Knock, Knock...Who's There? Dishes...Dishes Who?

Dishes the police! or Dishes a nice place! Two of my kids’ favorite knock, knock jokes which I have heard way too many times. But on the topic of dishes….

Finding a favorite scrubber for hand-washing dishes has been a bit of a journey for me over the years. Of note, I didn’t have a dishwasher for most of my adult life until the past 5ish years, so hand-washing was all I did and having a good (meaning effective and long-lasting) scrubber was relatively important. Before being as mindful about waste as I became, I often used those sponges with a scouring pad on one side, you know, those standard yellow and green ones. In my thrifty ways, I would often cut them in half and I actually came to prefer the smaller size. Then I liked the fancy scrubber brushes (e.g. Oxo) which you could fill with liquid soap and the soap would automatically dispense as you washed or you could push a sort of button. I vacillated between using various sponges and brushes and generally came back to sponges of some sort. As I started to care more about being ‘green,’ I went through a phase of using loofah, which sort of worked but I found myself using WAY more soap because it didn’t really hold water or soap very well. Then there was the period where I saved those plastic produce net bags and made scrubbers out of those, fashioned around an eco-friendly sponge. It did it’s job and I really liked the idea of re-purposing those bags, although I would prefer to avoid those now, I still succumb to them when there is a great deal on a bag of avocados or oranges or lemons (hoping the extinction of those will be a future post when I am ready to commit). However, they weren’t ideal and fell apart more than I wouldn’ve liked. I’ve also used ‘natural’ sponges that are similar to the green and yellow ones—part regular sponge and part scouring pad—but the ones I have found, I haven’t loved, and the scouring side seems to fall apart easily.

In the past several months, I have been using a combination of loofah and wooden scrubbing brushes with natural bristles. I’m ok with my set-up but I am not sure this will be a forever situation. I found a set of scrubbing brushes with bristles of different levels of coarseness and the dish wand brush has a replaceable head. These scrubbers work well with the Dish Washing Block. The loofah I found was designed specifically for washing dishing and it seems to hold water and soap much better than when I had tried to use loofah in the past. I’m not sure if it’s a different part of the plant or at a different level of maturity but it works better and also works well with the bar soap. Part of finding new dish scrubbing products was also influenced by switching to a solid bar soap for dishwashing. I didn’t need something that could hold liquid soap and instead I needed something that could kind of scrub the bar soap to get the soap off more effectively.

As I said, I’m not sure that I am completely sold on this set-up but it works and I would rather keep this up than return to buying any plastic or synthetic sponge or brush to wash my dishes.

#BLACK LIVES MATTER

I was initially going to call this blog post “384 Trees” or “I Bidet Thee Farewell TP” or try to come up with something clever but given the current climate and situation, it only felt appropriate to say…BLACK LIVES MATTER. It has nothing to do with the topic of this blog post but everything to do with what is important and dire. It feels like it should just be thrown in and commented on wherever and whenever lest it fade into the collective wasteland of forgetfulness again and again and yet again until another horrific episode with no systemic change. I hope for change and healing.

There is no transition that feels appropriate so I won’t even try.
According to one statistic (the only one I could find so perhaps not accurate and don’t quote me on this), it takes about 384 trees to make the toilet paper that one man uses within his lifetime. Now multiply that by the amount of people that use toilet paper. Ouch. I had previously said that I would cover toilet paper and here we are. *This one is a bit longer and may be gross or TMI for some, so please note that you are warned and don’t read if you can’t tolerate mild (very mild) talk about bathroom and toileting behaviors.*

It seems that the panic-induced stockpiling of TP is not such an acute situation anymore but wow was it ever a “crisis” at the start of the pandemic. However, I still hear that it’s not always available wherever and whenever. TP is considered a dire necessity for some and although we may think that the majority of the world uses it, it actually doesn’t. A quick internet search indicates that anywhere from 70-75% of the world’s population doesn’t use it. I’m actually a little surprised by how high that number is. In the early days of the pandemic, it was the hottest commodity and the hardest thing to get. However, it is also true that many people made the realization that it’s not as necessary as previously thought as bidet sales skyrocketed. Most of us do not have, nor can afford, an actual proper bidet…as in an entire separate unit next to the toilet that is its own plumbing situation. But many people have/bought a toilet seat bidet. There are ones that easily connect to existing plumbing and then others that require some electrical work if you want the water slightly heated to avoid a cold shock. Then there are the hand bidets which also easily connect to existing plumbing. They are also generally cold. This is the kind I have.

