When I have lunch duty at school I will take all the fruit and veggie scraps home with me to compost. When kids asked what I was doing I told them I have worms and I feed them scraps. They all think I have pet worms and want me to name them 😅Now I have kids bringing in scraps from home so they can help "feed my worms".
Am I the only one who just adds soap scraps to the next bar of soap? With the warm shower water, they just kind of melt together and then the scraps don’t got to waste. When the new bar becomes too small, you just repeat the process.
I didn't realise this could even be considered weird. I tend to use a different smelling soap for the new one so for a few days you have a kind of Frankensoap 😅
Since I bought a big package of zip-lock bags for travel about 10 years ago, I have been washing them and re-using them. A few friends thought it a silly waste of time, as they hardly cost anything. >But it is the plastic I want to diminish.
It drives me crazy when people bring up cost in conjunction to zero waste because it has nothing to do with what you can and cannot afford. I do the same thing and people roll their eyes at me.
😂😂😂 me too. My husband keeps asking me to clear out the glass jar collection 😂. I find them so useful. I also keep glass bottles especially smaller ones for homemade piri piri sauce 😊, my husband makes it.
In California with the drought my grandparents had us start doing it, then my parents adopted it, and even though we are no longer in drought I still have one. It’s wonderful.
My mum collects the grey water from the washing machine to water plants/flush the toilet, even though our dams are full at the moment, she still does that out of habit.
My first thought was to be grossed out by secondhand bras/sheets/socks/towels, but then I realized it's because I'm only ready to get rid of any of those things when I have used them to death. It still shocks me that people are giving those things away when they're still good to use.
This! I have the same problem thinking about second hand jeans. The only times I’ve ever gotten rid of jeans is when they had holes from chafing or had been bled through/bleach stained when I still had my period. So buying them second hand still is strange for me and they’re the one thing besides panties that I don’t buy second hand
People do have size changes that can affect undergarments. For everything else, they may just have changes in what they need. (also sometimes the owner passes away)
I've been both people: as a student, I was looking forward to the days when I could buy all new things even though the old ones hadn't worn out. That was part of a successful life, wasn't it? I was going to upgrade things and give my room a makeover and make it look more grownup when I got my first job in my field of study. I feel like this post-traumatic-growth version of me is very different from my 20-year-old self: my plan now involves living really simply, close to nature, and being more like the witch at the edge of the village who wears hand-dyed handmade clothes and smells slightly of woodsmoke all winter. Inspired by Robin Greenfield, I'm slowly switching to a mostly-natural-fibre wardrobe (there's a certain pride in wearing things out... but not shedding microplastics) and I tend to shop at the thrift store unless I can't find what I need there.
Earth sister life style... for awhile in my early career period I forgot and disconnected. In childhood we were poor and made do. I resented not having new stuff. Didn't realize that we were also being minimal consumers. As a teenager I got into Mother Earth magazine lifestyle and embraced Natural Lifestyle. Now I am old and comfortable being thrifty and stubborn about what goes into, on, and around me.
I never understood why people have issues with second hand fabrics. Underwear and swimwear I can understand, but stuff like bed linens, towels, blankets? How do these people survive at hotels, spas, or visiting friends and family? We've all slept in someone elses bed, used towels that aren't ours, borrowed clothes or even tried on clothes in stores that other people likely have tried on before us. I don't get why it's only icky when it's being purchased.
I know!🤷 It's just being difficult. You wash those items and you are good to go. I pretty much buy all of our clothes second hand and I hand wash everything when I get it, I want to make sure that the colour is not going to bleed, and I seldom find that the clothes are dirty. I have done the same with new store items and those are dirty in comparison, they have been through many hands before you buy them and you don't know what else. Just wash the clothes new or not and you will be fine
@@anaalves3658 We do have to wash the heck out of everything here - because it all comes from the thrift store smelling like Gain. Scented laundry detergent always gives me a rash (Gain and Tide in particular). It also takes at least three washes to get the smell out! 🫤
Some people believe that items hold energies. So the energy of whoever owned the object beforehand could effect your life. I think there are ways to clear it though.
If you phrase it as "remember when they used to..." Or "back when great grandma was living they did ..." They will usually accept it but, it you say eco friendly they criticize. Make them think about what people did before the conveniences were invented. Conveniences are lazy friendly not eco friendly.
I don't think us vs. them mentality, or hiding the things that are important to us is healthy. We should be proud of the eco-friendly things we do. Likewise we should give grace to those that are not doing what we are. They might have a good reason we know nothing about. For example, Single-use/convenience items are definitely overused and are a massive problem, but calling them or people who use them lazy or stupid isn't the solution either. Someone going through depression, burnout or recently had surgery may not have the energy, ability or support to clean dishes or take a shower. They may rely on paper plates and baby wipes to get them through that time in their life. They still deserve a clean house and body. So they shouldn't be condemned for surviving, just like we shouldn't be made to hide because we are choosing to do something good for the environment.
'Eco friendly' means 'unwelcome change' to people. Someone telling them what to do. They don't want that. Even if it's better for them & the environment. If you say 'like grandma did it' they're being reminded of their childhood indoctrination that what old people did for ages is automatically 'good' & needs to be worshipped without a second thought (even if these folks have been doing the wrong thing for centuries) bc mommy told them so. Here it doesn't matter if it's a stupid & abusive practice. They will worship anyways bc that's what they have been conditioned into. Humans are absolutely irrational.
This is true. If you say "organic food" everyone in my area rolls their eyes or scoffs. They think of it as something new and hippie. I have to remind them that food used to all be organic. That their great-grandparents and maybe even their grandparents ate organic food.
I live in a coastal town in Australia, which gets many tourists over summer. You'll be amazed at how many good quality beach towels people forget to take home. You won't be surprised that my family now has a great supply of beach towels.
@@pjolevenick1312 People take their good towels. I wash them and use them as towels. They're always too good to upcycle. I actually turn old t-shirts and fabric remnants from other projects as bags.
Thank you for this. My niece had a spill at our house once and I brought a rag that had been my child's t-shirt. She asked, what's that? I answered, it was a t-shirt and now it's a rag. She silently watched me clean up the spill, it worked very well. There was never any discussion about it afterwards. This is how I was raised and continue to live.
I've used my old , discarded clothing items to pack crockery and glassware when moving house .... now they have been repurposed by the family as bedding for rescue animals.
My Dad grew up during the depression and he saved his aluminum foil and had a ball of rubber bands. When he passed I found a pair of Levi Jeans that were mostly duct tape, as he just kept patching the holes, he must of had those jeans 30 + years!
Yes! My grandmother (born in 1901 in Bayou La Batre, Alabama) saved everything: rubber bands, jars, bottles, old cloth for either quilting or cleaning rags, usable socks to darn, a coffee can for reusable bacon grease on the back of the stove, empty cans for mixing paint or holding turpentine or water for art projects, etc. She found dozens of ways to use what we would consider "waste" today. She even taught us how to make beautiful Christmas candles using old milk cartons packed with crushed ice, and crochet items using unraveled yarn from worn out sweaters. I seem to remember making a rag rug with her once, using braids made from long strips of scrap fabric. She made monkey dolls from old hunting socks, too. Compost and worm food, of course. Everything was used up and what little bit of trash she had left was burned in a fire.
My mom was born in 1925, and she would not have batted an eye at any of these things. They were just normal things to me when I was growing up. I thought everyone had food scrap bowls or bottles, reusable menstrual products, a huge collection of repurposed bottles, paper bags, rubber bands, plastic bags, and foil. I didn't think anything of the fact when she would have us very carefully open presents so that the wrapping paper, bows, ribbons etc. , could be reused for years. I don't remember having second-hand sheets, but bath towels, cleaning rags, or curtains, as well as many kitchen items, were definitely bought second-hand or handed down from friends and family who no longer had a use for them. The water saving bucket was normal, too. Anything you used water for that wasn't filled with cleaning products was used to water the flower garden or vegetable plots.
I started using "family cloth" during covid. There was a time when we were short on money and I made my cleaning solutions (Vinegar and Dawn). I made a lot of my own cloth period/incontinence pads and then found a seamstress who makes beautiful ones, much better than mine! I save plastic bags to take to the recycle bin at the grocery store, as well as the other things that can't be thrown in our recycle bin for pickup. Several times a year there is a plastic recyling day at the local grange. They take any of the odd numbered things and take them to the recycler for you! I have always saved leftovers in the freezer until I have enough to make a stew or soup. My husband is now at home on hospice and I had to give up a lot of reusing and recycling because of his illness. It hurts my heart to throw away so many disposable things. But I try my best!! I am a beginning quilter and I thrift most of my fabrics. I am 71 and I remember the very first "Earth Day", it made a great impression on me to try and do right by Mother Earth.
I am a retired chemotherapy nurse. I totally understand your controversy over having to deal with so much disposable waste after many years of reusing and recycling. For those who do not know, medical equipment/waste must be disposable to prevent serious contamination/infections in patients now and in the future. At the hospitals where I have worked, our secretaries were fantastic about recycling as much as possible mostly reusing charts and recycling paper.
I do a soup bag in my freezer as well! My grandmother and mother wrapped theirs in aluminum foil, because no zipper bags at that time. They saved meat in one package and veggies in the other. We had "mystery meat" veggie soup because there were all kinds of bits of meat in it.
I would like to know if the stores that have re-cycle bins for plastic bags really do re-cycle them. I've been told that is a fallacy. Anyone know the facts?
I have had a bucket in my shower for years. We also save all water from washing produce and use that water for the garden. People think it is odd that we have a bucket in the kitchen, but, oh well. Water is a precious resource, reuse when you can !
I also save gallon jugs and run water into them when I'm waiting for the hot water to come out of the faucet. Saves a lot of money! I have a shower bucket too, and I have buckets to catch rain water in my garden. Water is a precious thing that should not be wasted.
Coming from someplace with an abundance of fresh water, I'm ashamed that I have not thought of these. There is never a guarantee that said abundance will still be here years from now.
I had a drawerful of pants which was overflowing with ones I had stopped wearing/never worn, because they were uncomfortable, too big, too small etc. I felt so wasteful just getting rid of them so I was trying to think of a way to reuse them and came up with the idea of cutting them up and making reusable makeup wipes. They were all cotton or bamboo fibre, nice and soft and clean. Such a win for me, and now I have about 100 washable wipes and a drawer of pants I actually wear and doesn’t drive me mad!
In the USA, pants means trousers. Do you mean underwear/panties/underpants? I would like to do this! Did you need to hem them, or just cut them in pieces. I'm wondering if they will unravel on the edges. Thanks for your help in advance!
@winamortenson9125 Yes, underwear/knickers! I cut the two sides so as to open them out, drew circles around a dish (about 4” diameter) - I got about one from the front and two or three from the back parts. Then I put two right sides together and machine sewed them together in a circle leaving a gap. Then I cut the edges in like you do on a curve in dressmaking so that it will lay flat. Turned them inside out and then ironed them flat (not strictly necessary) and tucked the gap section in, then sewed round the circle on the outside near the edge. You could just sew the little gap up instead of round the whole circle, but I got a bit fancy 😂. I did so many I had a little production line going and did about ten at a time, so I would be doing the cutting and turning through bits on my sofa in the evening when watching tv.x
Collecting old wrapping paper, tags and gift bags to reuse. So fun at Xmas working out what year it's from. Some are reused for 10plus years in my family
My grandma used the same gift boxes for YEARS. I remember a Dayton's box (a clothing store that closed in 2001) and one of the guys in the family would get clothes in the Motherhood box.
😂😂😂 I have been reusing the same Christmas and birthday gift bags for about 6/7 years, they still look new, so I am going to keep doing it. I also don't buy cards, my daughter makes them, with love,for everyone 😊❤
Yeah, I think last year we sadly realised that the last bit of wrapping paper from my grandma (she past away 20 ago) had its last appearance If I don't have wrapping paper to reuse, then the old newspaper is used
I save small-ish boxes to use when wrapping oddly shaped Christmas stocking stuffers. My kids know that if they get a box of bandages or pain reliever, it's probably not really that!
In the US, before the pandemic, I told my husband’s family that I was getting a bidet. They didn’t just think it was weird; they MOCKED me! My husband said he would never use it. He tried it once and loved it, and is now talking it up to his family.
Why is the US so behind other countries in this one aspect? Bidets are the best thing in the bathroom. Using paper to wipe is the grossest thing ever. I mean if a bird shits in your hand, do you just wipe it off or wash it off? (I'm not talking about 'you' you, just in general the people who think bidets are weird or gross for some reason)
Another thing about secondhand sheets and quilt covers, think of them as just fabric, you can make so many different things out of ‘old’ sheets, clothes, tablecloths napkins couch covers, tea towels, curtains cushion covers, the list goes on.
Calendars! We used to save them, to reuse when the same arrangement of days happens. (we have a page in a little book that has 12-14 different calendars, every possible arrangement, and do by that, but you can also find the info online) The calendars all had beautiful pictures, and we never used to write on them, so why not! Lol, once, an uncle was visiting, and happened to notice it. He looked startled and said whoa, we're back in 1968?! It was hilarious! We have a few still remaining in our stash, with the next cycled year written on the front!
I'm team picking up hair ties! Usually I soak them in some warm water with dish soap before putting it in the freezer (dried of course) which tends to freak people out, especially when I forget them in the freezer. My partner even points them out on the street for me to take home. A thing my family has been doing for as long as I can remember is whenever some kind of plastic bag enters the home (I don't buy them and most of my family doesn't either apart from general waste bin bags) it is cleaned out and used again until it is no longer usable. Yesterday, when I went swimming, I put my wet swimwear in a plastic bag from a store that closed down in 2006.
Even brand new sheets and towels are second hand once they have been used. So guests can't really complain too much. I have bought second hand underwear, I'll buy anything second hand it can be sanitised or washed and the sun is a good natural sanitiser. Aussie grandma
When the stores around started threatening "no plastic bags anymore" , I went to those recycle bins at grocery stores and took all the plastic bags people were leaving. With gloves on, I sorted through them and washed the good ones and I have 9 cubby drawers full of plastic bags, I use them over and over until they are done with. I should never run out! Uses: I clean houses and use them for dirty rags, then wash bag and reuse it. To carry out recycle, dump it and reuse the bag.
I use old towels and rags instead of paper towels. I also crocheted myself a “sponge” that I can bleach and wash instead of buying sponges at the store.
Yes to all of those! I also second (3rd? 8th?) toilet cloth. I live off-grid and have a composting toilet so no bidet, but a wet cloth is the next best thing. Maybe not so weird, I use a stainless percolator for coffee. No paper or plastic, nothing that can wear out or break, and great coffee. I also use shipping boxes for (outdoor) container gardening. If the box is very large, I fill 1/3-1/2 of it with yard waste before adding garden soil for planting. At the end of the season, you’ve got a lovely mix of compost for the next spring. When my kids were young, any meal get-together would have families bringing their own plates and cutlery. There were always plenty of jars to go around for drinks. Actually, when I was a child (in the 70s) we got yogurt containers to drink out of at friends’ homes with crunchier parents. They were also used for cleaning paintbrushes, starting plants, etc and just cleaned and reused for whatever next purpose came along. And “juice glasses” were actually glass jars that came with shrimp cocktail and spreadable cheeses! All of these things go back generations. We’ve just misplaced the knowledge/habits. Speaking of which, I’m not sure why people would think veg scraps for stock is terribly odd… that’s literally where stocks have always come from!
