By Hillary V.
My incredible co-bloggers, Ashley and Sydney, have introduced the Sustainable Saplings community to some phenomenal and practicable swaps over the past few weeks. For my turn, I am writing about a different way to think about “swapping” your current lifestyle/product use with more sustainable alternatives. I hope this series sparks interest in how you can be more sustainable in your everyday life – keeping in mind the often-cited roadmap of first reducing, second reusing, and third recycling.
- Using All The Products. Okay, so this isn’t the catchiest of phrases, but often we find ourselves the custodians/keepers of many, many bathroom or beauty products. I recently helped my mom clean out her bathroom and became the proud inheritant of several fantastic un/under-used products. I created categories in my own bathroom, dividing products into lotions, perfumes, deodorants, makeup, makeup tools, makeup remover, etc…. The list goes on and on! But by creating categories, I ensure that I use all products lined up in a particular category, and I can decide when that category is gone, whether I really need to replace it. And if I choose to replace it, I have so many options of how to replace it sustainably! Whether through my local, sustainable shop such as Madison’s Green Life Trading Company or a national franchise such as GoodJuJuHerbal. The important lesson is – before we start buying into new sustainable products/lines, let’s finish what we have!
- The Library! Yes, the library. If you are a follower of this blog, you likely appreciate the very specialness of receiving a new book. It’s all so exciting – the escapedness, the ideas, the smell of the pages! But before hitting “purchase” on that new book, consider joining the waiting list at your local library. Better yet, check out some old classics and peruse the events your local library is offering. The more engagement you can offer, whether through rentals, event participation, or support at the municipal level, the stronger your local library system will be for both yourself and community members that rely on library services!
- Food. Yikes, what a broad category! But something I appreciate now more than ever is all the options for making exciting, dynamic, and interesting food options at home with simple ingredients. If you have not engaged with the Sourdough Movement,* it’s delightful. With just some flour and water, you have a living creature at home to keep you company AND to make delicious bread products. I regularly (i.e., bi-daily) have a sourdough loaf, buns, tortillas, and naan for all kinds of meals. ALSO, not to bury the lead by making this the third to last sentence of this article, but TWO INGREDIENT CHICKEN IS REAL FOLKS. By far my favorite COVID-era recipe, flour chicken is the new Prada (or whatever the saying is).
Let us know what sustainable swaps have worked for you and what you are more interested in learning about! We can’t wait to learn and grow in our sustainable habits together 🙂
*This is fake, it’s just a COVID-friendly practice of making sourdough in quarantine! No need to take cutesy pics – it’s real whether or not you post on *insta*
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