I’ve come to accept the fact that I love writing, I really do, but sometimes it’s hard to make time for it and then before you know it, another year has passed…. So here I am again. Trying to pick up where I left off.
Remember how I mentioned in my last post, that I’m starting small in changing the world? Well here’s me a year later and I’m so proud of how far I’ve come with making changes! So I thought I’d share this list with you guys. I’m sure there’s some of you who will find this super helpful!
The principle behind each and everyone of these is pretty much the same. It consists of asking myself the same questions whenever I need or want something “Do I really need this? Can I make this myself? If not, is there a green alternative? If there’s no green alternative, what can I do to minimalise the impact?”. For me this goes for everything in my life. Wheter it’s about my clothes, personal care, hobbies or job, I try to make sure that whatever it is I do, it’s in line with my wish to live a life with respect for our planet. It’s a process of trial and error. Some things work, and some don’t.
-
-
Vegan…ish?
Most of you know I’ve been a vegetarian for over 9 years, and after I read an article last autumn I’ve decided to cut dairy from my diet too. Weirdly enough it was more difficult for me to stop consuming dairy products than stop eating meat 9 years ago! But after 6 months I’m there, not using nor missing dairy anymore (truth to be told, vegan Ben & Jerry’s icecream helps, a lot).
-
Clothes
I truly believe that living a sustainable life doesn’t inculde throwing everything ‘bad’ away and buying new things. So instead, whenever something can’t be repaired and needs replacing I make sure to buy it from an environmental friendy company. So over the past year I’ve been able to slowly introduce some amazing brands to my cloest! I’ve completely fallen in love with the Dutch brand Saintbasics. Their underwear is the best I’ve ever worn so I will probably wear those until the day I die! Aside from that my favourite brands are Patagonia (serioulsy, I could buy their whole collection. Outdoor+sustainable, count me in!) Armed Angels, Ragwear and the shop Nukuhiva (the Dutchies who follow me might know this one ‘cuz it’s a shop created by Floortje Dessing).
-
Writing
Unlike some people typing really isn’t the same as writing with pen and paper for me. So I was thrilled when I found out about Greenstory! I’ve been using my greenbook for over a year now and I’m still so happy with it! It’s especially usefull when it comes to making quick notes at meetings, creating todo lists and keeping an overview of my plans for each week. I love that you can customise it and buy only the type of pages that you need. They recently launched a vegan leather cover to keep it safe!
-
Food storage
I’m very spoiled when it comes to lunch, I don’t like plain bread very much so usually when we cook diner we make sure it’s enough for 3 or 4 people and I eat the leftovers as lunch. I’m very lucky that Imke loves bread haha, so when our leftovers are just enough for 1 lunch she generously lets me have it! But the plastic containers that I had since I left my parent’s place 9 years ago were starting to wear down. We bought a new set of glasscontainers (with plastics caps, but atleast those don’t wear down as fast) for storing and freezing and we invested in stainless steel lunchboxes from Ecolunchboxes and Boc n’ Roll wraps for our lunch and sandwiches. I’ve also made my own beeswaxwraps recently, great for storing pieces of vegetables, or cut fruits and to cover bowls and pans with instead of using disposable foil.
-
Moisturizers
After a year of testing different oils I’ve finnally found the perfect facial oil that doesn’t make my skin super dry: Squalan. What a feast this one is. Glass bottle, Dutch company and only one drop is enough. As for the rest of my body; I use coconut and jojoba oil and am still expirimenting with this a little bit. But on sunny days coconut is the way to go! It has a low spf and that is somehow enough to keep me from burning instantly when the sun is out.
-
Dental care
About 6 months ago Imke came across the dutch “Leven zonder afval webshop” a zerowaste webshop. The so called DentaTabs are great, toothpaste without a tube! We store them in a glass jar in the bathroom and it works even better than normal toothpaste! Recently we finally finished up the last plastic toothbrush so I’m finally brushing with a bamboo one: the Humble Brush.
-
Shampoo, soaps and deodorant
I’m still figuring out this one. I’ve been using shampoo bars for over a year now. For some reason my hair keeps feeling strawlike at the back of my head. The Lush shampoo bars with conditioner worked great but I wanted something more natural. I’ve recently started trying the new shampoobars from HelemaalShea in combination with apple vinigar as conditioner and that seems to make my hair smoother. We’ll see how it’ll hold out! As for soap and shavingcream I also have two solid soapbars! For deodorant I found a pretty good solid version too, after having tried the salt/crystal version that left me super uncomfortable if i started sweating, I’m now using the solid deodorant of Lamazuna which works like a charm!
