have a bean bag that my parents bought me. I’ve been slowly filling it up with old broken warn out clothes. I intend later to take them up into strips to make the seat less lumpy once it is full.
Day 25 - shampoo bars. Since the last challenge I have used quite a few shampoo bars. I have found the lush ones to be the best ones still by far. I used one from the source Rhodes where it barely lathered. That lasted ages but was not good for my long hair. The picture below is the one that works best for me. There is a honey one too that’s very nice and quite gentle with my hair. I’ve not found a conditioner solution yet but lush seem to have a new conditioner bar that I may give a try.
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Closing Comments
This year’s waste challenge was quite a bit more challenging than the one last year. This year I decided to try and find further items to broaden my challenge. I had planned to add items to the list that were updates so people that I was posting to could see them but I felt like it was too easy for that so I tried to find new items and that was difficult. It got a bit more expensive as I needed to put more money into items that would replace what was being used in my household. Though I did and it was a great learning experience, I lost steam and stopped at day 25.
The feedback this year was different too. People got a bit more annoyed at my posts than they did last year and I think it was because it wasn’t common household Items that I was targeting anymore and it was more towards my own lifestyle. It could also be that last year it might have been a bit more in fashion and this year less so. Some people were still excited but I didn’t get anywhere near the amount of excitement than I did last year. That being said it was still good to poke people with new ideas that they might not have thought about and keep the conversation going.
I fear what I will be doing next year and I feel like I would need to change the challenge in some way. Maybe post a guilt post of these are the things that I am doing that are too wasteful and ask for feedback on other options or something of the link. I’m not too sure.
