It's no surprise that a lot of people who are zero waste are also minimalists.And I do find myself getting all hung up and frustrated if there is too much clutter.Of course I have to find balance, seen as Mila has inherited her dad's hoarder gene.Then again I, too, used to get attached to every little piece of paper, had shelves full of hideous figurines that each reminded me of that time I went to that place with that person, so I can't get off scot free either, I guess.
And of course then there's the mentality that you need shit loads of stuff to be happy and to validate your existence, but I actually think that it's a way trying to fill a void or to fill what you think is a void, in fear that you don't know who you are without all your things. Does that make sense? Because I kind of gave myself a stroke trying to type that one out.
Jon Krakauer wrote in "Into thin Air" (or maybe I read it off a bathroom wall somewhere, I can't really remember where I heard that one)anyway, I'm paraphrasing here at best: if you get on the top of the mountain, you can either see a lot there or only see clouds and snow.It all depends what you yourself bring there. And that's what I try to always remember, to emphasize the importance of memories and experiences over things.
And I guess there's always that fear, what if I get rid of most of my things, would that get rid of parts of me, or what if I'm just boring if I don't have all the clothes and accessories and make up to cover myself with.I feel that a lot of people(I include myself in there) who aren't for example artist, whose work would be a way of defining themselves, find the easiest way to do it through buying things, but they are things made by someone else, and the purpose of those things was never to help you, it was to make money for someone else.And with advertising they want you to redefine yourself every week and most don't give a shit what they put in there as long as they can make it as cheap as possible....WHICH FINALLY got me to the point I was trying to make with this post:Do it yourself.
(Didn't expect that from someone who is working at selling things to others in TK Maxx, although TK Maxx isn't so oblivious to zero waste either.)
What I like about Zero waste, is that before you go buying something, you first look around your home and see if you can make it yourself.And you can take home in a wider sense, like a community.Your neighbor might have really good beeswax wraps made up herself.And zero waste itself is a community, people share tips and recipes to try at home.
One of the things I wanted to try was beeswax wraps.I had the fabric leftover from years ago and all I had to get was beeswax and jojoba oil.Now I've read that most company produced wraps also have tree resin as one of their ingredients, but I've read mixed reviews about that plus I had no idea where to get tree resin, other than go to Fitzgerald's park and start hammering?? maybe at a tree there, I don't know, how's the official way one obtains tree resin.Anyway, here it is :
I chose a fairly small piece of fabric to test out first, before I go beeswax mad.
These are the tools needed
All you have to do is to grate the beeswax and add the jojoba oil
and put the wrap in the oven.Max Gas mark 4, anything higher and you'll burn the wax.
It will literally take few minutes, so keep an eye on it, once the wax has melted, take it out and use the brush to evenly spread all the wax round, if you need more wax in some parts, just add it to the fabric and put back in the oven.After all that's done, leave the wrap to dry
At first I thought it was a clear fail, the wrap doesn't cling well do itself, so that's the part tree resin will play, (you might see me in Fitzgeralds's park with a hammer and nails after all) but I tried it over the bowl of blueberries there and it sits fine, I need to make bigger ones for cheese and thing like that.
So there it is, alternative to cling film, less toxic to use and less toxic to make.You can wash them in cold water with mild soap, and they could last you up to a year.
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