Stainless steel percolator coffee here too! I found an old one on ebay and I've been using it for years. The new ones are aluminum, and the ones advertised as stainless are not; they're a blend of something. I don't like running boiling water through plastic and aluminum. Stainless is much healthier. And the coffee is so much better.
I use a french press because I keep the grounds for my compost !! My chickens eat any scraps (except citrus) …I reuse feed bags as weed barriers and make grocery bags out of them … we use microfiber towels and I too save all containers!
I got one for you. During the toilet paper hoarding time (covid era) I made what I call Quilted Potty Wipes. I sewed white cotton flannel cloth with cotton batting for quilting, inside. I use them strictly for peeing- TP for #2. I don't want to be gross! I'm one of those people who drink a lot of water- only water. I also don't go to work. I use a basket to hold clean ones on top of toilet water tank and use a bathroom side waste can, next to the toilet, for dirty ones. Then I throw them in the load of whites, when doing laundry, to disinfect them. I have saved a lot of money over the past 4 years. It's just my husband and I so it's an easy one for me to do. Also, I'm post menopausal- no periods. They work really well with my Bidet bottle I bough on Amazon. Feel clean and fresh. Anyway, that's my unusual way to use much less TP. I also made cloth napkins. You can usually find pretty cheap cotton cloth at fabric stores, or thrift shops. I also do the soap bar/jar and bottle ideas, as you do. I'm going to start the shower bucket idea. It's not for everybody, that's for sure.
I saw the Great Toilet Paper Fights coming and stocked ahead a bit, but I still felt a stab of panic when everyone was fighting and cops were confiscating items, but then I told myself, "Calm down, sister, you have plenty of towels, sheets, fabric, etc. You'll be Oh. Kay." I thought it sounded bad, wiping with cloths, but my Mom reminded me when we were babies, we wore cloth diapers, she rinsed them in the toilet and threw them in a bin and washed them when she got a load. I've seen videos where people use cloth and launder wipes on a daily basis as a reduce-waste kind of thing, and once reminded about cloth diapers, it didn't seem so bad anymore.
@@Melissa-gw4ee Yep! I also was a cloth diaper baby and so was my daughter. And it's healthier for us to use cotton. I do recall a couple of times the toilet got clogged by a forgotten diaper in the bowl. TP has lots of chemicals that we shouldn't be using down there anyway.
Yes to making the wipes. I found a queen size flannel sheet at the thrift store for 2.00 and made many wipes with it. Still using them after COVID ended and have saved so much money. Also use cloth napkins and a roll of paper towels lasts forever around here.
I also cloth diapered my babies and cut cloth wipes out of worn out t-shirts and sweatpants. We now use those cloth wipes as nose and face wipes. They are so much softer than paper tissues. They are a must for when someone in the family has allergies or a cold.
As a chilean most of this habits are just being a Latin mom 🫢. Here the classic things in every home is the pantry full of empty jars and containers of ice cream or yogurt (the Tupperware for someone you don't trust to bring back). The "paño de cocina" is the cloth rag you use to clean everything and the "mop" is the old t-shirt that started being clothes for going out to pijamas to rags to clean. And let's not forget the classic metal box of cookies that will always be the sewing box.
Reusable menstrual pads and cloth wipes always freak people out lol. It NEVER fails. You'd think it'd be less controversial than it is but, it's crazy cost effective and less wasteful so, I stay on team reusable hygiene products.
I claim an irregular cycle so it's either clean the pads or my clothes. Then folks are more understanding but I'm like??? Let's be real even disposable pads aren't perfect so there would still be a mess for some reason folks just forget that when they hear cloth pads.
@@TranquilityChiba I think people are just squeamish and a little soft to be honest lol. I mean before disposable pads there were cloth pads. Before there were disposable diapers, there were cloth diapers and they had to be cleaned or you couldn't use them. A time where not everything was done for you, and you had to do somethings yourself. I think the convenience of not having to do as much is what's made people so wasteful.
@@MrsZhang91011exactly 💯. I learn a lot from my parents, especially my mom, but I wish I had learnt more from my grandparents. They raised 8 kids, and they were frugal, I am sure that they would have so much valuable information to pass on to me and my daughter.
Something that could be encouraged as an in between/reusable could be menstrual disks! They weren't around when I still had cycles (hysterectomy for solving endometriosis agony means no more bleeding ) and cups didn't work for me (kept popping open early and hitting me full force in the bits, *ow*), but I've got a couple friends that love the disks for being easier to use. 💛
Shower bucket got me thinking... one of our showers takes a really long time for the water to get hot. I hate seeing all that cold water go down the drain. I'm really thinking about a bucket now! LOL
Using my kids’ kiddy pool water to water my plants rather than dumping it in one spot and purposefully rotating where they play so as they play, they water different plants throughout the week.
Hi from South Africa! You are making SUCH a difference, Gittemary! Thank you!! After hearing a lady talk about (and show videos of) the damage plastic shopping packets cause to animals and especially our sea life, I took on the challenge to make a small change. I have now been plastic packet free for ten years!!
I have an indoor clothesline in my living room that drives my poor mom crazy with embarrassment when she visits: she always asks, “Why can’t it at least be in a back bedroom??” But I don’t heat most of my house in the winter so it makes more sense to dry clothes in the part that is heated. A clothes dryer came with my house but I have literally never used it and I store my cake carrier and extra jar lids in it. Also, on any given day you’ll usually find a few washed zipper lock bags hanging on the line drying, because I can’t bear to throw them away.
I also wash and reuse my zipper lock bags 😂 and I line dry my clothes in the enclosed balcony next to the dining room 😂😂😂😂. I pack it into the laundry room when we have company 😉, but the balcony space is bigger and sunny so much better for drying the clothes 😂
I hang dry all my clothes-linens included. This is quite out of the ordinary in the U.S. I don’t own a drying machine, I launder everything in cold water, and I wear my clothing multiple times before washing. The majority of my possessions, from jewelry to linens to furniture, to clothing and dishware-all secondhand. I have only ever purchased 1 item of new furniture in my life-a bed ( and mattress) I don’t think I would buy a secondhand mattress or undergarments. I’m a sewist, and all my fabrics are secondhand- I sew old draperies and tablecloths into aprons and such. I use the scraps to make handmade cards and tiny art 💕
I live alone and used to have a folding rack for drying hand washables until it fell apart. Now, I just hang my hand washables all over the bathroom and bedroom. I have to go to the laundrymat to wash clothes. I'll use a quarter less than it actually takes to get them dry, and leave them in the dryer for about 10 extra minutes if it's not busy. The dryer is still hot, so usually my clothes are completely dry or just barely damp. I take them home and hang them up to finish drying.
@@obietravels652 My sister was telling me the other day that I always had such cute clothes in high school (she's much older than I am). I laughed and told her that a lot of them were clothes other people gave to me that I took apart and made into something more stylish. Plus, I would skip lunch at school, save that money and buy fabric and notions with it to make my own clothes.
I have a shallow dug well that may run dry in the summer, and extreme water conservation is a science. I have a large clean water bucket in both the kitchen and bathroom, and a plastic jug most people would fill with lemonaide. It takes two full jugs for the hot water to run from the hot water heater to the bathroom sink or shower. It also takes two full jugs of water to refill the tank at the back of the toilet when flushing. I found long ago that filling the tank at the back of the toilet with soapy shower water eventually gummed it up, so soapy water can only go directly down the toilet. I also make use of dehumidifier water in the same way.
The shower took an obscene amount of time to heat up in my old place, so I started keeping a five-gallon bucket in there. It always filled up before the water got hot! The washing machine was right next to the shower, so it was easy to add that water to my next load.
I just realised!!! Second hand bedsheets!!! Never even thought of buying them second hand. I have worn second hand clothes and shoes all my life but bedsheets I have always bought new and I have no idea why. Thank you so much for the idea!
I have some bought new but my favourite sets have been second hand ... I like the vintage colours :) They're usually about $10 for a whole set or something, much cheaper
Also, if you sew or use fabric for crafts or home decor, flat bedsheets are a great (and cheap!) source of fabric yardage. I've used them to make drawstring pants, curtains, rag rugs, tablecloth, napkins, decorative pillow covers ... some sheets are even pretty enough to frame a piece of the fabric or use it as a background for another project.
Also, truly vintage linens ( bedsheets/towels) are far superior quality to newly made. I just bought a flat sheet from the 1970s for $10 & I plan to sew it into a summer maxi dress.
Thank you for the shower bucket idea! You may think that because it rains often in west Washington state that the residents would have a low water bill. Couldn't be more wrong. It's one of the highest next to meat and meat byproducts. The cleaning agent is wonderful. I use it all the time! Consider adding fresh rosemary with all of your citrus peels (lemon, lime, grapefruit, and orange) as it has astringent properties and repells insects. P.S. I know I've mentioned this before, but for safety reasons, it bears repeating. My friend is living with Pica, a mental disorder where the afflicted consumes non-food items like cleaning solutions. Before my friend came to visit I got rid of all cleaning products (ouch expensive) and I made this instead. Lol, she loved it. She was shocked when I showed her how safe it was by spraying my salad with cleaner then ate it myself. I've shared this one about a thousand times, thank you for your patience, Gitte. Turn old sheets into family wipes. Cut any sheet into 8in. x 8in. squares, fold in half, sew unfolded edges, and you have "toilet paper" forever! Discovered this during the Corona Pandemic. Use in concert with a bidet, makes it less gross. Wash in hot water with laundry detergent and half a cup (150 millileters) vinegar. I still have disposable TP for guests. Don't make it weird, lol.
When boiling water making tea, I store the unused water in a thermos flask next to the kettle. I use this for the next cup of tea or to use in my sink for washing up. Saves electricity use and water. It's winter now where I live and I'm going to use bubble wrap on my thin windows to act as double glazing until we get that sorted out. Keeps the heat in. Yes, we also have thermal curtains and pelmets too.
My weird zero waste solution is also soap related: I take the leftover little bit of the old soap bar and simply stick it onto the new one. After a couple uses, they become one single bar with absolutely no effort and no waste! I also carry reusables with me and pick up and freeze hair ties like you do: such a hack! But I have to say, the zero waste habit that still gets raised eyebrows when I mention it is thrifting: it's still seen as a poverty related thing, the environmental benefits are not the first thing that comes to mind 🙄
My weird zero waste habit : turning old tshirts into bikershorts, i love wearing them in the summer and for sports. Found a tutorial on TH-cam a few years ago and never bought a new one🤣 The leftover parts I usually make into wipes or cattoys Currently also busy with remaking clothes I don't use and make it into something I will :)
- We use a dehumidifier to dry clothes (the struggle is real in a flat in the UK during the colder/wetter months i.e. half of the year), so I collect all the water into old milk cartons and store it so I can water my sensitive houseplants that don't like the local tap water. - Saving cooking oil for reuse in a jar on the counter, if we do any deep-frying. - I save literally every container that includes a lid, and all packaging materials that can be reused (cardboard boxes, air pockets, bubble wrap, large plastic bags etc.). It's made moving home in the past much cheaper and less stressful, although I do find myself with a cupboard full of what most people would think of as trash. Basically, I think a lot of my habits make people think I'm an obsessive hoarder.
I have often wondered if it's okay to reuse cooking oil! Sometimes I'll just leave a pan with some oil in it and reuse it later in the day. Good to hear that other people have had the same thought.
With the exception of buying a large bicycle specific box to put in cargo I have never bought anything moving boxes or packaging paper. I would go to local supermarkets and get cardboard boxes from them, ask family and friends to keep old newspapers and other packaging materials and collect it, use that and when you are done moving you can recycle all of those materials.
The soap reminds me of what my mother does. You know the net-like bags that fruits and vegetables often come in? She saves them, cuts into threads, knits a tight bag, puts soap scraps in, and gets a VERY effective self-soaping scrub/sponge! There's also almost no textile waste in the household. Usable clothes etc are given to other people directly, torn and broken ones are reused as rags, towels and mops
Those net bags? I cut the metal clip, save the nets, take a large one, knot one end, stuff the smaller bags in it, knot the other end. Scrub your sink with 'new scrubber'
I love how you use and do all these things without shame. I sometimes feel like an absolute freak when I use a cotton tissue instead of a disposable one. Why are some people still so judgmental about acting more sustainably 🤦♀️
Yes for cotton tissues! I've got mine from a neat thrift shop, they're lovely soft as they're old. Younger people can look at them funny, but I've gotten approving nods from granpas who use them as well :D Most of the zero waste habits were just the norm back in the day.
Well, I keep a box of disposable Kleenex for guests. Maybe they're concerned if the washing water was hot enough, or if enough soap was used. Though I also use cotton gauze double cloth for nose cloths, there's none better for quick absorption. It's also hemmed, they're sold as reusable cheesecloths on Amazon.
I so relate to 1 (shower bucket), 2 (hair ties), 4 (reusables), 5 (cleaning agent), 8 (reusing jars), 9 (no paper towel) and 10 (thrifted linens etc) especially. Found hair ties for the win! Love my second hand socks, bras, sheets, towels etc ... people are so weird. I do have a bin in my bathroom... that is for guests and vacuum cleaner lint. I don't make veggie stock as have too little veggie waste and just give whatever I make to my worms (I have 3 homemade worm farms). I use my soaps til they're super thin and then smush them onto the next new soap. Other weird habits... - Most of the time I bring home recycling (the odd bottle or can) from when I'm out rather than using community bins (community bins are often contaminated, items have a higher chance of being recycled if taken straight to the recycling centre). - I carry a plastic bag on walks so I can collect littered rubbish and recyclables. Occasionally I find a great towel or pair of socks. Found tradies gloves are good for gardening... they don't have to match. - I have made my own underwear from thrifted fabric. - I collect and reuse sticky tape by removing it from parcels and placing reusable bits on the inside of the pantry door for reuse. A small business owner in my community is going to come every few months to collect any boxes, bubble wrap or plastic bags to reuse. - I wash and reuse all sorts of plastics including cling film and snap lock bags I acquire at other people's houses in efforts to reduce food waste. Small bits of cling film are good for wrapping individual cake portions for freezing as work snacks. - I use nice looking rubbish (e.g. the shiny side of chip packets) as gift wrap. I use fabric or thread scraps as hobby fill (I have a bin specially dedicated to this in my craft room). - I continually reuse the same disposable gloves (they're good quality ones) and disposable plastic shower cap (lasts about 6 months) when colouring my hair. My dye comes in a cardboard box with an aluminium tube... only the small cap is plastic. - I usually have seed heads drying inside in containers for seed collection in the summer. -[not vegan] I get eggs from a friend who raises chickens on food scraps from an aged care home. I dry empty shells in my oven (save them in the fridge until using the oven) and then crush in a mortar and pestle to make grit to help my worms digest their food. - I use lipstick and lip glosses to the end by transferring the last 25% or so that's stuck in the tube to a small cosmetics container and applying with a finger. - A portion of my garage (storage room) is permanently dedicated to storing items I've acquired (mostly from friends and family) and plan to take to a local free market. The space stops these items from being thrown away. - I have 3 home made worm farms (made of food grade buckets with holes drilled into the base and sides) buried in my garden beds to near the top as a permanent in built system for turning food scraps to garden fertiliser. - I have a bin in my garage specially dedicated to scraps of paper and cardboard which are too small for recycling... and turn it into new paper several times a year - I keep a plain strong magnet on my fridge to test metal scraps for sorting into ferrous and non-ferrous metals for metal recycling (I have special plastic containers for ferrous and non-ferrous small metal scraps) - I find most of my makeup second hand on depop
I do the lipstick one to the extent that the pot lipstick has become my favourite colour as it combines all the similar ones I'm drawn to. The only difference is that I apply with a retractable brush from superdrug for precision. And then just blur the over line on the Cupid's bow
I used cloth diapers, I thought if my mom and grandmother's did it without a washing machine and a dryer I can definitely do it. I have a washing machine, but no dryer. I did live in a country that has a lot of sunshine and never gets very cold and we also had 3 years of draught 😢. Drying the cloth diapers was never an issue 😊. I only had one child, but would have done it again. When she no longer needed them I resold them 😊
I love cloth diapering! I feel like my circle finds it fairly normal. Most of my friends do it, have tried it, or are respectful of it. Yesterday I was at a meet and greet and one older man complimented all our cloth diapers hang drying (we currently live in a marina) and an older woman overheard and praised me and said she also cloth diapered her kids. What's funny is how even people who cloth diaper are super wary of cloth wipes. Like...it's literally exactly the same thing. You explain that and then they are like, "Oh, yeah, I guess so."