I have pretty adaptable toileting behaviors due to a history and childhood of using outhouses, the natural forest, pots of water, and hand bidets. I’m generally not grossed out or disturbed by having to toilet without a flushing toilet or toilet paper. I know some people are though, so I know that this could be quite a sizeable learning and comfort curve. At some point, I personally realized that using water actually feels better and is way more hygienic. Once you get used to using water, paper just does not feel sufficient. I think most of us have heard that saying, “If you get poop on your hand, would you just wipe it off with toilet paper or would you use water to clean it?” So true, right?! And if you have kids you absolutely know how true this is. So about 10 years ago, after one of my trips to Indonesia (where they very often use pots of water or hand bidets), I got so used to it that I bought my first hand bidet as soon as I got home. Yes, I have gone through ups and downs of using it and not (mainly due to moving), but I think it is solidly here to stay and I much prefer it. It also came in VERY handy when I was cloth diapering (it’s not that easy to get poop off of cloth…I don’t know how people do it efficiently without one) AND it is great when you are menstruating to help with what can be a mess sometimes. I definitely vote for moving towards more bidet usage. And while I said I am pretty adaptable to toileting behaviors, I don’t think I would want to use the bare-hand-and-water method on a regular basis. I know people do it and some have no other options and when you wash with soap and water it is probably still more hygienic than toilet paper and I have done it when I have had to but…not my favorite. With bidets of any kind, you don’t have to worry about the hand part…unless you really want to. And since the beginning of the pandemic, I have only had to buy toilet paper twice. How nice is that? No TP panic in this house. But I have more than one bathroom and I have yet to get more than one bidet (ordering another) so I do still have TP in the house. Also, I am not going to force guests to use a bidet if they don’t feel comfortable so I will always have some available. So one more thing to check off the list as…good for the environment = good for the wallet.

But, but, butt…let’s talk a bit more about the How To. Do you wipe afterwards? Do you dry yourself? I know that this is a question that comes up. I have been in many situations where you are expected to use water but there is nothing for drying. Yes it can be a bit weird, but you can actually get used to it. But I, personally, like being able to dry a bit. So for my household, we use flannel wipes. They are actually the same wipes I still had from cloth diapering days. But if I didn’t have those, I would probably buy or make them because they work really well. They are essentially a one-ply flannel cloth. Theoretically, you clean yourself well with the bidet so the wipe is just used to dry. You are not actually wiping yourself as you do with TP; you are not getting poop or pee on the wipe…unless you didn’t clean yourself well enough. My household is yet to have that problem...I am telling you skeptics that bidets clean really well. For the setup, I made an IKEA-hack wiping station to hold the wipes and a bottle of air freshener and underneath is a bag for used wipes (see pic). I initially used a wet bag (again from cloth diapering days) but I wanted something more pleasing for the eye yet unassuming and also that could breathe…I didn’t want the moisture to turn the wipes funky as a wet bag does its job well and seals in the moisture. So I made a wipe bag out of a plain canvas bag and added a mesh “window” on the back for ventilation (see pics). Then I just put them in the laundry whenever it’s time. Since I have been switching over to cloth items in my household in general, I often can comprise a small load of unpaper towels, bamboo makeup remover pad, flannel wipes, and any other rags or towels or whites (since my cloth items are mainly white). I have in my mind to make some black flannel wipes that I would use when menstruating. It’s really just an aesthetic thing so that you can’t see any potential staining. While the wipes generally are used to dry and not clean, it can be a whole different story/mess when you are menstruating…ladies, you know what I mean.

As a final plug, for those that don’t already know this, bidets are considered beneficial for the following reasons:

• Better personal hygiene and cleaning.

• Reduce the impact you have on the environment.

• Save money and reduce household waste.

• Better skin care and more comfortable to use.

• Reduce plumbing problems and prevent clogs.

• Recommended for people with medical needs.

Love Lift Us Up Where We Belong

Aside from an elevator, the title of this blog post (which is a line in a song lyric) is one of the first things that came to my mind when I thought of the word “lift.” And then I went to listen to the song and was reminded of what a special, raspy voice Joe Cocker had, RIP.

