Ch-ch-ch-changes

So far the changes we've made towards a more sustainable life have been fairly easy.

The first thing I ever did, and that was years and years back, was give up using plastic bags.Alan still occasionally gets one as he keeps forgetting to bring a bag with him when going shopping, but I'm working on it.

I use smaller cloth bags for produce in the market or shops for fruit and vegetable, the first time I used it in a supermarket I was ready for few puzzled faces at the tills, but they never gave me any hassle :)

The drawstring bags I got from Sostrene Grene are perfect to buy pasta or rice in bulk.

Another, slightly more difficult change, was swapping kitchen paper towels for reusable cloths.I couldn't find a material that was absorbent enough and which wouldn't leave a trail of fiber all around the place(I'm not a fan of the microfiber cloths ).After testing out different products, all which I still have and use, I came across the (current) winner

You can compost the sponge cloths at home, but the packaging, which is made from 100% renewable resources(cornstarch) is only compostable in industrial facilities.

Refills is another big game changer.I get most of my refills from one place, Natural Choice health shop above Tesco in the Paul Street shopping centre. Natural Choice is a constantly expanding shop in giving more zero waste choices each time I visit them.They also support local businesses, so you know the product didn't have to come a long way to end up in your home.

I get refills for all my cleaning products there, and I don't really use that many different products anyway.They also recently started doing refills for shampoos and conditioners.

There are two more places in Cork city that do refills, a shop in the English Market called The Good Food shop from where I get the sponge cloths and Quay Coop which also has a lovely vegetarian restaurant upstairs.

I recently started using a shampoo bar I found from Natural Choice shop.So far I'm very happy with it.I only ever used shampoo and conditioner bar from Lush, but their ingredients aren't the greatest.Plus the shampoo bar I have is palm oil free and half the price of Lush bars.It will take some time to get my hair used to it, cause it will need conditioning after, so I either use the AppleCiderVinegar rinse or the conditioner I get refilled in the shop.

Another good way conditioning hair would be aloe vera hair mask.

Handy to have some growing on your windowsill.My dream house  would come with a massive backgarden where I could have a big greenhouse and grow anything and everything we need, to be as self' sufficient as possible.

In the bathroom we've changed to bamboo toothbrushes, that can be found in all three aforementioned shops and I used homemade coconut oil and baking powder toothpaste for a while but then got all paranoid that my teeth are going to fall out, but I'm going back to that again as my teeth felt healthier and looked whiter when I was using it after all.

So these are the little changes we have made/I have forced upon us so far.

In the near future I want to try and make beeswax wraps and I want to try make my own solid perfume.

Now as a honest and somewhat disheartening disclaimer: As I was typing this up, Alan came back from doing the shopping, I have never seen so much plastic in my life :) One day, we'll get there... one day