I used cloth diapers for both my girls in the early 1990s. Instead of wipes, I had a spray bottle with baby oil and water to clean bottoms and a small cloth wipe to dry them. Bonus was we were motivated to toilet train early 12-18 months and both girls were only wearing an overnight diaper before 2 years of age. I scarcely use a dryer. Disposable diapers and wipes are incredibly wasteful and toddlers seem to be still in them beyond 3 years old.
As someone who has worked in a charity shop a.k.a thift store for going on 6 years, I promise our stuff is clean! We won't sell visibly used underwear, anything stained or damaged. Buy the pants!
I do most of these haha but my weirdest one is I dont have paper tissues in my house, so whenever someone is over and wants to blow their nose I just hand them a handkerchief 😬 People really get bothered by that one 😂
My grandkids love my red wigglers. No pets allowed in my building, so it's our (grandkids and my) little "secret" because the worms don't make noise to annoy the neighbors.
My zero waste habit that has definitely gotten comments from friends and strangers is bicycling in the middle of summer (I live in central Texas). It can get up to 43+° Celsius (110+ Fahrenheit) here in the middle of summer. People are floored that I willfully get on my bike when it’s that hot out.
I live in a small apartment and not alone sometimes I feel bad for throwing away things I know I can reuse but at the same time it feels overwhelming to accumulated so much stuff 🤷🏽♀️
I understand. Do what you can, not what you can't. When I lived a year in a dorm, with a shared bathroom for 10 people, it was really hard. Start small with rags and stock making. Don't waste any food. Use a canvas bag for shopping. Thrift where you can. Shifting the mindset that you can do something is what matters.
You can often advertise clean jars and containers on Marketplace and people pick them up when making jams. I also dropped a lot of things (cardboard rolls, plastic bottle tops, cans) at a preschool for them to use for crafts.
I do many of the ones you mentioned! I also pick up clothes on the street. I live near a school and kids drop sweaters, t-shirts etc. I wash them and take them to cloth swaps (I dont have kids). Oh and cloth dipers-hear me out. Moms drop perfeclty clean cloth dipers they use to swaddle. And they are usually super cute with. I use them for kitchen towels and for my dog
I found a cloth diaper my mom had retained from my children's days in her drawer of kitchen towels a few years ago. My baby is 42 now, so you can see the life expectancy of a good cloth diaper!
I love using food jars as cups! My mum is horrified, and everytime she comes over she makes a snipe about us drinking out of jars...when I asked her, why is it any different to drinking out of a glass she said because the top was too round 🤔 A few years ago we moved back to the UK, with only a few suitcases and had to start again in a rental with nothing - I would say at least 90% of our belongings, furniture, clothing, household items are 2nd hand from friends or family, fb marketplace free or cheap, vinted and charity shops. I've completely trained my mind out of the need for "new".
german person here, my parents did most of the things mentioned in the video, the shower bucket, second hand clothes, reusable rags, cloths, very low waste & all and I try to continue as much as possible living alone. I never missed a paper towel or anything non reusable. I draw the line at the hairties and definitley no second hand underwear + socks, except I know the person who wore it before :D
We use paper towels for grease. Cloth for everything else. Did you know that the purpose of napkin rings is so you don't have to wash 21 napkins a week per person? Everyone has a distinctive napkin ring. You get to decide when you want a clean napkin and put it in the laundry to be washed.
I have been doing this since I was a child! And even now when my adult children are over, they still get the napkin ring they had as a kid - usually with the same napkin in it from the last family dinner because it’s only been used once. My younger daughter made some paper mache rings when she was young which we use for guests
I save up all those sale papers that come in the mail and use them to sop up most of the grease in a spill. Then I wipe it up with a bar rag and immediately put that into a bowl with detergent. Voila! Grease gone.
@@Wishimight_explore I've made decorative napkin rings with rings from my keurig eco pods--only the top ring is plastic. Now I'll have to make some colored ones so everyone in the family can have their own.
The idea of washing the napkin after a single meal is odd. At home we wash them weekly, unless they are superstained (which is not common). Granny also uses a secondary paper towel because she has coordination issues and her eating can be messy, we get the sturdier ones and she often uses the same for 2-3 meals, unless she has soup (which makes the extra mess).
I think the one thing I would't buy second hand is a matress. I did use the one that was left in my first student apartment but once I moved out, I bought my own for long-time use. I would buy a refurbished mattress though.
I got one from a graduate student- I'm in a university town and tons of people move in and out every year. So one bought a new mattress, was in town for two years, then moved across the country and selling to me was WAY better than shipping it.
The only time I’ve gotten a secondhand mattress was when my ex moved to my town and we saw an old couple offer one on Nextdoor. It was basically brand new because they had bought it for their guest room and were moving out of their house into a condo. They were absolute neat freaks too though. I wish these cases were more common though ):
I’m definitely going with normal rather than weird, but sometimes I do cop some flak about it. A lot of my friends find it gross that I use hankies rather than tissues but I hate tissues for sooo many reasons. And I don’t care how many people think I’m weird when I walk down the supermarket aisle and say to myself - I don’t need to buy that, I don’t need to buy that, I don’t need to buy that…..
Do a thing because its eco-friendly: People think it's weird and get all political (wtf?) Do the same thing to save money: People are proud of you Only people you can't convince are some people who have grown up with lots of money. That and many younger Gen Z somehow don't get it for either reason. In the current political climate, I usually tell people "Do this to save money", they'll actually listen to you instead of if one is being a "preachy eco person". My asian aunties do almost all of your habits btw and they'll judge if you DON'T collect shower water.
a lot of gen z actually cares about the environment more than older people though. older generations are literally the ones who ruined earth and a bunch of yall don’t even ‘believe’ in climate change
It's true. Even I have been guilty of it. A lot of my sustainability habit started when I was looking for various tricks for saving money. Eventually I became more motivated by the sustainability aspect and kept doing all the habits even when I didn't need to save the money as badly anymore. But frugality is often an easier entry point for people. Maybe because it feels like less of a "political philosophy?" I have no idea. Most people can understand wanting to save a little money, even if they care nothing about environmental concerns.
Funny how conservatives really don't want to conserve anything: water, energy, wildlife, trees... I have a very conservative cousin who will LOSE IT if you start a new habit to be a responsible citizen of the planet, but if you tell him it saves you money, he wants to adopt the habit.
As a once impoverished person, I have used just about everything, second-hand. As a no longer impoverished person, I’m unwilling to use such mattresses and sheets. But I do turn old sheets into pajama pants for my family! Love to sew.
I used to buy used mattresses, but once the bed bug epidemic started, they made it illegal to sell used mattresses in thrift stores here in the US. I've bought used sheets, though.
I would not use a second-hand mattress from strangers (unless truly desperate for some reason) but sheets and other bed linens can be washed in hot water with soap and bleach, and then hung out in the sun to dry and "sun bleach". Nothing left to worry about once they have roasted in a hot afternoon sun (unless a bird fly-over forces you to start over from the beginning -- ha-ha!)
I also think people forget how people used to cook from the middle ages untill like, maybe 50 years ago and in hard times. Everything from vegetables was used to make broth or soup or reused as animal feed.
Reusables for sure: cutlery, straw, tiered Tiffin for doggie bags, cloth napkins, glass jars. I use soap/scraps in a mesh bag. But I don’t want other people to use it, and assume the feeling is mutual. So I also have hands-free soap dispensers. I think that not having a bathroom bin for guests - especially overnight guests - is, as you said, inconsiderate. And if friends “often” have to sneak into the kitchen with period garbage because a bathroom bin hasn’t been provided, maybe the zone actually is a bit judgmental and shaming 😬
So, after you use the cutlery and straw, how do you re-pack it into your bag? What is your system? I tried to have some small silverware for when they hand out samples at grocery stores, and I would lick it as clean as I could and then forget to wash it when I got home.
I just add a tiny soap scrape to the new soap bar. After a few washes, it fuses together. No waste. I am a little weird about buy soft furniture (couch, etc) secound hand. That is about difficult in cleaning and fear of bed bugs.
You can check for bedbugs easy! Ofcourse, check the topside first, but even if it looks fine, turn the piece over, have a flash light and check the seams underneath. Even if you don't see the bug, they leave their poop (brown blood smears) on the underside where they hide in the seams. If there's poop, use saran wrap to wrap the whole furniture tight if you can't get it out at once, and it should be chucked to landfill. Bedbugs are a health issue that's unfortunately not taken seriously enough everywhere, which leads to the spread. Personally I've had no issue, but I worked at a secondhand place which took in furniture so we needed to check them thoroughly because getting one infected piece to the storage area would've been a disaster as the bugs spread fast and are hard to get rid of. I've had second hand sofas, beds etc, with no problems. You just need to be careful and check, that's all.
I use soap leftovers as markers for my sewing projects because it is easy to wash them away and at voilá, it vanishes, after my new attire is finished.
Yeah! I was going to comment that I save shower & hand washing water to flush the toilet. Since living in the Middle East, where water was precious & scarce in the summer, I learnt to do this. I have a rectangular shaped Tupperware container (which lost its lid) in my sink. I find that you must clean both regularly as they get scummy. The one that freaks out friends, which I don’t do if they’re in the kitchen with me, is use a tea bag for a 2nd cup. That came from not liking strong tea but also saves money. 👍🏻
I could not use the shower bucket because I am a klutz and would likely break my leg tripping over it. It's hard enough to stay upright in my shower. LOL But I am fortunate enough to have a button on the shower head that turns off the water while I am shampooing or washing my body. I only use the water on to rinse. ♥
Whilst on walks, I always pick up empty unused dog waste bags lying on the flour ( people are always dropping them) and put them in my pockets for the next dog walk. I save money, and clean up the streets. People give me such weird looks lol. I also put a bucket in the shower saved so much water
Haha, yep, the shower bucket is familiar- I used to just keep the plug in during a shower (to my husband’s chagrin I called it shower droppings). I used the collected water to pre-rinse cloth diapers. Also, used reusable dish cloths, napkins and rags for cleaning- I’ve never purchased paper towels since I moved out of my childhood home 31 years ago, no sponges, no disposal menstrual products (I used a natural latex menstrual cup for 25 years until I hit menopause). And of course the jar saving- the best thing recently has been a waste free shop nearby that is a refillery for shampoo, dish soap, cleaners, etc. Most of the things I do is just adopting the frugal methods of the past. The things that people thought were weirdest were the menstrual cup and reusable diapers- I used them so long ago, it was just before it became a little more common. Mostly I didn’t advertise what I was doing because there was no changing peoples’ minds and I didn’t need their judgement. Stay weird out there!
I do all of those things, too! I don’t buy used socks, but mostly because I can’t find any secondhand. I also don’t use toilet paper. I have a bidet and use cloths specifically for that. I gross people out that I wash them with my normal clothes and not in a separate load. 🤷🏻♀️
Reusable toilet paper cloths (also great on periods for hygiene clean and dry especially if you don’t have access to a bidet or to dry after), scrap paper to write, old letters only written on one side for A5 binder note taking. Small left over unused parts of paper for note jotting instead of sticky notes. Make storage from cardboard boxes. Scrap cloths in strips for tying cables. Face mask elastic frozen then tied to make lightweight elastic bands good for small cables. Saving metal twist ties from products for holding things for storage (keeps needles together when they don’t have a casing of their own eg-bamboo needles. Old toothbrushes for cleaning-good on silicone edges on reusable coffee cups and sipper spout including the lids. Reusing pump jars after thorough wash and air dry. If you have food grade soft plastic that is big enough from products that couldn’t be avoided you can reuse these for freezer storage by washing them thoroughly drying followed by air dry rather than just throwing them out.(don’t put in microwave or dishwasher) Grated soap for washing (this was an old method fallen out of use. lux soap flakes for clothes washing was once a popular brand you can also uss this to make liquid hand soap with well boiled water or distilled water for longer term use. Also great for dishes and saves a ton of money. Just melt in a bucket of hot water. Must be pure soap or stated on product for such use. not standard soaps. Can add eucalyptus, lemon Myrtle or peppermint oil if desired. In Australia cheep widely available options are sunlight soap and sard wonder soap for stain removal. If you have access or can afford other flora and fauna , go for zero or some pharmacies will have products. There is also zero co for more conventional, sensitivity and other products that are harder to get in reusable packaging for those who do need it. Sorry gitty-Marie for that Australians have a hard time with cost of living and packaging options. Got a little off topic. Frugal and zero/low waste works together. Maybe all the ideas people use stated here can inspire others to give it a try. As an international community it’s amazing what can be considered normal in one country and not another but also help people on all income levels to achieve better standards of repurposing or creating low cost alternatives that can help save money and the environment. A lot of environmental friendly products in Australia are questionable, out of budget or inaccessible for low income people even those on better incomes at the moment. Zero waste is for everyone and looks different for everyone. For a while the internet forgot that fact. Some of it may look weird or ugly but that is doable for everyone that can be adapted to individuals needs. Thank you Gitty-Marie
Wow, this is nothing short of amazing! Thanks for all of the good ideas; I need to try some of these. I did just rescue a pump bottle from the trash (it was on the top and I'll wash it thoroughly) based on reading your comment!
Yep, I save receipts for shopping lists or notes (write on the back). Haven't thrown away a toothbrush in years as they're good for cleaning and painting. Fellow Aussie here!
You have validated me! I stopped believing in 'normal' or 'weird' a long time ago when I started doing many of the things you are doing. Yes, my family thought I was weird and may still think so. I don't care. Keep up the good work! I love your videos!
