earth day

In the spirit of Earth Day, how about instead of buying a bunch of new crap we take stock in what we already have and actually use it? Reduce the amount of stuff you own, reuse the bottles and products you already have, and recycle whatever you can.

I've almost come to a point in my life where I am ready to start believing that a new shampoo won't completely change my life and eye cream won't make me so beautiful that someone will pay my bills for me. I've bought into the hype before and I've been known to have piles of bottles of goo stored in my linen closet. I've gone through those boxes and thrown out anything that I don't remember buying or odd smelling and used things that are still relatively fresh.  Then before I buy anything new, I do a good bit of research on additives and ingredient sources and company policies and whole bunch of other douchey stuff before I spend my hard earned dime on something I am going to put in my house and on my body.

If I can make something in my own kitchen, I refuse to buy a product that does the same thing.  A little bit of do-it-yourself goes a long way.
Salicylic Acid = aspirin
Sugar = glycolic acid (white, brown, molasses, and honey all works, just use the grittiness that is appropriate to your skin's need)
crushed aspirin + honey  is an amazing acne mask and it costs about 5 cents to make.  Compare that to Neutrogena's acne line.  
Or dab a bit of plain white Colgate on a pimple. 
Age old cures, where do you think the cosmetic companies come up with their ideas?

Shampoo that makes your hair cry for a hat makes for great shower gel or hand soap. You can also use it to wash your bras and other delicates.

Hair conditioner that leaves you limp and greezy works great for shaving your legs and bikini line or as an in-shower skin conditioner. Just put it on your arms and legs while you wash your face and rinse it off before getting out.

Lotion is lotion is lotion. Unless it smells so flowery that you sneeze it can be used. If you don't love it enough for daytime, use it at night. Eye creams and night creams are great for hand cream and lip balm if they didn't live up to your facial expectations. Add some regular table salt (for oily skin) or sugar (for dry) and make an exfoliater. Put your unloved lotions in the bathroom at work. Give it to your mother-in-law. Whatever. Just use it and remember to stop listening to advertising ploys.  Companies don't care about you or your children.  They care about your dollars.  Choose lotion according to your ingredient and scent preference. 

Old makeup should probably just be tossed. If it is still new but not your color trade it with a friend or let a little girl play dress up, provided of course that you don't have coldsores or stys or other scabby nasties. I had a pink eye shadow that I thought I would love but it made me look like I had conjunctivitis. I mashed it up with some lipbalm I scraped out of the tube, jammed it back in the tube with a coffee stirrer, stuck it in the fridge for a day, and now I have a super cute lip gloss.
I really am the smartest girl I know.

That tub of Vaseline (nasty petro-based goo that it is) that has been with you since birth can be used to make you beautiful on the outside but read up and think twice before buying that stuff again. It is made of petroleum and petroleum kills your family in their sleep. Baby oil has its uses too, but isn't very healthy for you. Petro chemicals are everywhere!  Ground up dinosaurs and rotted ferns and all sorts of anti-Earth Day Ick.
Petroleum isn't always listed as "petroleum".  I didn't know much about all this until Jake had a severe reaction to petroleum (I was told to treat the rash with Aquaphor, which is almost pure petroleum.  What a mess that was.), any little bit of petrochemical on his skin gives him a flare, which leads to broken and bleeding skin.  It's nasty stuff. Unfortunately, most diaper creams are petro-based.  I didn't use them for long, they made him scream when he was first born.  No wonder why.  Most people with eczema have a reaction to petroleum.  Most eczema is treated... with petroleum.  Go figure.

If you care about our world and the people who live here and you aren't opposed to using animal products try emu oil. If you care about emus (emi? emuses?) try beeswax or olive, coconut, and jojoba oils. They aren't that expensive when you buy them at the grocery store. They package them fancy and mark up the price when they are sold as cosmetics. When they are sold as food items they might not be in pretty jars but it's the same stuff.

What else do you have in that closet? Old towels? Use them to scrub your floors. Just cut them up and make yourself a ragbag. So much more ecologically sound than papertowels. And you can throw them in your washer when you are done using them. Old batteries? Find out if they work and use them. Or toss them. Garbage is garbage and you're going to have it and don't feel bad about throwing it out. Just try not to make so much of it in the future. You'll have more cash in your pocket to buy quality stuff and your children won't drown in your sea of chemicals and containers.

