On Thursday, my sister Chloe and I did some Spring cleaning in our bedroom. It brought me face to face with just how much stuff I have... not including the life I have in boxes, packed away in my parents' attic.
70 pounds? I kept repeating it to myself as I found books, sweaters, sewing kits, yarn and binders of French notes that I wanted to take with me to France. But when we get on that plane, my life can only weigh 70 pounds: 50 checked under my seat and 20 stored above my head.
I had a list of things to buy before heading over there: industrial-sized shampoo, razors, camera film, socks. Then I saw some dresses I'd forgotten about, wedged in the back of my closet. I found some shoes that would look great with those dresses. So we'll be buying those items in France. Hello, Monoprix! Ditto for my new yoga mat... I've been really wanting one since Baby peed on and chewed all corners (and most edges) off of the poor pink mat.
In an effort to save us packing space and money all around, I'm looking into money-saving, earth-saving do-it-yourself projects. For example, Kittenish posted this great recipe for making your own laundry detergent, which I already have memorized:
2 bars of soap run through the food processor/cheese grater, Borax, and Washing Soda.
Use one tablespoon per regular load. CAKE!
This works out great, because while cleaning I found a ton of those little hotel soaps. Chloe's been saving them for the end of the world, so I stole them from her. Those will go to France with us and will become our detergent.
So, in honor of this new laundry detergent discovery, I am starting a "Do It Ourselves" (DIO) series. There are tons and tons and tooooons of ways to eliminate chemicals that find their way under your sink, then drained into your water supply. I can't wait to look into them and share them here. Some will come primarily from:
The Good Housewife's Encyclopedia
bits of Real Simple that I've saved
Mom & Grandma
E Magazine
While cleaning and having all of these thoughts run through my head, I added more cleaner to the bucket we were using to wipe everything down. It was Murphy Oil Soap, a product that's been around for more than 100 years... and is made of earth-friendly vegetable oils.
It's companies like these (actually owned by Colgate) that make me confident in a (mostly) chemical-free lifestyle. It wasn't until about half a century ago that we changed our lives and our impact on the earth–post WWII when we didn't need to endlessly make bombs. This used to be common sense. These now odd seeming home remedies used to be essential; they were all that we had. Now, they're essential for our safety. For preserving our water supply. For getting ourselves healthy again, getting the chemicals out of us. For saving a bit of environment for the coming generations.
0 comments:
Post a Comment