When people are freaked out about second hand stuff, I ask them if they've ever been in a hotel. If yes, then yes.. you did rub your face where someone else ass used to be. It tends to shift the perspective a little bit, or disgust them about other things they never thought about haha. There are proper ways to clean thoroughly and disinfect textiles and different surfaces. You just have to know them 😅. Second butt diapers, swimwear also for the adults in the house 🙃
I do a similar thing with hair ties- only instead of putting them in the freezer, I put them in the pocket of a pair of pants that's about to go through the wash.
These all seem quite normal to me. The one that I do that is definitely outside of the norm is that I cloth diapered my kiddos (normal) and used cloth baby wipes (semi normal) and also used cloth wipes in place of toilet paper (pee only). We've been done with diapers for more than a year, but we still use the cloth wipes. Honestly, I love them!
I still have the cloth wipes from when my daughter was born, she is now 9 and a half, we still use the same wipes 😊, if she is not showering she cleans her private parts with the same wipes that I used when she was a baby. I wash towels, wipes and bed linen at a high temperature to sanitize it. The rest of the laundry is usually on cold 👍.
Love the shower bucket! I store my watering can next to the bath tub to catch the cold water until it gets warmer and use it for my plants. Putting a bucket inside is next level but I may try that as well! Not zero waste but still rewarding: I bring home all the disposable napkins that restaurants hand out (I like to use them for pre-cleaning very dirty pans and pots so I don't get all of the dirt into my washcloth) instead of letting them throw them away.
Same! I wonder, do people use straws when they make a drink at home? Is this a thing? When I was a kid, the corner of a hanky sticking out of a teacher or librarian’s sleeve was absolutely the norm. I assume it was the sleeve because they wore dresses that didn’t have any pockets. 😂
My friends have gotten used to these from me. I have a huge vintage handkerchief collection and I use them all the time. So much better -- and prettier -- than disposable tissues. Plus they work well if you need to wipe something off like a shopping cart, bench, etc.
My husband and I always refuse straws when out. We always wonder if the ones that get set on the table that are wrapped but unused just get tossed. I wish straws were by request only .
In the freezer, I use jares as well (at -18°C), for meet, soup, vegetables, fruits... but don't fill them, you must leave free space overwise they could explose... Easy to label with a paper tape on the lid, easy to clean as well. For the bread in the freezer, I use beeswraps that I make myself with old fabrics (old bed sheets bougth second hand, used and too worn ;), so I can have big ones to wrap the bread well to avoid crumbs. Reduce plastic in the freezer is so satisfying...
I think anything second hand can be washed! That said I usually don’t buy bedding, etc. that said - once I wear out a set of sheets - dress time!! They make lovely house dresses, skirt mock up material, etc. I’m also learning how to turn clothing into yarn so I’ll be able to give all fabric items new life once used. Love all the items on your list!! ❤
As someone who uses disposable products with regularity but is often tight on money, I actually appreciated a lot of the habits you laid out. I might try a few of them (and go back to doing some like the rags instead of paper towels). I very much like the idea of spending less and having fewer bags of garbage to throw out, even if I don’t feel the need to be 100% minimal.
I use non aluminum baking soda as deodorant. 3$ a bag that lasts about 3 years. Only need to apply once every 3 days, use a powder puff. Extremely effective and no rashes etc 🇨🇦❤️
I sewed my prom dress from old bedsheets. I got the occasional weird looks from people when they realized. It's cloth that goes for a fourth the price of actual sewing cloth! Why wouldn't I want to take advantage of that?
These did not freak me out! I was happy to hear someone doing many of the same things I do at home! We buy whatever we like second hand except undergarments. I find the best pillowcases and flat sheets. Many times I sew with the flat sheets. We have found binders for homeschooling and so many treasure, curtains,blankets shoes. It all gets washed and line dried. I've taught my children to love second hand! Thank you for this cheerful, fun video you are so much fun! ♥
I don't have a shower bucket, but I do use the mop water to flush the toilet. I also pick up hair ties! I wash them in a mesh lingerie bag in the laundry. I can't even remember the last time I bought hair ties. Whenever I go out to eat, I bring my own container for leftovers, and I carry a reusable straw, too.
Making trash bricks and hoarding things like empty detergent bottles because I have needles to dispose of every week and I put the wrappers in one container and the sharps in the other. I just stuff the trash down until I can’t close the bottle or jar, then throw it away. (Clean trash, not like food wrappers, unless you wash and dry them off first, don’t want mold or anything).
0:00 Intro 1:36 Shower Bucket 2:34 Street Hair Ties 3:46 Veggie Stock 4:39 Reusables 5:20 Cleaning Agent 6:02 No Bathroom Bin 7:02 Soap Scraps 7:58 Reusing Jars 9:02 No Paper Towel 9:56 2nd Hand Textiles 11:20 Outro
A lot of these are things I learned from my mom or grandmother so they’ve been around and part of normal life for a long time. In the southern US we were always drinking from jars, saving jars etc. same with rags, every old shirt or sock turns into a rag haha! Saving kitchen scraps for soup, making our own cleaners, using soap slivers, also depression-era things we learned from our parents/grandparents. Waste not, want not. The only thing that’s “weird” to me is no trash bin in the bathroom and picking up hair ties from the street.
Ooo! I actually can find some like-new to new dress pants at thrift stores for work, but usually buy new towels, etc. Glad there's someone for everything. Great video, Gittemary!
Late to comment, however people think I'm nuts when I explain to them that our recycling company throws away any paper items smaller than about 3x5 inches, nope too small, so its going in the landfill. What I do, firstly I disassemble any small boxes/packaging to see if they are now 3x5, those go in our recycling bin; if that doesn't make it recyclable, I cut it up into very small pieces and place in a paper bag. When that bag is filled (not tightly), I fold the top over, staple it closed (recyclable tape??), and toss it in our garbage. It does sound crazy, but if it's going into the landfill anyway, at least it will decompose faster and definitely faster than if it had been tossed into a plastic trash bag!
I do a lot of these things, too! I save and melt down soap scraps, use cloth napkins, keep metal straws in my car, reuse glass jars and have no problem buying second hand items. My parents and grandma taught me to be frugal when I was young. I do make my own stock from chicken bones but haven't done it from veggie scraps. Thanks for the tip! I also do keep a roll of paper towels for certain things like cleaning up grease, but cringe inwardly if a guest uses a wad of them to simply dry their hands! (Especially since I always keep clean hand towels right by the sink!) I do keep a bin in the downstairs bathroom, but it's for when I scoop the kitty litter! There's a bin right outside the bathroom door in the kitchen, so I just use that, but some guests have gotten an unpleasant surprise if they lifted the lid to put something in. I really should put a sign on it! I haven't done the shower bucket, but I do try to be conscientious of water use. I have my elementary school students pour the extra water they don't want to drink into a pitcher to water the plants. They think it's a great idea! I also started using a homemade cleaner made from vinegar, water and essential oils (lavender for antibacterial quality, orange for fragrance) after a student started reacting to the chemical spray I used to use. It's cheaper and much more earth and kid friendly! Thank you for your tips! It's good to know there are others out there trying to do their part!
we buy paper towels but only 1 roll at a time and it lasts close to a year! I feel like there are only occasions to use them once in a blue moon with some very greasy mess to clean up. 99% of the time it's cloth, washable rags, towels and napkins. When I see the big packages of 6+ rolls I think it's just so wild to imagine using that up in a few months!
I tried to do a shower bucket but our shower is small and my husband couldn’t stand it 😅 Honestly, all these things seemed super normal to me now. I do or have tried all of these things.
The one of pickup hair ties is a habit I learned from you Gittemary, I think from a video you did last year ❤ I don't use paper napkins, only cotton ones, I buy secondhand everything (but underwear), whatever is not recyclable by the local council, I put it away and once or twice a year I take it to a recycling facility near my town.
I knew a lot about zerowaste before I started watching your channel a couple of months ago. When I saw your jars I felt so inspired, because me and my bf we moved to a new flat and I was thinking how to organize the kitchen space. We had like 10 jars or something and I got that I can use it for storage and not to spend money on containers. Since then we store cereals, dried beans, dried fruit in them. Couple of days ago I messaged to our residential complex chat asking for unwanted jars, and they gave me a bunch of them. So I also picked ginger and onions in some of them. Since jars are clear, you can see how much food is left. I love opening my cabinet and see what we have in excess to cook it and not let it stay too long unused. They also look much more cozy that souless plastic containers. And what's also important is that you're able to get them for free in different sizes and shapes. Also we don't buy in bulkshops. Actually, we buy in plastic, cause there's not much choise in my place. So when we open a package of something and there's about a half of it left, we put it in jars. It reduces the waste laying on my shelves, so they're always clean. I can continue singing love songs the my precious. So, you know, I LOVE JARS.
In my school, during the lunch, i wait at the window where you turn in your leftovers, and I catch (nicely) kids that are disposing big leftovers (like, still in one piece) and I finish those
I have used many of your ideas for a very long time! When I go thrifting, I always look for linens….especially table cloths and napkins! Most people “save them for a special occasion “. They’re so much nicer than paper and hardly, if at all, used. It’s a total win for me!
Just a tip for people who don’t want to do the Frankensoap thing. Soap sticks to itself so just get a new bar of soap and the sliver of soap and put the sliver on top of the new bar, flat side to flat side, and they just stick together as they dry. Eventually they completely melt together as you use it.
I have starting buying almost all of my clothes second hand. Even for sewing, I will Upcycle items into something that I will wear. I find items that might have A hole or a stain on it, but I'm able to alter it or use parts of it combined with another item to make a new piece. Or depending on where the hole is, say like on the pocket of jeans, you can embroider flour flowers over it or something So, you don't lose stuff when you put it in your pocket lol. I also have a denim comforter that I absolutely love. It is so old. The material has become very thin and getting holes in it. Joe, I have saved scraps from cut off jeans or flannel shirts that have ripped and things like that. And so I'm slowly patching over all the holes to keep this comforter because the backing and the stuffing in it are perfectly fine, just the top has worn then. So basically making a new top out of old clothing. And then it's more unique which is my style anyway
Love these! I am going to set up a soap scraps jar 👌 such a good idea. I recently stopped using toilet paper, and use bidet and dry with some old face cloths that can be just washed in the laundry. Feels more hygienic.
Well if people think it’s weird with second hand bed sheets and towels they should avoid hotels 😁
I was thinking the same thing until I remembered a reel where someone used disposable sheets over hotel sheets😅😳
have the same feeling when people don’t like second hand cutlery and tableware… ah so you just don’t go to restaurants? 😅
Right? Also, guests in my house have used my towels and bedsheets. It's not like they're just for me. I don't get it
I have gotten some high quality sheets and towels in Goodwills in higher end communities.
And hospitals! Avoid those in general but yeah, used linens, used flatware, etc
When I have lunch duty at school I will take all the fruit and veggie scraps home with me to compost. When kids asked what I was doing I told them I have worms and I feed them scraps. They all think I have pet worms and want me to name them 😅Now I have kids bringing in scraps from home so they can help "feed my worms".
We had ants in our compost bin and my nephew thought we were feeding them when adder food waste.
Ohhh lovely !! Also bringing scraps from work to my worms !🐛
Once I’ve told a date that I lived with six plants and 120 worms. He remarked how busy bath time should be 😂 got to my heart 😊
This comment is so wholesome and sweet 😊
Omg love it
Am I the only one who just adds soap scraps to the next bar of soap? With the warm shower water, they just kind of melt together and then the scraps don’t got to waste. When the new bar becomes too small, you just repeat the process.
I thought it was the default way :D
We do that!
no you're not and it used to be the norm.
I didn't realise this could even be considered weird. I tend to use a different smelling soap for the new one so for a few days you have a kind of Frankensoap 😅
I have a small mesh bag and soaps that become small goes into the bag.. I use the soap scraps as my soap!!😊
Since I bought a big package of zip-lock bags for travel about 10 years ago, I have been washing them and re-using them. A few friends thought it a silly waste of time, as they hardly cost anything. >But it is the plastic I want to diminish.
I rewash mine, but I won't use the ones meat were frozen in for food. I wash them with bleach and use them to store things gardening things.
It drives me crazy when people bring up cost in conjunction to zero waste because it has nothing to do with what you can and cannot afford. I do the same thing and people roll their eyes at me.
We wash and re- use plastic bread bags!
We do the same.
Hope you know that the plastic has been degrading all this time especially in the heat. Happy Cancer
I consider myself a minimalist until I get a nice, empty sauce jar that I just can’t throw away…
I got boxes of jars that I just don't want to recycling.
@bearsef saaaaame 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
😂😂😂 me too. My husband keeps asking me to clear out the glass jar collection 😂. I find them so useful. I also keep glass bottles especially smaller ones for homemade piri piri sauce 😊, my husband makes it.
My husband calls my jars my "crow brain jars" 😂 but I used them for organizing my tea cabinet so they actually have been helpful!
That is so real 😂🫙
The shower bucket was a huge part of growing up in Australia during the Millennium Drought - it's such a good idea
Me too. Always have shower buckets. Grew up in a drought - lifelong habit.
I remember doing that at my grandparents house, they only had tank water so you can't be wasting it on flushing toilets in a drought
In California with the drought my grandparents had us start doing it, then my parents adopted it, and even though we are no longer in drought I still have one.
It’s wonderful.
I do the shower bucket in the summer to water my plants, curs down on the water bill too
My mum collects the grey water from the washing machine to water plants/flush the toilet, even though our dams are full at the moment, she still does that out of habit.
My first thought was to be grossed out by secondhand bras/sheets/socks/towels, but then I realized it's because I'm only ready to get rid of any of those things when I have used them to death. It still shocks me that people are giving those things away when they're still good to use.
My very favourite bra was from a thrift store... might have been tried on but it was in new condition when I got it. Cost me $2. Retail price is $160.
This! I have the same problem thinking about second hand jeans. The only times I’ve ever gotten rid of jeans is when they had holes from chafing or had been bled through/bleach stained when I still had my period. So buying them second hand still is strange for me and they’re the one thing besides panties that I don’t buy second hand
People do have size changes that can affect undergarments. For everything else, they may just have changes in what they need. (also sometimes the owner passes away)
I've been both people: as a student, I was looking forward to the days when I could buy all new things even though the old ones hadn't worn out. That was part of a successful life, wasn't it? I was going to upgrade things and give my room a makeover and make it look more grownup when I got my first job in my field of study.
I feel like this post-traumatic-growth version of me is very different from my 20-year-old self: my plan now involves living really simply, close to nature, and being more like the witch at the edge of the village who wears hand-dyed handmade clothes and smells slightly of woodsmoke all winter. Inspired by Robin Greenfield, I'm slowly switching to a mostly-natural-fibre wardrobe (there's a certain pride in wearing things out... but not shedding microplastics) and I tend to shop at the thrift store unless I can't find what I need there.
Earth sister life style... for awhile in my early career period I forgot and disconnected. In childhood we were poor and made do. I resented not having new stuff. Didn't realize that we were also being minimal consumers. As a teenager I got into Mother Earth magazine lifestyle and embraced Natural Lifestyle. Now I am old and comfortable being thrifty and stubborn about what goes into, on, and around me.
I never understood why people have issues with second hand fabrics. Underwear and swimwear I can understand, but stuff like bed linens, towels, blankets? How do these people survive at hotels, spas, or visiting friends and family? We've all slept in someone elses bed, used towels that aren't ours, borrowed clothes or even tried on clothes in stores that other people likely have tried on before us. I don't get why it's only icky when it's being purchased.