-
Medicine
My asthma forces me to take medication twice a day but I’ve been working on reducing that drastically. Last year I managed to cut down to only half of the dose that I used to take, and in a couple of weeks I’ll have another check-up to see if there is a possibility of cutting it down even further. Even with my cats I don’t have to use my allergy pills anymore! I do however need a nosespray to keep the horrors of hayfever at bay but I’m getting so much better! Another thing that I’m looking into is Salt therapy, it helps keeping asthma and allergic reactions at bay without the use of medication but I haven’t tried it yet.
-
Groceries
Buying vegetables at the grocerystore is something we hardly ever do anymore. For over a year now we’ve been getting a weekly vegetable and fruit box from local farms around Breda (Boerschappen). You get different seasonal vegetables and fruits and as a bonus we get to eat a varierty of things that we normally would never buy ourselves and our diet became a lot more balanced because of it! Unfortuntely they don’t offer a box without cheese and even though Imke still eats cheese from time to time it’s usually too much so we’re looking into other vegetable and fruitboxes in our area. When we do get groceries we try to buy our bread at the Aldi where you can use your own bag and get our veggies from the local vegetablestore that sells them without plastic too. Since cutting milk I’ve started watching mynutrient intake too, and eat nuts and seeds a lot more. These are often packed as well, or the stores where you can get them without packaging are super expensive and we really don’t have the money for that so we buy in bulk where we can.
-
Learning DIY skills
Being able to make, repair or mend things are such incredible skills. More and more I’ve come to realise that I want to learn more of those skills. I’ve been having a go at sewing, so far being able to sew and create a cushion for a bench, a cover for my piano and flaxseed pillows that you can heat up and pencil pouches. Not everything is super neat but I’m making it all myself and it works! Aside from that, since we got our two adorable cats we also made our own scratching post and scratching tipi instead of going for storebought ones(that are ugly as). Last week we had a woodcarving workshop so now we have those tools in house as well. My first go was a scoop that I can use for my oats(I’d been meaning to buy one so this was perfect!)
-
Going green with my money
Oh my it’s a hassle, switching between to different banks but I think it’s worth it. I recently transfered from the Rabobank to ASN. I believe it’s important to know where your banks invests your moe and ASN is one of the best in the Netherlands when it comes to awareness for humans, animals and the planet.
-
Green hygiene
I mentioned I had bought a mooncup last time, but I hadn’t tried it yet. Well, that one didn’t work for me but the Organicup did! But unfortunately on my heavy days it’s not enough so I switch between using the cup and tampons. I also got Thinx underwear to use with the cup as a backup, and washable pantyliners. Those two are not entirley ideal for me yet, I’m used to having super ultra mega thin pantyliners in combination with tampons or my cup, and both the thinx and the washable liners are super thick in comparison. I hope I’ll be able to find something that is as thin as what I’m used to!
-
Cleaning
We have a lot of old cleaning supplies from Imke’s grandma, but gradualy we’re starting to change up. We’re almost at the point where we can try soapnuts for our laundry! And I recetly found a brand, Sonett, that sells dishwasherpowder in bulk so we don’t have to use those tablets wrapped in plastic anymore! As for cleaning we’ve been using Marcel’s green soap products, they smell absolutely amazing and are a lot better for the environment. We’ve also been using wooden dishwashing brushes instead of sponges and the plastic ones.
-
Like I said, it’s a process of trial and error and I spent a lot of time doing research for some of the things I wanted to change. Like how it took me a year to find oil in a glass bottle that actually works for my face, or how for certain things there are no sollutions yet and you just have to settle for the second best option. Like razors. I can be super clumsy and I don’t have the courage to try a old fashioned safety razor and for some reason I couldn’t find any razors with disposable blades that were biodigradable or enviromently friendly. I settled with the razors of Boldking because atleast they have the option to return the used bladeheads so they can recycle them into new ones.
So little by little I’m changing and going for the best option that is available for me at the time. I hope that this list is able to help anyone out there trying to live a greener life. I know I would’ve loved to find something like this when I first started!
The Wandering Tea Mug 