And to attempt to connect to the topic at hand, I think that the words “love,” “lift”, and “belong” appropriately describe my experience of this product. The Soap Lift® is a pretty useful product when using bar soap. And as I began to foresee a lot more bar soap in my life, I finally got around to getting some of these. The Soap Lift® essentially lifts the soap so that some air can circulate underneath and dry it out a bit so you are not left with a total gooey mess on your soap dish. It’s not just about making bar soap a better, less messy experience but it is also supposed to extend the longevity of your soap. I’ve used it on hand soap in the bathroom and now on my bar dish soap. I’ve had these for a little while now and pre-COVID I felt like they really worked. However, now that we are washing hands more frequently in my household, the soap is getting wet more frequently and I’ve noticed some goo. I think there is just less time between washings to let things dry out completely. I still like the product though and I think I may need to change my soap dish situation to address the issue. There are a lot of colors and even some shapes to choose from. One of the easiest and smallest changes I have made.

P.S. Don’t forget to check out the Products page where you can find links for some of the things I feature. These are not affiliate links. I don’t make any money off of them. These are just for your convenience.

Amazeballs or Just Balls?

Laundry was one of my least favorite chores for most of my adult life (it still kind of is, but now because of the utter volume that kids create…I just don’t understand). That was because I lived many years without a washer or dryer in my apartment unit or building and doing laundry always necessitated a trek to the laundromat, sometimes in the rain and snow, often with a very heavy load up and down stairs in buildings without elevators. At some point along the way, I stopped using a dryer because (1) it was cheaper (every penny counted), (2) those industrial dryers were not always kind to my clothes, and (3) I figured it saved energy (I always had some conservationist leanings). Lugging a wet load up stairs was never fun though…but I just considered it exercise. And then for many years, I kept up my non-dryer use (or my dryer non-use?) as it just made sense since I really didn’t NEED to use a dryer—a drying rack was always sufficient. I think many Americans don’t realize that dryers are not used by the majority of the world, including developed, first-world, industrialized nations, and those people do and look fine without them. All of this to say that the more eco-friendly step to take in clothes drying, would actually be to not use a dryer at all. But…I know that it is certainly not as convenient for many…not at all. I started using a dryer again when I actually had one that I didn’t have to pay for and had one that was in my building and I am still using one as it seems even more inconvenient not to (no…I know…not impossible) with kids. Even so, I thought I should at least use wool dryer balls. I have read about people loving them who think they are indeed…amazeballs. But do they really work?

Wool dryer balls supposedly reduce drying time by absorbing moisture and getting in between your clothes to aerate the load more. They also supposedly reduce static cling. I think they do help with static, but I have never cared so much about static and, this may sound dumb but, I don’t have the best static observation skills. I recently read that sticking safety pins through each ball helps absorb the static like a lightning rod. I’m gonna have to try this. As for reduced drying time and therefore reduced energy, the jury is still out for me. I am going to try harder to keep track of the drying time, but in regular busy-life fashion, I usually just turn the dryer on and come back to it several hours (or days) later, so I don’t even really know how long it went for. You can also supposedly add some essential oils to them for fragrance and I have not tried this yet either as I don’t care for fragrant laundry. I think for people who use dryer sheets for fragrance and static, these should definitely be tried. Those sheets generally have so much perfumes and chemicals and just create more waste as a product itself anyway. I am going to keep using them because I have found enough information to convince me that even if they help just a tiny bit, that tiny bit is more than nothing. And until I find myself in a place (mentally and physically) where I can air dry my clothes some, most, or all of the time, every little bit helps.

FYI, they come in different colors and sizes (as pictured). I use the gray ones for colors and darks and the white ones obviously for whites. I am not sure it matters a whole lot, but if they shed at all, I know it would be a serious pain in the ass to get tiny pieces of white lint off of your colors and darks as well as dark lint off of your whites.

Back to Basics

While most of us are still staying at home and physical distancing, I thought I would take a detour from my originally planned path and focus on topics that could be beneficial in this situation, such as reducing the need to buy certain ‘essential’ things. Aside from being better for the environment and our wallet, it’s particularly relevant to our current situation so that we don’t have to go to stores as much (for those who are concerned) AND so that we don’t have to potentially scramble and worry about whether or not these kinds of things are in stock anywhere. We all know toilet paper has been a big one and I WILL be posting on that but not now.