I know!🤷 It's just being difficult. You wash those items and you are good to go. I pretty much buy all of our clothes second hand and I hand wash everything when I get it, I want to make sure that the colour is not going to bleed, and I seldom find that the clothes are dirty. I have done the same with new store items and those are dirty in comparison, they have been through many hands before you buy them and you don't know what else. Just wash the clothes new or not and you will be fine
Exactly !! Even though it’s supposedly “New” in the store probably 30 people have tried on the panties at Victoria’s Secret!! it’s not really new
@@Ilovevintage77Or even returned.
@@anaalves3658 We do have to wash the heck out of everything here - because it all comes from the thrift store smelling like Gain. Scented laundry detergent always gives me a rash (Gain and Tide in particular). It also takes at least three washes to get the smell out! 🫤
Some people believe that items hold energies. So the energy of whoever owned the object beforehand could effect your life. I think there are ways to clear it though.
If you phrase it as "remember when they used to..." Or "back when great grandma was living they did ..." They will usually accept it but, it you say eco friendly they criticize. Make them think about what people did before the conveniences were invented. Conveniences are lazy friendly not eco friendly.
I don't think us vs. them mentality, or hiding the things that are important to us is healthy. We should be proud of the eco-friendly things we do. Likewise we should give grace to those that are not doing what we are. They might have a good reason we know nothing about. For example, Single-use/convenience items are definitely overused and are a massive problem, but calling them or people who use them lazy or stupid isn't the solution either. Someone going through depression, burnout or recently had surgery may not have the energy, ability or support to clean dishes or take a shower. They may rely on paper plates and baby wipes to get them through that time in their life. They still deserve a clean house and body. So they shouldn't be condemned for surviving, just like we shouldn't be made to hide because we are choosing to do something good for the environment.
@@ruth370👍🥰👍
I just say "Oh, we've always done this in my family. We've always been very frugal."
'Eco friendly' means 'unwelcome change' to people. Someone telling them what to do. They don't want that. Even if it's better for them & the environment. If you say 'like grandma did it' they're being reminded of their childhood indoctrination that what old people did for ages is automatically 'good' & needs to be worshipped without a second thought (even if these folks have been doing the wrong thing for centuries) bc mommy told them so. Here it doesn't matter if it's a stupid & abusive practice. They will worship anyways bc that's what they have been conditioned into. Humans are absolutely irrational.
This is true. If you say "organic food" everyone in my area rolls their eyes or scoffs. They think of it as something new and hippie. I have to remind them that food used to all be organic. That their great-grandparents and maybe even their grandparents ate organic food.
I live in a coastal town in Australia, which gets many tourists over summer. You'll be amazed at how many good quality beach towels people forget to take home. You won't be surprised that my family now has a great supply of beach towels.
😂😂😂
Sounds amazing! haha
Turn those babies into bedspreads, napkins, towels, shopping bag, tablecloths, ect.....
Kitchen towels & wash rags
@@pjolevenick1312 People take their good towels. I wash them and use them as towels. They're always too good to upcycle. I actually turn old t-shirts and fabric remnants from other projects as bags.
Thank you for this. My niece had a spill at our house once and I brought a rag that had been my child's t-shirt. She asked, what's that? I answered, it was a t-shirt and now it's a rag. She silently watched me clean up the spill, it worked very well. There was never any discussion about it afterwards. This is how I was raised and continue to live.
I've used my old , discarded clothing items to pack crockery and glassware when moving house .... now they have been repurposed by the family as bedding for rescue animals.
My clothes have a cycle: good clothes; work/studio/gardening clothes; rags; garden ties for tomato plants 😂
I grew up with grandparents who grew up in the Great Depression in U.S., so none of this sounded weird to me. It sounded normal!
I thought the same, this doesn't sound weird.
Yes in Australia also this life was very common until the late 70s when plastics really took over.
My Dad grew up during the depression and he saved his aluminum foil and had a ball of rubber bands. When he passed I found a pair of Levi Jeans that were mostly duct tape, as he just kept patching the holes, he must of had those jeans 30 + years!
Yes! My grandmother (born in 1901 in Bayou La Batre, Alabama) saved everything: rubber bands, jars, bottles, old cloth for either quilting or cleaning rags, usable socks to darn, a coffee can for reusable bacon grease on the back of the stove, empty cans for mixing paint or holding turpentine or water for art projects, etc. She found dozens of ways to use what we would consider "waste" today. She even taught us how to make beautiful Christmas candles using old milk cartons packed with crushed ice, and crochet items using unraveled yarn from worn out sweaters. I seem to remember making a rag rug with her once, using braids made from long strips of scrap fabric. She made monkey dolls from old hunting socks, too. Compost and worm food, of course. Everything was used up and what little bit of trash she had left was burned in a fire.
My mom was born in 1925, and she would not have batted an eye at any of these things. They were just normal things to me when I was growing up. I thought everyone had food scrap bowls or bottles, reusable menstrual products, a huge collection of repurposed bottles, paper bags, rubber bands, plastic bags, and foil. I didn't think anything of the fact when she would have us very carefully open presents so that the wrapping paper, bows, ribbons etc. , could be reused for years. I don't remember having second-hand sheets, but bath towels, cleaning rags, or curtains, as well as many kitchen items, were definitely bought second-hand or handed down from friends and family who no longer had a use for them. The water saving bucket was normal, too. Anything you used water for that wasn't filled with cleaning products was used to water the flower garden or vegetable plots.
I started using "family cloth" during covid. There was a time when we were short on money and I made my cleaning solutions (Vinegar and Dawn). I made a lot of my own cloth period/incontinence pads and then found a seamstress who makes beautiful ones, much better than mine! I save plastic bags to take to the recycle bin at the grocery store, as well as the other things that can't be thrown in our recycle bin for pickup. Several times a year there is a plastic recyling day at the local grange. They take any of the odd numbered things and take them to the recycler for you! I have always saved leftovers in the freezer until I have enough to make a stew or soup. My husband is now at home on hospice and I had to give up a lot of reusing and recycling because of his illness. It hurts my heart to throw away so many disposable things. But I try my best!! I am a beginning quilter and I thrift most of my fabrics. I am 71 and I remember the very first "Earth Day", it made a great impression on me to try and do right by Mother Earth.
I am a retired chemotherapy nurse. I totally understand your controversy over having to deal with so much disposable waste after many years of reusing and recycling. For those who do not know, medical equipment/waste must be disposable to prevent serious contamination/infections in patients now and in the future. At the hospitals where I have worked, our secretaries were fantastic about recycling as much as possible mostly reusing charts and recycling paper.
I do a soup bag in my freezer as well! My grandmother and mother wrapped theirs in aluminum foil, because no zipper bags at that time. They saved meat in one package and veggies in the other. We had "mystery meat" veggie soup because there were all kinds of bits of meat in it.
@@OldLadyInFLAnd so yummy, I bet! I often take canned soup and add leftovers to it. Tastes better and goes farther!
I would like to know if the stores that have re-cycle bins for plastic bags really do re-cycle them. I've been told that is a fallacy. Anyone know the facts?
@@colleenlongardner2692 me too.
I have had a bucket in my shower for years. We also save all water from washing produce and use that water for the garden. People think it is odd that we have a bucket in the kitchen, but, oh well. Water is a precious resource, reuse when you can !
I also save gallon jugs and run water into them when I'm waiting for the hot water to come out of the faucet. Saves a lot of money! I have a shower bucket too, and I have buckets to catch rain water in my garden. Water is a precious thing that should not be wasted.
After a hot Epsom Salt bath (I'm old with sore muscles and joints), I save the water for my plants. The plants thrive.
Coming from someplace with an abundance of fresh water, I'm ashamed that I have not thought of these. There is never a guarantee that said abundance will still be here years from now.
I had a drawerful of pants which was overflowing with ones I had stopped wearing/never worn, because they were uncomfortable, too big, too small etc. I felt so wasteful just getting rid of them so I was trying to think of a way to reuse them and came up with the idea of cutting them up and making reusable makeup wipes. They were all cotton or bamboo fibre, nice and soft and clean. Such a win for me, and now I have about 100 washable wipes and a drawer of pants I actually wear and doesn’t drive me mad!
In the USA, pants means trousers. Do you mean underwear/panties/underpants? I would like to do this! Did you need to hem them, or just cut them in pieces. I'm wondering if they will unravel on the edges. Thanks for your help in advance!
@winamortenson9125 Yes, underwear/knickers! I cut the two sides so as to open them out, drew circles around a dish (about 4” diameter) - I got about one from the front and two or three from the back parts. Then I put two right sides together and machine sewed them together in a circle leaving a gap. Then I cut the edges in like you do on a curve in dressmaking so that it will lay flat. Turned them inside out and then ironed them flat (not strictly necessary) and tucked the gap section in, then sewed round the circle on the outside near the edge. You could just sew the little gap up instead of round the whole circle, but I got a bit fancy 😂. I did so many I had a little production line going and did about ten at a time, so I would be doing the cutting and turning through bits on my sofa in the evening when watching tv.x
@@Fancyfox24 That is SO helpful. Thank you!
Collecting old wrapping paper, tags and gift bags to reuse. So fun at Xmas working out what year it's from. Some are reused for 10plus years in my family
My grandma used the same gift boxes for YEARS. I remember a Dayton's box (a clothing store that closed in 2001) and one of the guys in the family would get clothes in the Motherhood box.
😂😂😂 I have been reusing the same Christmas and birthday gift bags for about 6/7 years, they still look new, so I am going to keep doing it. I also don't buy cards, my daughter makes them, with love,for everyone 😊❤
Yeah, I think last year we sadly realised that the last bit of wrapping paper from my grandma (she past away 20 ago) had its last appearance
If I don't have wrapping paper to reuse, then the old newspaper is used
I save small-ish boxes to use when wrapping oddly shaped Christmas stocking stuffers. My kids know that if they get a box of bandages or pain reliever, it's probably not really that!
We used to spend the day after Christmas ironing used wrapping paper.
In the US, before the pandemic, I told my husband’s family that I was getting a bidet. They didn’t just think it was weird; they MOCKED me! My husband said he would never use it. He tried it once and loved it, and is now talking it up to his family.
bidets are total game changers!!
I have never understood why so many Americans think bidets are gross. They are so useful!
Why is the US so behind other countries in this one aspect? Bidets are the best thing in the bathroom. Using paper to wipe is the grossest thing ever. I mean if a bird shits in your hand, do you just wipe it off or wash it off? (I'm not talking about 'you' you, just in general the people who think bidets are weird or gross for some reason)
I probably should get one when I was on my honeymoon in Italy. They were amazing.!!
Bidet all the way!
Another thing about secondhand sheets and quilt covers, think of them as just fabric, you can make so many different things out of ‘old’ sheets, clothes, tablecloths napkins couch covers, tea towels, curtains cushion covers, the list goes on.
Yes, I make crocheted rugs out of sheets. It's so satisfying ripping the sheets up! :D
I am so thankful that I did not have to grow the sheep or flax, or spin them, then weave them, then cut and sew them.
Aprons!
Calendars! We used to save them, to reuse when the same arrangement of days happens. (we have a page in a little book that has 12-14 different calendars, every possible arrangement, and do by that, but you can also find the info online) The calendars all had beautiful pictures, and we never used to write on them, so why not! Lol, once, an uncle was visiting, and happened to notice it. He looked startled and said whoa, we're back in 1968?! It was hilarious! We have a few still remaining in our stash, with the next cycled year written on the front!
I'm team picking up hair ties! Usually I soak them in some warm water with dish soap before putting it in the freezer (dried of course) which tends to freak people out, especially when I forget them in the freezer. My partner even points them out on the street for me to take home.
A thing my family has been doing for as long as I can remember is whenever some kind of plastic bag enters the home (I don't buy them and most of my family doesn't either apart from general waste bin bags) it is cleaned out and used again until it is no longer usable. Yesterday, when I went swimming, I put my wet swimwear in a plastic bag from a store that closed down in 2006.
I got mocked at work because they saw me with Geordie Girl plastic bag!! I don't know how old that bag is! I'm still using it.
You can put the dirty hair tie in a fabric bag / laundry net and throw it in the washing maschine 😉
Even brand new sheets and towels are second hand once they have been used. So guests can't really complain too much. I have bought second hand underwear, I'll buy anything second hand it can be sanitised or washed and the sun is a good natural sanitiser.
Aussie grandma
When the stores around started threatening "no plastic bags anymore" , I went to those recycle bins at grocery stores and took all the plastic bags people were leaving. With gloves on, I sorted through them and washed the good ones and I have 9 cubby drawers full of plastic bags, I use them over and over until they are done with. I should never run out! Uses: I clean houses and use them for dirty rags, then wash bag and reuse it. To carry out recycle, dump it and reuse the bag.
@@debbielanning5021That's pretty smart! 😀
I use old towels and rags instead of paper towels. I also crocheted myself a “sponge” that I can bleach and wash instead of buying sponges at the store.
Yes to all of those! I also second (3rd? 8th?) toilet cloth. I live off-grid and have a composting toilet so no bidet, but a wet cloth is the next best thing.
Maybe not so weird, I use a stainless percolator for coffee. No paper or plastic, nothing that can wear out or break, and great coffee.
I also use shipping boxes for (outdoor) container gardening. If the box is very large, I fill 1/3-1/2 of it with yard waste before adding garden soil for planting. At the end of the season, you’ve got a lovely mix of compost for the next spring.
When my kids were young, any meal get-together would have families bringing their own plates and cutlery. There were always plenty of jars to go around for drinks. Actually, when I was a child (in the 70s) we got yogurt containers to drink out of at friends’ homes with crunchier parents. They were also used for cleaning paintbrushes, starting plants, etc and just cleaned and reused for whatever next purpose came along. And “juice glasses” were actually glass jars that came with shrimp cocktail and spreadable cheeses!
All of these things go back generations. We’ve just misplaced the knowledge/habits.
Speaking of which, I’m not sure why people would think veg scraps for stock is terribly odd… that’s literally where stocks have always come from!
Oh, I still drink out of yogurt containers in the summer when I'm working in the garden. Yay, '70s hippue childhood!
Stainless steel percolator coffee here too!
I found an old one on ebay and I've been using it for years. The new ones are aluminum, and the ones advertised as stainless are not; they're a blend of something.
I don't like running boiling water through plastic and aluminum. Stainless is much healthier. And the coffee is so much better.
I use a french press because I keep the grounds for my compost !! My chickens eat any scraps (except citrus) …I reuse feed bags as weed barriers and make grocery bags out of them … we use microfiber towels and I too save all containers!
I got one for you. During the toilet paper hoarding time (covid era) I made what I call Quilted Potty Wipes. I sewed white cotton flannel cloth with cotton batting for quilting, inside. I use them strictly for peeing- TP for #2. I don't want to be gross! I'm one of those people who drink a lot of water- only water. I also don't go to work.
I use a basket to hold clean ones on top of toilet water tank and use a bathroom side waste can, next to the toilet, for dirty ones. Then I throw them in the load of whites, when doing laundry, to disinfect them. I have saved a lot of money over the past 4 years. It's just my husband and I so it's an easy one for me to do. Also, I'm post menopausal- no periods.
