Why im ditching plastic and you can too!

In my quest to simplify my life I have to take several things into consideration before buying new things.

• ·        Will they suit the new house?
• ·        Will they run on a low solar battery system?
• ·        How long will it last?
• ·        Is it practical for life in a field?
• ·        Is it sustainable? (no regular garbage trucks folks)

Something that has helped in this is thinking back to when my nan was alive at the farm. She had an old wood fired agga (it has since gone missing since the new kitchen was put in after she passed…) most of the rubbish we generated was thrown into the fire as fuel. Anything else was thrown into a hessian sack and taken to the dump when it was full. Being as the dump is about an hours drive and costs money to use I would prefer not to have to make weekly trips.

So recently when I needed a new clothes basket I asked myself these questions. Then I went to kmart (something I’m going to miss). I had a few options, $3 plastic, $14 cane. The issue with the cane was that the handles were on the outside not the middle. I don’t know about you but I balance my basket on my hip like a baby so the handles were in the wrong spot to do this. But thinking about my old plastic ones that broke after a few months I thought, its deeper, can be composted after its life ends and frankly, it’s pretty. So cane it was. 

At the same time I grabbed some wooden pegs for many of the same reasons. Getting home, love the basket, so pretty, holds heaps. The pegs, look pretty, environmentally friendly (plastic never breaks down you know) a little flimsy, already broken one, but at $2 a packet I can’t complain.  At this point looking at my plastic pegs crumbling in the sun I thought hey, didn’t people used to use peg bags? A trip to pinterest and my sewing machine and I have a kind of functional peg bag. Stuffed up a little and didn’t make it deep enough. But I love it.

On the topic of laundry, I generally use Woolies homebrand powder, $7 a box, lasts about 4months. Great. But using a septic tank at the new place could cause issues. So I also have a more sustainable option of soap berries. Great things, same family as lychees, basically dried out you can use the shells. Put in a baggie and into your machine and they produce soap to wash. 6 berries last about 6 washes then into the compost. Down side is they are quite expensive being about $28 a med bag but these may last a few months depending on how often you wash. They can also be boiled and the liquid made into handsoap or shampoo. Cool hey?