When we began looking at the sustainability of our modern life, the impact of our choices on the planet, and what small things we could do to decrease our family's plastic dependency, it was easy to get overwhelmed with allllllll the information out there.
As an aside, a fascinating study came out of UBC about the top five ways for an individual to reduce their carbon footprint, and compared it to what people THOUGHT was the best way, and the results were surprising. You can read it here.
But back to the targeted ads and marketing that beset us after our first google foray into carbon footprint reduction. Most of them can be summed up with: Buy this bamboo tool that does the same thing as your plastic one!
And while yes, bamboo is much more environmentally friendly, replacing everything I own immediately and tossing my plastics into the garbage before they have disintegrated in my hand... well that seems more like contributing to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch sooner rather than later.
Our ancestors were sustainable because there was no other option. We have to make the conscious choice to use products in the same way as they did. Yes, sometimes at the cost of convenience. But for me the trade off of making a positive difference to our environment at the cost of my time is worth it!
So here’s the top five easy swaps we did in our household, and a bonus one!
1. Dish sponges to washcloths!
Anything you can do with a sponge, you can do with a dish cloth! I remember being a kid and being so jealous of bright yellow dish sponges at friends houses (I know, I was a weird kid) and then as an adult I would buy them, and throw them out when they got manky. No more! Now I toss dirty dish cloths in a small kitchen laundry-specific bin I put in the cupboard below the sink. Wash them, and they’re good as new! If you miss the scrubbing action of the scouring side of the sponges, you can actually buy reusable scrub pads! I have three of those and I toss them in my laundry same as the rest of my kitchen linens.
2. Liquid soap to bar soap!
We went through the slow process of replacing every soap in our house with bar soap. The easiest one of course was hand soap. As soon as we finished our stock of liquid hand soap, we bought bar soap next. We support local soap makers, since the bar soap lasts so much longer it ends up costing the same or less than a bottle of liquid soap. But you can absolutely find bar soap with minimal plastic packaging at the grocery store, and an amazing place to get it is actually Bulk Barn! We eventually used up all the spare bottles of shampoo and conditioner in the house too and now use shampoo and conditioner bars as well.
3. Dryer to clothesline or drying rack
We live in the PNW so from September until whenever the good weather starts approximately nine months later, our clothesline is out of commission. We have a clothes drying rack right next to the washing machine instead. When I lived in Australia, I remember being surprised that everyone had a washer but no one had dryers. But as a result, I got really good at hanging my socks to dry. We have a pretty energy efficient dryer now (and a cold, dank basement) so I definitely don’t hang my socks in the winter as much as I could. The summer months with our clothesline up and running are perfection, though.
4. Papertowels to dish cloths or napkins
I grew up with cloth napkins, serviettes if you will. But when Matt and I were dating, at his house it was paper towels if you needed to wipe your fingers. I learned more people use paper towels than napkins or dish cloths. So at Withywindle, we switched. Messy fingers? Cloth napkins. Have a mess to clean up? A wash cloth will do the trick. But again, you know your house and your laundry schedule. For us it was not a problem to remove paper towels, but that’s not the case for everyone!
5. Facewash/bodywash for... a bar of soap AND a washcloth
Okay, obviously not everyone’s skin will love swapping out a perfectly-balanced-for-their-skin facewash for hot water, a bar of local soap and a washcloth, but honestly my sensitive skin loved it. Yeah there was an adjustment period as my skin went crazy and I learned how to exfoliate with a cloth, but as soon as I learned to tone with cold water and was consistent with moisturizing, my skin loved it. The bar of soap linked above at bulk barn is a tea tree oil bar and there are so many wonderful products in bar form now. I also have a washcloth for the shower and a bar of soap for body wash! This sustainable swap is sneaky because it’s really just a combined application of swap one and two.
BONUS: instead of buying a set of bamboo utensils in a fancy pouch for on the go lunches, make your own! Put a fork, knife, and spoon in a napkin, add chopsticks and a straw if you’d like, wrap it up like a burrito and snap an elastic band around it and throw it in a bag or glove compartment! Now you have your own set of utensils rather than using single use plastics!
But that’s it! Those were our top five easy swaps (and one bonus) that didn’t require us to buy more things. The reason these five swaps were so easy for us was because we didn’t do them all at once. Most of these just took a concerted effort to not rebuy products we didn’t necessarily need and replace them, using items we already had, more frequently.
Over time we’ve replaced our Costco bulk toilet paper with paper wrapped toilet paper from Staples, and our bottles of shampoo have become our bars (I searched long and hard for curly hair specific ones!). We're also slowly building up a useful collection of beeswax wraps to replace cling wrap!
I think it’s important to remember that even if one small action won’t change everything, it will change something. You may not stop the boulder rolling down the hill, but you may save a tree from the boulder’s destruction. The small, actionable changes are still useful.
Caveat: sometimes, the cost of the trade off is not worth it. If living sustainably is something you’re looking to do, you need to find your own balance and lifestyle capabilities. There is no shame in doing what you can, period. Don’t live your sustainability and environmental impact by comparison. How other people live sustainably might not be how you can do it, and that’s perfect. Their life is not yours!
Remember, be love, do no harm, and seek balance in all things.
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