They work really well with my Bidet bottle I bough on Amazon. Feel clean and fresh.
Anyway, that's my unusual way to use much less TP.
I also made cloth napkins. You can usually find pretty cheap cotton cloth at fabric stores, or thrift shops.
I also do the soap bar/jar and bottle ideas, as you do. I'm going to start the shower bucket idea.
It's not for everybody, that's for sure.
I saw the Great Toilet Paper Fights coming and stocked ahead a bit, but I still felt a stab of panic when everyone was fighting and cops were confiscating items, but then I told myself, "Calm down, sister, you have plenty of towels, sheets, fabric, etc. You'll be Oh. Kay." I thought it sounded bad, wiping with cloths, but my Mom reminded me when we were babies, we wore cloth diapers, she rinsed them in the toilet and threw them in a bin and washed them when she got a load. I've seen videos where people use cloth and launder wipes on a daily basis as a reduce-waste kind of thing, and once reminded about cloth diapers, it didn't seem so bad anymore.
@@Melissa-gw4ee Yep! I also was a cloth diaper baby and so was my daughter. And it's healthier for us to use cotton. I do recall a couple of times the toilet got clogged by a forgotten diaper in the bowl. TP has lots of chemicals that we shouldn't be using down there anyway.
My mama used old towels for diapers & disposable ones for when we went out.
Yes to making the wipes. I found a queen size flannel sheet at the thrift store for 2.00 and made many wipes with it. Still using them after COVID ended and have saved so much money. Also use cloth napkins and a roll of paper towels lasts forever around here.
I also cloth diapered my babies and cut cloth wipes out of worn out t-shirts and sweatpants. We now use those cloth wipes as nose and face wipes. They are so much softer than paper tissues. They are a must for when someone in the family has allergies or a cold.
As a chilean most of this habits are just being a Latin mom 🫢. Here the classic things in every home is the pantry full of empty jars and containers of ice cream or yogurt (the Tupperware for someone you don't trust to bring back). The "paño de cocina" is the cloth rag you use to clean everything and the "mop" is the old t-shirt that started being clothes for going out to pijamas to rags to clean. And let's not forget the classic metal box of cookies that will always be the sewing box.
That’s very Caribbean as well!
😂😂😂 I'm Portuguese/ South African and I can relate 👍😁
I’m African and I relate 😅❤
I’m from Eastern Europe and that’s the same here 🙌🏼😀🫶🏽
Saaaaame I'm from Colombia
Reusable menstrual pads and cloth wipes always freak people out lol. It NEVER fails. You'd think it'd be less controversial than it is but, it's crazy cost effective and less wasteful so, I stay on team reusable hygiene products.
I claim an irregular cycle so it's either clean the pads or my clothes. Then folks are more understanding but I'm like??? Let's be real even disposable pads aren't perfect so there would still be a mess for some reason folks just forget that when they hear cloth pads.
@@TranquilityChiba I think people are just squeamish and a little soft to be honest lol. I mean before disposable pads there were cloth pads. Before there were disposable diapers, there were cloth diapers and they had to be cleaned or you couldn't use them. A time where not everything was done for you, and you had to do somethings yourself. I think the convenience of not having to do as much is what's made people so wasteful.
@@MrsZhang91011 I agree.
@@MrsZhang91011exactly 💯. I learn a lot from my parents, especially my mom, but I wish I had learnt more from my grandparents. They raised 8 kids, and they were frugal, I am sure that they would have so much valuable information to pass on to me and my daughter.
Something that could be encouraged as an in between/reusable could be menstrual disks! They weren't around when I still had cycles (hysterectomy for solving endometriosis agony means no more bleeding ) and cups didn't work for me (kept popping open early and hitting me full force in the bits, *ow*), but I've got a couple friends that love the disks for being easier to use. 💛
Shower bucket got me thinking... one of our showers takes a really long time for the water to get hot. I hate seeing all that cold water go down the drain. I'm really thinking about a bucket now! LOL
Using my kids’ kiddy pool water to water my plants rather than dumping it in one spot and purposefully rotating where they play so as they play, they water different plants throughout the week.
Yep, me too. And sometimes I add it to the rain collection barrel.
Hi from South Africa! You are making SUCH a difference, Gittemary! Thank you!!
After hearing a lady talk about (and show videos of) the damage plastic shopping packets cause to animals and especially our sea life, I took on the challenge to make a small change. I have now been plastic packet free for ten years!!
I have an indoor clothesline in my living room that drives my poor mom crazy with embarrassment when she visits: she always asks, “Why can’t it at least be in a back bedroom??” But I don’t heat most of my house in the winter so it makes more sense to dry clothes in the part that is heated. A clothes dryer came with my house but I have literally never used it and I store my cake carrier and extra jar lids in it. Also, on any given day you’ll usually find a few washed zipper lock bags hanging on the line drying, because I can’t bear to throw them away.
I also wash and reuse my zipper lock bags 😂 and I line dry my clothes in the enclosed balcony next to the dining room 😂😂😂😂. I pack it into the laundry room when we have company 😉, but the balcony space is bigger and sunny so much better for drying the clothes 😂
I hang dry all my clothes-linens included. This is quite out of the ordinary in the U.S. I don’t own a drying machine, I launder everything in cold water, and I wear my clothing multiple times before washing. The majority of my possessions, from jewelry to linens to furniture, to clothing and dishware-all secondhand. I have only ever purchased 1 item of new furniture in my life-a bed ( and mattress)
I don’t think I would buy a secondhand mattress or undergarments.
I’m a sewist, and all my fabrics are secondhand- I sew old draperies and tablecloths into aprons and such. I use the scraps to make handmade cards and tiny art 💕
I live alone and used to have a folding rack for drying hand washables until it fell apart. Now, I just hang my hand washables all over the bathroom and bedroom. I have to go to the laundrymat to wash clothes. I'll use a quarter less than it actually takes to get them dry, and leave them in the dryer for about 10 extra minutes if it's not busy. The dryer is still hot, so usually my clothes are completely dry or just barely damp. I take them home and hang them up to finish drying.
@@obietravels652 My sister was telling me the other day that I always had such cute clothes in high school (she's much older than I am). I laughed and told her that a lot of them were clothes other people gave to me that I took apart and made into something more stylish. Plus, I would skip lunch at school, save that money and buy fabric and notions with it to make my own clothes.
Even my clothes racks are second and third hand. I’m a hopeless case.
I have a shallow dug well that may run dry in the summer, and extreme water conservation is a science. I have a large clean water bucket in both the kitchen and bathroom, and a plastic jug most people would fill with lemonaide.
It takes two full jugs for the hot water to run from the hot water heater to the bathroom sink or shower. It also takes two full jugs of water to refill the tank at the back of the toilet when flushing. I found long ago that filling the tank at the back of the toilet with soapy shower water eventually gummed it up, so soapy water can only go directly down the toilet.
I also make use of dehumidifier water in the same way.
It's about a gallon from water heater to shower (depending on weather in the Midwest) and I make coffee & drinks w/mine!
The shower took an obscene amount of time to heat up in my old place, so I started keeping a five-gallon bucket in there. It always filled up before the water got hot! The washing machine was right next to the shower, so it was easy to add that water to my next load.
Many of the things I learned from my Granny who was born in the late 1800s. It's good to see so many of these things becoming normal again.
I just realised!!! Second hand bedsheets!!! Never even thought of buying them second hand. I have worn second hand clothes and shoes all my life but bedsheets I have always bought new and I have no idea why. Thank you so much for the idea!
I have some bought new but my favourite sets have been second hand ... I like the vintage colours :) They're usually about $10 for a whole set or something, much cheaper
You can find some of the most beautiful and nicest bedding at thrift!
Also, if you sew or use fabric for crafts or home decor, flat bedsheets are a great (and cheap!) source of fabric yardage. I've used them to make drawstring pants, curtains, rag rugs, tablecloth, napkins, decorative pillow covers ... some sheets are even pretty enough to frame a piece of the fabric or use it as a background for another project.
Also, truly vintage linens ( bedsheets/towels) are far superior quality to newly made.
I just bought a flat sheet from the 1970s for $10 & I plan to sew it into a summer maxi dress.
Thank you for the shower bucket idea! You may think that because it rains often in west Washington state that the residents would have a low water bill. Couldn't be more wrong. It's one of the highest next to meat and meat byproducts.
The cleaning agent is wonderful. I use it all the time! Consider adding fresh rosemary with all of your citrus peels (lemon, lime, grapefruit, and orange) as it has astringent properties and repells insects. P.S. I know I've mentioned this before, but for safety reasons, it bears repeating. My friend is living with Pica, a mental disorder where the afflicted consumes non-food items like cleaning solutions. Before my friend came to visit I got rid of all cleaning products (ouch expensive) and I made this instead. Lol, she loved it. She was shocked when I showed her how safe it was by spraying my salad with cleaner then ate it myself.
I've shared this one about a thousand times, thank you for your patience, Gitte. Turn old sheets into family wipes. Cut any sheet into 8in. x 8in. squares, fold in half, sew unfolded edges, and you have "toilet paper" forever! Discovered this during the Corona Pandemic. Use in concert with a bidet, makes it less gross. Wash in hot water with laundry detergent and half a cup (150 millileters) vinegar. I still have disposable TP for guests. Don't make it weird, lol.
I use my old bath towels as make up removers
When boiling water making tea, I store the unused water in a thermos flask next to the kettle. I use this for the next cup of tea or to use in my sink for washing up. Saves electricity use and water. It's winter now where I live and I'm going to use bubble wrap on my thin windows to act as double glazing until we get that sorted out. Keeps the heat in. Yes, we also have thermal curtains and pelmets too.
Such a good idea! And so obvious in hindsight, like why am I not already doing that?
I just heat the amount of water I need for my tea.
My weird zero waste solution is also soap related: I take the leftover little bit of the old soap bar and simply stick it onto the new one. After a couple uses, they become one single bar with absolutely no effort and no waste! I also carry reusables with me and pick up and freeze hair ties like you do: such a hack! But I have to say, the zero waste habit that still gets raised eyebrows when I mention it is thrifting: it's still seen as a poverty related thing, the environmental benefits are not the first thing that comes to mind 🙄
I also stick old soap bits together!
That’s definitely easier to do compared to my frankensoap 😂
I do the same with old bits of soap.
I melt all my leftover soap bits together ^^
I’m honestly surprised you get raised eyebrows with thrifting, it seems like it’s so trendy now
My weird zero waste habit : turning old tshirts into bikershorts, i love wearing them in the summer and for sports.
Found a tutorial on TH-cam a few years ago and never bought a new one🤣
The leftover parts I usually make into wipes or cattoys
Currently also busy with remaking clothes I don't use and make it into something I will :)
- We use a dehumidifier to dry clothes (the struggle is real in a flat in the UK during the colder/wetter months i.e. half of the year), so I collect all the water into old milk cartons and store it so I can water my sensitive houseplants that don't like the local tap water.
- Saving cooking oil for reuse in a jar on the counter, if we do any deep-frying.
- I save literally every container that includes a lid, and all packaging materials that can be reused (cardboard boxes, air pockets, bubble wrap, large plastic bags etc.). It's made moving home in the past much cheaper and less stressful, although I do find myself with a cupboard full of what most people would think of as trash.
Basically, I think a lot of my habits make people think I'm an obsessive hoarder.
I have often wondered if it's okay to reuse cooking oil! Sometimes I'll just leave a pan with some oil in it and reuse it later in the day. Good to hear that other people have had the same thought.
@@applesandparachutes3086I do it as well but some people say is no ok healthwise.
Haha! I can relate. My daughter calls me a hoarder. 😂
I relate to people thinking I have a hoarding problem because I'm eco-friendly :)
With the exception of buying a large bicycle specific box to put in cargo I have never bought anything moving boxes or packaging paper. I would go to local supermarkets and get cardboard boxes from them, ask family and friends to keep old newspapers and other packaging materials and collect it, use that and when you are done moving you can recycle all of those materials.
The soap reminds me of what my mother does. You know the net-like bags that fruits and vegetables often come in? She saves them, cuts into threads, knits a tight bag, puts soap scraps in, and gets a VERY effective self-soaping scrub/sponge!
There's also almost no textile waste in the household. Usable clothes etc are given to other people directly, torn and broken ones are reused as rags, towels and mops
Those net bags? I cut the metal clip, save the nets, take a large one, knot one end, stuff the smaller bags in it, knot the other end. Scrub your sink with 'new scrubber'
Course I'm not sure how many micro plastics I'm putting in the environment. And the scrubbers you buy shed micro plastics too. Sigh.
I love how you use and do all these things without shame. I sometimes feel like an absolute freak when I use a cotton tissue instead of a disposable one. Why are some people still so judgmental about acting more sustainably 🤦♀️
Yes for cotton tissues! I've got mine from a neat thrift shop, they're lovely soft as they're old. Younger people can look at them funny, but I've gotten approving nods from granpas who use them as well :D Most of the zero waste habits were just the norm back in the day.
@@kailovi I couldn’t agree more. Despite the strange looks I’m so glad I’ve got mine and I actually got some from my grandparents!🫶
I think the mockers secretly think it's a good idea, they just can't figure how they would do it, so they make fun of it instead! 🙃
Well, I keep a box of disposable Kleenex for guests. Maybe they're concerned if the washing water was hot enough, or if enough soap was used. Though I also use cotton gauze double cloth for nose cloths, there's none better for quick absorption. It's also hemmed, they're sold as reusable cheesecloths on Amazon.
They have a name, are called
a handkerchief.
I so relate to 1 (shower bucket), 2 (hair ties), 4 (reusables), 5 (cleaning agent), 8 (reusing jars), 9 (no paper towel) and 10 (thrifted linens etc) especially. Found hair ties for the win! Love my second hand socks, bras, sheets, towels etc ... people are so weird. I do have a bin in my bathroom... that is for guests and vacuum cleaner lint. I don't make veggie stock as have too little veggie waste and just give whatever I make to my worms (I have 3 homemade worm farms). I use my soaps til they're super thin and then smush them onto the next new soap.
Other weird habits...
- Most of the time I bring home recycling (the odd bottle or can) from when I'm out rather than using community bins (community bins are often contaminated, items have a higher chance of being recycled if taken straight to the recycling centre).
- I carry a plastic bag on walks so I can collect littered rubbish and recyclables. Occasionally I find a great towel or pair of socks. Found tradies gloves are good for gardening... they don't have to match.
- I have made my own underwear from thrifted fabric.
- I collect and reuse sticky tape by removing it from parcels and placing reusable bits on the inside of the pantry door for reuse. A small business owner in my community is going to come every few months to collect any boxes, bubble wrap or plastic bags to reuse.
- I wash and reuse all sorts of plastics including cling film and snap lock bags I acquire at other people's houses in efforts to reduce food waste. Small bits of cling film are good for wrapping individual cake portions for freezing as work snacks.
- I use nice looking rubbish (e.g. the shiny side of chip packets) as gift wrap. I use fabric or thread scraps as hobby fill (I have a bin specially dedicated to this in my craft room).