This stuff is hard to do. I don't think I'll ever be totally plastic free and locally grown and all that other crunchy hairy armpit stuff, but making just a little effort makes me feel better (than other people).

I bitch and moan a lot because of all this pressure to go green or go to hell but going green is so expensive and I don't really have the bank required to buy those crunchy all purpose cleaners that don't really clean anything anyway but they smell nice. I found a great glass cleaner "recipe" online that costs about 8 cents. Well, maybe 18.

1 cup vinegar (I use regular Heinz white vinegar)
2 cups water
1tsp dish detergent

I added a little bit of blue food coloring and mixed it in the Windex bottle with the Mr. Yuk sticker on it so the boy wouldn't be tempted to drink it. Not that it would hurt him, but whatever.

Glass cleaning works better with old newspapers, so if you aren't already doing that you should try it.

I've also been putting some of the crappy vodka that someone brought over last Christmas on a cottonball and using it to wipe the computer screen and the television. It evaporates right away and doesn't leave streaks. It works to disinfect toilets and sink handles too.
The only other thing it works for is to flare my temper and give me a raging headache, and that's no good for anyone.
Me? I'm not so good with the vodka. I get punchy.

I've hit a major milestone because I associate the smell of vinegar with the concept of clean rather than the idea of 1970s vaginas! This is huge!

Also, I've finally run out of the store-bought wood soap that I've had kicking around for a couple years, so I refilled the bottle with one part olive oil and one part distilled white vinegar and one part water and it has been working wonders on my prized Ikea crap. I know you aren't supposed to store it for very long, or in a plastic bottle, but I've already violated both those rules and the world hasn't come to an end. I feel like buying a glass spray bottle is both dangerous and wasteful. I've also heard you can wipe your furniture down with a little oil and water and then use some vinegar and water to clean the residue, but that sounds like a lot of work.

My genius Re-use tip of the day is to take your empty tissue boxes and use them as mini wastebaskets in the car or by your bed. They are generally cute, and probably match your decor since you bought them because they did. They are also good for storing cotton balls and Q-tips and stuff because they are a lot more compact than those horrid bags and weird rectangle boxes that cotton stuff comes in. I keep my nail files, polishes, removers, clippers, and cotton balls in a tissue box. I'm famous for not being able to keep that kind of stuff together. They make nice portable snack boxes too. You can keep granola bars and raisins and chocolates and whatever else you like to dip into during the day partially hidden from your co-workers on a shelf. Jake loves to fill them with cars and crayons and then stack them up neatly in the corners. But he also likes to step on them so maybe this would be a better idea for grownups.  If you are anything like my sneezy snotty drippy self these days, you have tons of empty tissue boxes lying around.

People love to say that my house can't be clean because I don't use bleach.  No, my house isn't clean when I don't clean it.  I have a boy child who misses the toilet on occasion, but none of us suffer from urine-borne illness.  No one has come down with staph infections, salmonella, H1N1, or any of those other curly squirmy germies that Clorox and Lysol magnify to the nth degree on the commercials.  We are all very fine and well and, if I must point out to you, healthier than anyone we know.  We eat well and exercise and follow the rule that no one lick behind the toilet until it has been swabbed with vodka and somehow we all stay afloat.

And I feel better because no one can die by drinking anything I keep in the house.  (You know there is never more than three or four fingers of vodka in that bottle, and Jake knows better)

We might not be able to save the world in one day, but making small changes every day is easy.  The more junk you stop buying, the more money you have.  Simple as that.  Who doesn't need more money?  Buy only what you absolutely need for one month.  Skip the cute summer melamine plates at Target.  (Melamine is petroleum-based.  All plastics are.)  And the dollar bin when you walk in.  And maybe the snack aisle at the grocer.  And the new planters at the home store.  And, let's see, what else do I have trouble with this time of year?  Where does my money go?  What takes up space in my house?  I use this blog as a way to motivate myself to be a better person.  Sometimes it works, sometimes not so much.

Think about the packaging of the products you are buying.  Is it worth it?  Stop taking bags for things that can be tossed in your purse or bookbag. 

We are all used to recycling by now.  Did you know most municipalities don't accept water bottles for recycling unless you've taken the caps off?  You can recycle the caps at the nearest Aveda store.  Look at your trash and compare it with your neighbors each week.  Challenge yourself to have less than the Jones'.  Less than yourselves. 

Because that's what Earth Day is all about.  Be a better guy than the next guy.