Sustainable & Creative Living
Plastic-free July is coming to an end, and I’m happy to report that I did pretty well at eliminating single-use plastic products from my life. I slipped a few times by using plastic shopping bags, and a couple of times I didn’t use my reusable cup when I went for coffee.
Baking soda is one of the safest, simplest, and most gentle cleaning products available. It has so many different uses that it’s also one of the most versatile products you’ll ever buy. While it’s effective and inexpensive for many home cleaning chores, it also an excellent useful and a versatile personal care product.
Baking Soda (Sodium Bicarbonate) regulates and neutralizes pH. It cleans, neutralizes, and deodorizes. The best part is that when it washes down the drain, it won’t pollute our water supply.
You probably already have a box or two in your cupboards, but after reading this you’ll want to stock up!
In an effort to save money, the fiancé and I made a big change – we moved in with my parents! Not only are we saving money for the wedding, but we got out of a tiny apartment, and we’re also saving for a new place. Even though there are tons of perks to this move, it’s definitely been a tough a process.
It starts and ends with packing. We had to get a storage unit because we’re essentially living in my parent’s basement. Space is extremely limited and we don’t know how long it will be, which makes it hard to know what to bring and what to store.
Even if you’re not packing to store, just packing to move, these tips will still be helpful.
One of my all-time favorite products is Dr. Bronner’s Pure- Castile Soap. It comes in many scents but I use lavender, my favorite, most of the time. Dr. Bronner’s is a company with a mission of environmental and social responsibility. These soaps are certified organic and 100% biodegradable. They’re also made in the U.S.A. Dr. Bronner’s comes in both bar and a concentrated liquid form. The best feature of Dr. Bronner’s liquid soap is that it has SO MANY uses! The label on the bottle says “18 in 1 Hemp Lavender”. It has at least that many uses.
Packing and figuring out what to do with everything I’ve been hoarding the past 4 years is such a pain. The fiancé and I have been moving for what feels like an eternity! It’s been weeks of decluttering and packing! We’ve lived together in our 620 square foot apartment for 4 years, how can we have this much stuff??
My advice to anyone moving – start packing early and start decluttering even earlier. I was so excited to declutter because I thought it would take some of the stress out of moving. The more you get rid of the less you’ll have to physically move and the less “crap” you’ll have to unpack when you get there. Remember that same feeling of “what the heck do I do with this?” before the move is the same after the move.
Non-toxic household cleaner formulations can be both simple and effective. They’re usually made up of only a few ingredients, many of which you probably already have on hand. These common and simple ingredients are the same ones our mothers or grandmothers also used for the same reason-they worked.