- I continually reuse the same disposable gloves (they're good quality ones) and disposable plastic shower cap (lasts about 6 months) when colouring my hair. My dye comes in a cardboard box with an aluminium tube... only the small cap is plastic.
- I usually have seed heads drying inside in containers for seed collection in the summer.
-[not vegan] I get eggs from a friend who raises chickens on food scraps from an aged care home. I dry empty shells in my oven (save them in the fridge until using the oven) and then crush in a mortar and pestle to make grit to help my worms digest their food.
- I use lipstick and lip glosses to the end by transferring the last 25% or so that's stuck in the tube to a small cosmetics container and applying with a finger.
- A portion of my garage (storage room) is permanently dedicated to storing items I've acquired (mostly from friends and family) and plan to take to a local free market. The space stops these items from being thrown away.
- I have 3 home made worm farms (made of food grade buckets with holes drilled into the base and sides) buried in my garden beds to near the top as a permanent in built system for turning food scraps to garden fertiliser.
- I have a bin in my garage specially dedicated to scraps of paper and cardboard which are too small for recycling... and turn it into new paper several times a year
- I keep a plain strong magnet on my fridge to test metal scraps for sorting into ferrous and non-ferrous metals for metal recycling (I have special plastic containers for ferrous and non-ferrous small metal scraps)
- I find most of my makeup second hand on depop
I also use my lip balm to the very last little bit, I keep my on my bedside table and use it at night before sleeping. It saves me money as well 😊
I read all these amazing hacks but I keep thinking, omg this person has WORMS as PETS??!! That is so cool!
@@lesanimaux4416 hehe, I do think of them a bit like that and try to look after them :)
I do the lipstick one to the extent that the pot lipstick has become my favourite colour as it combines all the similar ones I'm drawn to. The only difference is that I apply with a retractable brush from superdrug for precision. And then just blur the over line on the Cupid's bow
@racheljames9187 Wow! I have never seen a long list of tips and habits like you have posted! Thanks for posting! ☺️
Cloth diapering! We got a lot of comments but my MIL ended up loving it as she saw how easy it was
I used cloth diapers, I thought if my mom and grandmother's did it without a washing machine and a dryer I can definitely do it. I have a washing machine, but no dryer. I did live in a country that has a lot of sunshine and never gets very cold and we also had 3 years of draught 😢. Drying the cloth diapers was never an issue 😊. I only had one child, but would have done it again. When she no longer needed them I resold them 😊
I could imagine that it’s intimidating if you don’t know anything about it, but getting the habit down, I can see the benefits 👏✨
I love cloth diapering! I feel like my circle finds it fairly normal. Most of my friends do it, have tried it, or are respectful of it. Yesterday I was at a meet and greet and one older man complimented all our cloth diapers hang drying (we currently live in a marina) and an older woman overheard and praised me and said she also cloth diapered her kids.
What's funny is how even people who cloth diaper are super wary of cloth wipes. Like...it's literally exactly the same thing. You explain that and then they are like, "Oh, yeah, I guess so."
Just bought lots of reusable nappies(diapers) for my daughter in law at her request. Brilliant.
I used cloth diapers for both my girls in the early 1990s. Instead of wipes, I had a spray bottle with baby oil and water to clean bottoms and a small cloth wipe to dry them. Bonus was we were motivated to toilet train early 12-18 months and both girls were only wearing an overnight diaper before 2 years of age. I scarcely use a dryer.
Disposable diapers and wipes are incredibly wasteful and toddlers seem to be still in them beyond 3 years old.
As someone who has worked in a charity shop a.k.a thift store for going on 6 years, I promise our stuff is clean! We won't sell visibly used underwear, anything stained or damaged. Buy the pants!
I buy second-hand jeans.
I buy as much as I can 2nd hand but don't buy shoes socks or underwear unless new but donated.
Pants yes, but underwear is an absolute no for me
I do most of these haha but my weirdest one is I dont have paper tissues in my house, so whenever someone is over and wants to blow their nose I just hand them a handkerchief 😬 People really get bothered by that one 😂
OMG, same!
I do have tissues... I either use a hanky or toilet paper. I'd have no problem telling a guest they'd need to use toilet paper if I had no tissues :)
😂😂😂
I carry big handkerchiefs in my pockets everyday and the looks i get when I pull one out to use! You'd think I was doing something X-Rated!
Oh !! The worm composting boxes in the kitchen! Totally freaks people out !! 😂
My grandkids love my red wigglers. No pets allowed in my building, so it's our (grandkids and my) little "secret" because the worms don't make noise to annoy the neighbors.
@@Love-is-nbr1 Lovely :)
My zero waste habit that has definitely gotten comments from friends and strangers is bicycling in the middle of summer (I live in central Texas). It can get up to 43+° Celsius (110+ Fahrenheit) here in the middle of summer. People are floored that I willfully get on my bike when it’s that hot out.
I hear you! For me, as long as I am moving, I feel ok with the heat.
My only concern will be passing out from the heat but I guess your body is used to it so it sounds like a great work out.
Central TX gang!! I don't know how you can do that but I applaud you! XD
@caseydavis57 ✊🏽CT strong! 🫠
Wow!
One thing I do is gather plastic single use cups at parties or gatherings and take them to be recycled
I live in a small apartment and not alone sometimes I feel bad for throwing away things I know I can reuse but at the same time it feels overwhelming to accumulated so much stuff 🤷🏽♀️
I understand. Do what you can, not what you can't. When I lived a year in a dorm, with a shared bathroom for 10 people, it was really hard. Start small with rags and stock making. Don't waste any food. Use a canvas bag for shopping. Thrift where you can. Shifting the mindset that you can do something is what matters.
You can often advertise clean jars and containers on Marketplace and people pick them up when making jams. I also dropped a lot of things (cardboard rolls, plastic bottle tops, cans) at a preschool for them to use for crafts.
I do many of the ones you mentioned! I also pick up clothes on the street. I live near a school and kids drop sweaters, t-shirts etc. I wash them and take them to cloth swaps (I dont have kids). Oh and cloth dipers-hear me out. Moms drop perfeclty clean cloth dipers they use to swaddle. And they are usually super cute with. I use them for kitchen towels and for my dog
I found a cloth diaper my mom had retained from my children's days in her drawer of kitchen towels a few years ago. My baby is 42 now, so you can see the life expectancy of a good cloth diaper!
I love using food jars as cups! My mum is horrified, and everytime she comes over she makes a snipe about us drinking out of jars...when I asked her, why is it any different to drinking out of a glass she said because the top was too round 🤔
A few years ago we moved back to the UK, with only a few suitcases and had to start again in a rental with nothing - I would say at least 90% of our belongings, furniture, clothing, household items are 2nd hand from friends or family, fb marketplace free or cheap, vinted and charity shops. I've completely trained my mind out of the need for "new".
german person here, my parents did most of the things mentioned in the video, the shower bucket, second hand clothes, reusable rags, cloths, very low waste & all and I try to continue as much as possible living alone. I never missed a paper towel or anything non reusable.
I draw the line at the hairties and definitley no second hand underwear + socks, except I know the person who wore it before :D
We use paper towels for grease. Cloth for everything else. Did you know that the purpose of napkin rings is so you don't have to wash 21 napkins a week per person? Everyone has a distinctive napkin ring. You get to decide when you want a clean napkin and put it in the laundry to be washed.
Thank you. I didn’t know this!
I have been doing this since I was a child! And even now when my adult children are over, they still get the napkin ring they had as a kid - usually with the same napkin in it from the last family dinner because it’s only been used once. My younger daughter made some paper mache rings when she was young which we use for guests
I save up all those sale papers that come in the mail and use them to sop up most of the grease in a spill. Then I wipe it up with a bar rag and immediately put that into a bowl with detergent. Voila! Grease gone.
@@Wishimight_explore I've made decorative napkin rings with rings from my keurig eco pods--only the top ring is plastic. Now I'll have to make some colored ones so everyone in the family can have their own.
The idea of washing the napkin after a single meal is odd. At home we wash them weekly, unless they are superstained (which is not common). Granny also uses a secondary paper towel because she has coordination issues and her eating can be messy, we get the sturdier ones and she often uses the same for 2-3 meals, unless she has soup (which makes the extra mess).
I think the one thing I would't buy second hand is a matress. I did use the one that was left in my first student apartment but once I moved out, I bought my own for long-time use. I would buy a refurbished mattress though.
I got one from a graduate student- I'm in a university town and tons of people move in and out every year. So one bought a new mattress, was in town for two years, then moved across the country and selling to me was WAY better than shipping it.
I agree, no secondhand mattress or underwear.
The only time I’ve gotten a secondhand mattress was when my ex moved to my town and we saw an old couple offer one on Nextdoor. It was basically brand new because they had bought it for their guest room and were moving out of their house into a condo. They were absolute neat freaks too though. I wish these cases were more common though ):
I’m definitely going with normal rather than weird, but sometimes I do cop some flak about it. A lot of my friends find it gross that I use hankies rather than tissues but I hate tissues for sooo many reasons. And I don’t care how many people think I’m weird when I walk down the supermarket aisle and say to myself - I don’t need to buy that, I don’t need to buy that, I don’t need to buy that…..
Hey, I'm gonna try that, but then I'd get mad that I wasted gas to go to the store and walked out with nothing! LOL 😂
Do a thing because its eco-friendly: People think it's weird and get all political (wtf?)
Do the same thing to save money: People are proud of you
Only people you can't convince are some people who have grown up with lots of money. That and many younger Gen Z somehow don't get it for either reason. In the current political climate, I usually tell people "Do this to save money", they'll actually listen to you instead of if one is being a "preachy eco person".
My asian aunties do almost all of your habits btw and they'll judge if you DON'T collect shower water.
That's capitalist realism we live in.
a lot of gen z actually cares about the environment more than older people though. older generations are literally the ones who ruined earth and a bunch of yall don’t even ‘believe’ in climate change
It's true. Even I have been guilty of it. A lot of my sustainability habit started when I was looking for various tricks for saving money. Eventually I became more motivated by the sustainability aspect and kept doing all the habits even when I didn't need to save the money as badly anymore. But frugality is often an easier entry point for people. Maybe because it feels like less of a "political philosophy?" I have no idea. Most people can understand wanting to save a little money, even if they care nothing about environmental concerns.
Funny how conservatives really don't want to conserve anything: water, energy, wildlife, trees... I have a very conservative cousin who will LOSE IT if you start a new habit to be a responsible citizen of the planet, but if you tell him it saves you money, he wants to adopt the habit.
As a once impoverished person, I have used just about everything, second-hand. As a no longer impoverished person, I’m unwilling to use such mattresses and sheets. But I do turn old sheets into pajama pants for my family! Love to sew.
I used to buy used mattresses, but once the bed bug epidemic started, they made it illegal to sell used mattresses in thrift stores here in the US. I've bought used sheets, though.
I would not use a second-hand mattress from strangers (unless truly desperate for some reason) but sheets and other bed linens can be washed in hot water with soap and bleach, and then hung out in the sun to dry and "sun bleach". Nothing left to worry about once they have roasted in a hot afternoon sun (unless a bird fly-over forces you to start over from the beginning -- ha-ha!)
Yes!!! The veggie scraps are such a game changer. Everyone thinks it's weird until they try my soup and realize how delicious it is 😂
I also think people forget how people used to cook from the middle ages untill like, maybe 50 years ago and in hard times. Everything from vegetables was used to make broth or soup or reused as animal feed.
Reusables for sure: cutlery, straw, tiered Tiffin for doggie bags, cloth napkins, glass jars.
I use soap/scraps in a mesh bag. But I don’t want other people to use it, and assume the feeling is mutual. So I also have hands-free soap dispensers.
I think that not having a bathroom bin for guests - especially overnight guests - is, as you said, inconsiderate. And if friends “often” have to sneak into the kitchen with period garbage because a bathroom bin hasn’t been provided, maybe the zone actually is a bit judgmental and shaming 😬
So, after you use the cutlery and straw, how do you re-pack it into your bag? What is your system? I tried to have some small silverware for when they hand out samples at grocery stores, and I would lick it as clean as I could and then forget to wash it when I got home.
I just add a tiny soap scrape to the new soap bar. After a few washes, it fuses together. No waste.
I am a little weird about buy soft furniture (couch, etc) secound hand. That is about difficult in cleaning and fear of bed bugs.
Oh the fear of bedbugs💀 i feel like i have built a phobia against those😂 i would NEVER buy a second hand couch bc of them😂😂 i feel you
You can check for bedbugs easy! Ofcourse, check the topside first, but even if it looks fine, turn the piece over, have a flash light and check the seams underneath. Even if you don't see the bug, they leave their poop (brown blood smears) on the underside where they hide in the seams. If there's poop, use saran wrap to wrap the whole furniture tight if you can't get it out at once, and it should be chucked to landfill. Bedbugs are a health issue that's unfortunately not taken seriously enough everywhere, which leads to the spread.
Personally I've had no issue, but I worked at a secondhand place which took in furniture so we needed to check them thoroughly because getting one infected piece to the storage area would've been a disaster as the bugs spread fast and are hard to get rid of. I've had second hand sofas, beds etc, with no problems. You just need to be careful and check, that's all.
I think about cat pee when I see used fabric furniture. LOL
I use soap leftovers as markers for my sewing projects because it is easy to wash them away and at voilá, it vanishes, after my new attire is finished.
Yes i also mark sewing fabric with soap 😄
Wooow i never heard of that! Definitely going to try this, the chalk markings drive me crazy!
I have a shower bucket and it's my cat's favorite thing 😂
Yeah! I was going to comment that I save shower & hand washing water to flush the toilet. Since living in the Middle East, where water was precious & scarce in the summer, I learnt to do this. I have a rectangular shaped Tupperware container (which lost its lid) in my sink. I find that you must clean both regularly as they get scummy.
The one that freaks out friends, which I don’t do if they’re in the kitchen with me, is use a tea bag for a 2nd cup. That came from not liking strong tea but also saves money. 👍🏻
Why would people get weird about reusing a tea bag? My husband and I share a bag because we hate the waste and don’t like strong tea either!
I could not use the shower bucket because I am a klutz and would likely break my leg tripping over it. It's hard enough to stay upright in my shower. LOL But I am fortunate enough to have a button on the shower head that turns off the water while I am shampooing or washing my body. I only use the water on to rinse. ♥
Whilst on walks, I always pick up empty unused dog waste bags lying on the flour ( people are always dropping them) and put them in my pockets for the next dog walk. I save money, and clean up the streets. People give me such weird looks lol.
I also put a bucket in the shower saved so much water
Haha, yep, the shower bucket is familiar- I used to just keep the plug in during a shower (to my husband’s chagrin I called it shower droppings). I used the collected water to pre-rinse cloth diapers.
Also, used reusable dish cloths, napkins and rags for cleaning- I’ve never purchased paper towels since I moved out of my childhood home 31 years ago, no sponges, no disposal menstrual products (I used a natural latex menstrual cup for 25 years until I hit menopause). And of course the jar saving- the best thing recently has been a waste free shop nearby that is a refillery for shampoo, dish soap, cleaners, etc.
Most of the things I do is just adopting the frugal methods of the past. The things that people thought were weirdest were the menstrual cup and reusable diapers- I used them so long ago, it was just before it became a little more common. Mostly I didn’t advertise what I was doing because there was no changing peoples’ minds and I didn’t need their judgement. Stay weird out there!