The unpaper towel, as it seems to commonly be called, is essentially a cloth. It is a cloth used instead of a paper towel. That’s really it. It is basically what people used before paper towels were invented and what many people around the world still use. So it’s nothing new or inventive. You can buy them expressly made for this purpose or you can also just buy/use cloth napkins or washcloths or kitchen rags. Some people sell ‘fancy’ ones that snap together and can be rolled like a roll of paper towels so that you can still use a paper towel holder. It had been on my mind for awhile to make some unpaper towels and I finally did! The current pandemic lit a fire under me and I pulled out my sewing machine and got to it. For the fabric, I actually bought flat sheets at a thrift store several months back before everything was shut down. I was initially going to buy some new fabric but in the spirit of zero waste, I opted to reuse. I feel super lucky that I found the ones that I did so quickly. I found white flannel and gray jersey sheets—the exact types of fabric and neutral colors I wanted to try. I wouldn’t recommend regular cotton sheets or fabric. The flannel and jersey absorb nicely. I’ve also seen some made with terry cloth or old towels. I washed the sheets really well and then I cut them into rectangles which measured approximately 12 inches x 9.75 inches. I did not plan the size ahead of time or measure when I cut. I only know the size because I just measured them, just now, to help convey a sense of size. I cut the sheets in half then those halves in half and so on and so on until the size made sense for my usage. I didn’t undo any of the seams at the top or sides of the sheet. I wanted this to be easy. I think the sheets were queen-sized so I got a fair amount out of them. I did cut them all the same size more or less though because I wanted to make them 2-ply. After that, I put 2 rectangles together, right sides facing out, and just sewed them together with a zigzag edge. I used contrasting thread just for an accent. And that’s it. All done.

Figuring out a system of usage is another thing. I don’t really like to have cloths strewn all over the place. I store the clean ones, ready for use, rolled up in a wire basket on the kitchen counter. I made a lot of them so there always seems to be enough in circulation and we don’t ever seem to be running out. After they are used, they go in a 2.5 gallon trash can under the sink that serves as a cloth and rag hamper. I also am in the process of getting a small counter-top-rag-drying-rack-thingy because sometimes we only use one corner of a cloth to clean something but it is not really dirty. The one used spot can easily be rinsed and then hung to dry for reuse. But I think we pretty much have it down now and I love that I don’t have to worry about buying paper towels.

In the Beginning...

I originally started this blog back in September 2019 but I didn’t tell that many people. I had never done a blog so I was testing the waters, mainly of my time and abilities, but also of my level of comfort with sharing my own content. And…I didn’t end up having as much time to work on it as I had planned. But what I learned is that I enjoyed the process of doing the blog and I also enjoyed the process of the topic. So while I dropped the ball on creating more content, I didn’t actually stop trying to be a zero and I continued to make lifestyle changes even though I didn’t post them. In present day, April of 2020, during this strange and surreal time where most of us are under stay-at-home orders due to this COVID-19 pandemic, I have come back to this project. It feels like a good time. Not because I have more time while staying at home (I actually have less), but because this hibernation experience has stirred creativity, resourcefulness, conservation of resources, and community which feels very much aligned with Trying to Be a Zero. So I am going give this another go and kind of start over. I will first re-post previous entries and then share new ones once I have re-released all the old stuff. It also gives me time to catch up and create new content and hopefully get more on top of the game. Hopefully. Fingers crossed.

Originally from September 1, 2019:
Why start now in September?  Why not.  But also of course.  Since I was a forever-student, I tend to still think in academic years (September-May + Summer) and September always feels like a new beginning. I thought I would start with something very basic—something that I am assuming most of us do every day, sometimes multiple times a day—Washing The Dishes. Even those who have dishwashers, usually wash some things by hand. So, I present to you The No Tox Life Zero-waste Vegan Dish Washing Block™.  It is the only bar dish soap I have tried and I’ve only been using it for a couple of weeks, but so far I am in love . I just rub my dish sponge/scrubber on it and get to washing.  It suds up really nicely and does not dry my hands out.  Now I don’t have to buy plastic container after container of liquid dish soap.  I ordered 2 and would recommend ordering many (maybe with friends?) to reduce shipping frequency. I would love to find a place to buy this, or something like it, in-person.  I’m not sure how long it will last and I didn’t do my research on this so it’s hard to know what the cost comparison might be to liquid dish soap.  I will keep you posted on this and let you know further down the road.  Or if you happen to know, please do tell. Thanks!

I did come across one instance so far where I felt like I needed liquid soap. I wanted to soak a bunch of small toys in a large pot of soapy water before I washed them. I ended up just rubbing the soap on my hands underwater in the pot, creating some suds. I also added some white vinegar for extra cleaning properties. Not sure if it did the job as well. It somehow felt lacking, but maybe that’s just because I wasn’t used to it. I know some of these changes will also be a matter of changing perspective and just getting used to something different. The toys seemed to turn out just fine—nice and clean.

*UPDATE: I still use it, I still love it, and I have upgraded to the huge size. I used 2 of the medium bars from September through the end of the year, so approximately 3 months. I started using the huge block at the beginning of January 2020 and I still have PLENTY left almost 3 months later. I suspect it will last quite awhile.*