I do all of those things, too! I don’t buy used socks, but mostly because I can’t find any secondhand. I also don’t use toilet paper. I have a bidet and use cloths specifically for that. I gross people out that I wash them with my normal clothes and not in a separate load. 🤷🏻♀️
Reusable toilet paper cloths (also great on periods for hygiene clean and dry especially if you don’t have access to a bidet or to dry after), scrap paper to write, old letters only written on one side for A5 binder note taking. Small left over unused parts of paper for note jotting instead of sticky notes. Make storage from cardboard boxes. Scrap cloths in strips for tying cables. Face mask elastic frozen then tied to make lightweight elastic bands good for small cables. Saving metal twist ties from products for holding things for storage (keeps needles together when they don’t have a casing of their own eg-bamboo needles. Old toothbrushes for cleaning-good on silicone edges on reusable coffee cups and sipper spout including the lids. Reusing pump jars after thorough wash and air dry.
If you have food grade soft plastic that is big enough from products that couldn’t be avoided you can reuse these for freezer storage by washing them thoroughly drying followed by air dry rather than just throwing them out.(don’t put in microwave or dishwasher) Grated soap for washing (this was an old method fallen out of use. lux soap flakes for clothes washing was once a popular brand you can also uss this to make liquid hand soap with well boiled water or distilled water for longer term use. Also great for dishes and saves a ton of money. Just melt in a bucket of hot water. Must be pure soap or stated on product for such use. not standard soaps. Can add eucalyptus, lemon Myrtle or peppermint oil if desired.
In Australia cheep widely available options are sunlight soap and sard wonder soap for stain removal. If you have access or can afford other flora and fauna , go for zero or some pharmacies will have products. There is also zero co for more conventional, sensitivity and other products that are harder to get in reusable packaging for those who do need it.
Sorry gitty-Marie for that Australians have a hard time with cost of living and packaging options. Got a little off topic. Frugal and zero/low waste works together. Maybe all the ideas people use stated here can inspire others to give it a try. As an international community it’s amazing what can be considered normal in one country and not another but also help people on all income levels to achieve better standards of repurposing or creating low cost alternatives that can help save money and the environment. A lot of environmental friendly products in Australia are questionable, out of budget or inaccessible for low income people even those on better incomes at the moment.
Zero waste is for everyone and looks different for everyone. For a while the internet forgot that fact. Some of it may look weird or ugly but that is doable for everyone that can be adapted to individuals needs.
Thank you Gitty-Marie
Wow, this is nothing short of amazing! Thanks for all of the good ideas; I need to try some of these. I did just rescue a pump bottle from the trash (it was on the top and I'll wash it thoroughly) based on reading your comment!
Yep, I save receipts for shopping lists or notes (write on the back). Haven't thrown away a toothbrush in years as they're good for cleaning and painting. Fellow Aussie here!
You have validated me! I stopped believing in 'normal' or 'weird' a long time ago when I started doing many of the things you are doing. Yes, my family thought I was weird and may still think so. I don't care. Keep up the good work! I love your videos!
When people are freaked out about second hand stuff, I ask them if they've ever been in a hotel. If yes, then yes.. you did rub your face where someone else ass used to be. It tends to shift the perspective a little bit, or disgust them about other things they never thought about haha.
There are proper ways to clean thoroughly and disinfect textiles and different surfaces. You just have to know them 😅.
Second butt diapers, swimwear also for the adults in the house 🙃
This plus bedbugs is why I have given up hotels.
I do a similar thing with hair ties- only instead of putting them in the freezer, I put them in the pocket of a pair of pants that's about to go through the wash.
But that will not kill lice eggs. That's why the freezer.
These all seem quite normal to me. The one that I do that is definitely outside of the norm is that I cloth diapered my kiddos (normal) and used cloth baby wipes (semi normal) and also used cloth wipes in place of toilet paper (pee only). We've been done with diapers for more than a year, but we still use the cloth wipes. Honestly, I love them!
I still have the cloth wipes from when my daughter was born, she is now 9 and a half, we still use the same wipes 😊, if she is not showering she cleans her private parts with the same wipes that I used when she was a baby. I wash towels, wipes and bed linen at a high temperature to sanitize it. The rest of the laundry is usually on cold 👍.
Love the shower bucket! I store my watering can next to the bath tub to catch the cold water until it gets warmer and use it for my plants. Putting a bucket inside is next level but I may try that as well! Not zero waste but still rewarding: I bring home all the disposable napkins that restaurants hand out (I like to use them for pre-cleaning very dirty pans and pots so I don't get all of the dirt into my washcloth) instead of letting them throw them away.
a thing I do that somehow people around me still find crazy is asking for a drink without a straw :)) or using a handkerchief.
Same! I wonder, do people use straws when they make a drink at home? Is this a thing?
When I was a kid, the corner of a hanky sticking out of a teacher or librarian’s sleeve was absolutely the norm. I assume it was the sleeve because they wore dresses that didn’t have any pockets. 😂
My friends have gotten used to these from me. I have a huge vintage handkerchief collection and I use them all the time. So much better -- and prettier -- than disposable tissues. Plus they work well if you need to wipe something off like a shopping cart, bench, etc.
My husband and I always refuse straws when out. We always wonder if the ones that get set on the table that are wrapped but unused just get tossed. I wish straws were by request only .
Why would any adult use a straw? I don't get it.
In the freezer, I use jares as well (at -18°C), for meet, soup, vegetables, fruits... but don't fill them, you must leave free space overwise they could explose... Easy to label with a paper tape on the lid, easy to clean as well.
For the bread in the freezer, I use beeswraps that I make myself with old fabrics (old bed sheets bougth second hand, used and too worn ;), so I can have big ones to wrap the bread well to avoid crumbs.
Reduce plastic in the freezer is so satisfying...
Transporting my 2nd hand stuff, often from marketplace, on my bike, even though it's pretty large and heavy ✌️
I think anything second hand can be washed! That said I usually don’t buy bedding, etc. that said - once I wear out a set of sheets - dress time!! They make lovely house dresses, skirt mock up material, etc.
I’m also learning how to turn clothing into yarn so I’ll be able to give all fabric items new life once used.
Love all the items on your list!! ❤
i've got a bucket just standing there in my bathroom for no reason. definitely will start using it as a shower bucket from now on
As someone who uses disposable products with regularity but is often tight on money, I actually appreciated a lot of the habits you laid out. I might try a few of them (and go back to doing some like the rags instead of paper towels). I very much like the idea of spending less and having fewer bags of garbage to throw out, even if I don’t feel the need to be 100% minimal.
I use non aluminum baking soda as deodorant. 3$ a bag that lasts about 3 years. Only need to apply once every 3 days, use a powder puff. Extremely effective and no rashes etc 🇨🇦❤️
Oh! Non! Sorry
I sewed my prom dress from old bedsheets. I got the occasional weird looks from people when they realized. It's cloth that goes for a fourth the price of actual sewing cloth! Why wouldn't I want to take advantage of that?
I have always used a shower bucket and I save the water from my dehumidifier to water my plants. Always have used napkins.
These did not freak me out! I was happy to hear someone doing many of the same things I do at home! We buy whatever we like second hand except undergarments. I find the best pillowcases and flat sheets. Many times I sew with the flat sheets. We have found binders for homeschooling and so many treasure, curtains,blankets shoes. It all gets washed and line dried. I've taught my children to love second hand! Thank you for this cheerful, fun video you are so much fun! ♥
I don't have a shower bucket, but I do use the mop water to flush the toilet. I also pick up hair ties! I wash them in a mesh lingerie bag in the laundry. I can't even remember the last time I bought hair ties. Whenever I go out to eat, I bring my own container for leftovers, and I carry a reusable straw, too.
I need to use the mopping up water to flush the toilet 😊, great idea, thanks 😊
2:22 growing up in CA we have had periods of drought - we were always told to rinse - shut off the water soap/shampoo and rinse again…
Making trash bricks and hoarding things like empty detergent bottles because I have needles to dispose of every week and I put the wrappers in one container and the sharps in the other. I just stuff the trash down until I can’t close the bottle or jar, then throw it away. (Clean trash, not like food wrappers, unless you wash and dry them off first, don’t want mold or anything).
Needles should not go in the trash .
@@melindasmith3713 i don’t put them straight in the trash 👍. I use the thick plastic bottles for the needles.
0:00 Intro
1:36 Shower Bucket
2:34 Street Hair Ties
3:46 Veggie Stock
4:39 Reusables
5:20 Cleaning Agent
6:02 No Bathroom Bin
7:02 Soap Scraps
7:58 Reusing Jars
9:02 No Paper Towel
9:56 2nd Hand Textiles
11:20 Outro
A lot of these are things I learned from my mom or grandmother so they’ve been around and part of normal life for a long time. In the southern US we were always drinking from jars, saving jars etc. same with rags, every old shirt or sock turns into a rag haha! Saving kitchen scraps for soup, making our own cleaners, using soap slivers, also depression-era things we learned from our parents/grandparents. Waste not, want not. The only thing that’s “weird” to me is no trash bin in the bathroom and picking up hair ties from the street.
The same. She lost me at the hair ties!
Ooo! I actually can find some like-new to new dress pants at thrift stores for work, but usually buy new towels, etc. Glad there's someone for everything. Great video, Gittemary!
Late to comment, however people think I'm nuts when I explain to them that our recycling company throws away any paper items smaller than about 3x5 inches, nope too small, so its going in the landfill. What I do, firstly I disassemble any small boxes/packaging to see if they are now 3x5, those go in our recycling bin; if that doesn't make it recyclable, I cut it up into very small pieces and place in a paper bag. When that bag is filled (not tightly), I fold the top over, staple it closed (recyclable tape??), and toss it in our garbage. It does sound crazy, but if it's going into the landfill anyway, at least it will decompose faster and definitely faster than if it had been tossed into a plastic trash bag!
You could compost them.
I do that with metal lids. Place many in one can so they’ll be recycled.
I wonder if the bag of paper bits would make a good fire starter for a campfire?
@@terriaoswald535 that would probably work except that I am compost impaired, seriously, I have tried so many times, and can't get it right
@@Katie-iz6fh We used to make a fire out of the kids' paper from the school year ever summer, even at 17 and 18 they loved doing that!
I do a lot of these things, too! I save and melt down soap scraps, use cloth napkins, keep metal straws in my car, reuse glass jars and have no problem buying second hand items. My parents and grandma taught me to be frugal when I was young. I do make my own stock from chicken bones but haven't done it from veggie scraps. Thanks for the tip! I also do keep a roll of paper towels for certain things like cleaning up grease, but cringe inwardly if a guest uses a wad of them to simply dry their hands! (Especially since I always keep clean hand towels right by the sink!) I do keep a bin in the downstairs bathroom, but it's for when I scoop the kitty litter! There's a bin right outside the bathroom door in the kitchen, so I just use that, but some guests have gotten an unpleasant surprise if they lifted the lid to put something in. I really should put a sign on it! I haven't done the shower bucket, but I do try to be conscientious of water use. I have my elementary school students pour the extra water they don't want to drink into a pitcher to water the plants. They think it's a great idea! I also started using a homemade cleaner made from vinegar, water and essential oils (lavender for antibacterial quality, orange for fragrance) after a student started reacting to the chemical spray I used to use. It's cheaper and much more earth and kid friendly! Thank you for your tips! It's good to know there are others out there trying to do their part!
100% agree on paper towels and paper napkins. Not in my house! 🙂
we buy paper towels but only 1 roll at a time and it lasts close to a year! I feel like there are only occasions to use them once in a blue moon with some very greasy mess to clean up. 99% of the time it's cloth, washable rags, towels and napkins. When I see the big packages of 6+ rolls I think it's just so wild to imagine using that up in a few months!
Lol I Iove it all! I love that you are unapologetically super sustainable and efficient!
I tried to do a shower bucket but our shower is small and my husband couldn’t stand it 😅
Honestly, all these things seemed super normal to me now. I do or have tried all of these things.
The one of pickup hair ties is a habit I learned from you Gittemary, I think from a video you did last year ❤ I don't use paper napkins, only cotton ones, I buy secondhand everything (but underwear), whatever is not recyclable by the local council, I put it away and once or twice a year I take it to a recycling facility near my town.
I knew a lot about zerowaste before I started watching your channel a couple of months ago. When I saw your jars I felt so inspired, because me and my bf we moved to a new flat and I was thinking how to organize the kitchen space. We had like 10 jars or something and I got that I can use it for storage and not to spend money on containers. Since then we store cereals, dried beans, dried fruit in them. Couple of days ago I messaged to our residential complex chat asking for unwanted jars, and they gave me a bunch of them. So I also picked ginger and onions in some of them.
Since jars are clear, you can see how much food is left. I love opening my cabinet and see what we have in excess to cook it and not let it stay too long unused. They also look much more cozy that souless plastic containers. And what's also important is that you're able to get them for free in different sizes and shapes. Also we don't buy in bulkshops. Actually, we buy in plastic, cause there's not much choise in my place. So when we open a package of something and there's about a half of it left, we put it in jars. It reduces the waste laying on my shelves, so they're always clean.
I can continue singing love songs the my precious. So, you know, I LOVE JARS.
It is impossible to resist the siren song of a “good jar!” 😂
@@Shetooktothewoods 🙃😉
@grushdeva 🥰
In my school, during the lunch, i wait at the window where you turn in your leftovers, and I catch (nicely) kids that are disposing big leftovers (like, still in one piece) and I finish those
I have used many of your ideas for a very long time! When I go thrifting, I always look for linens….especially table cloths and napkins! Most people “save them for a special occasion “. They’re so much nicer than paper and hardly, if at all, used. It’s a total win for me!
Just a tip for people who don’t want to do the Frankensoap thing. Soap sticks to itself so just get a new bar of soap and the sliver of soap and put the sliver on top of the new bar, flat side to flat side, and they just stick together as they dry. Eventually they completely melt together as you use it.
Been doing this for decades. I thought it was normal lol.
I have starting buying almost all of my clothes second hand. Even for sewing, I will Upcycle items into something that I will wear. I find items that might have A hole or a stain on it, but I'm able to alter it or use parts of it combined with another item to make a new piece. Or depending on where the hole is, say like on the pocket of jeans, you can embroider flour flowers over it or something So, you don't lose stuff when you put it in your pocket lol.
I also have a denim comforter that I absolutely love. It is so old. The material has become very thin and getting holes in it. Joe, I have saved scraps from cut off jeans or flannel shirts that have ripped and things like that. And so I'm slowly patching over all the holes to keep this comforter because the backing and the stuffing in it are perfectly fine, just the top has worn then. So basically making a new top out of old clothing. And then it's more unique which is my style anyway
I love the cleaning agent, but a reminder to households with cats to NOT use it as cats can't handle the acids of citrus!
Thank you for letting me know, I have a senior cat with some health issues 😊 😺❤
My cat says thanks for the reminder!
Mine don't mind and it repels fleas.
Love these! I am going to set up a soap scraps jar 👌 such a good idea.
I recently stopped using toilet paper, and use bidet and dry with some old face cloths that can be just washed in the laundry. Feels more hygienic.