cleaning Archives - Our Permaculture Life

How I downshifted my wardrobe by 80 percent.

Morag Gamble — Mon, 17 Apr 2017 11:15:00 +0000

Today I downshifted my wardrobe by 80 percent and it feels great! It has simplified things, given me lots to redistribute and and helped me to unclutter the room leaving it feeling fresh, clean and airy.

I have big bags of clothes ready to give away and a good collection of old stuff to feed the worms. I realised I actually wear only a handful of my clothes, so while I like the others or had sentimental attachment to them, there really was no need to keep them. Also some of them I liked so much, they were threadbare and holey. It was time to let go.

Some of the bags of clothes waiting to head up to the charity stores in Maleny.

Living like a backpacker

Back in the early 1990s, Evan and I were travelling around the world a lot with our backpacks and lived amply on a handful of simple clothes. However, since we’ve had kids and settled a bit more, things have accumulated. As much as I promised myself this would never happen, it did. It was definitely time for a big clear out. I’m pretty sure what I’ve kept would be able to fit into a backpack again.

I love wearing sarongs here in the subtropics – they are lightweight and easy to store and care for.

Special souvenirs of musty space-fillers?

Not only were my own clothes filling up the wardrobe space, but clothes I had kept from when our children were little – things I thought were special souvenirs of their baby days. What they had become really were musty, stained and old (storing things in humid subtropics is difficult). I have kept just a few really special items and packed them very well.

Getting up my nose

All these surplus clothes were collecting dust which I was really starting to find was getting up my nose – literally. Today, everything got washed with soapnuts and eucalytus, and the entire wardrobe and room was wiped down with diluted vinegar. It feels so fresh again.

How did I sort through it all?

Basically I just made one big pile on the floor in the middle of my bedroom and methodically went through each piece. It took me half a day to sort, wash and clean out all the dust from the back of the wardrobe – a big commitment of time, but one that is going to save me lots of washing, sorting, putting away etc. later.

As I went through the clothes I placed them in nine different piles and bags:

Keepers – I went through this pile a couple of times to refine my choice to pick natural fibres, ethical items and ones that are biodegradable.
Storage box – a selection of a few things for different seasons and some favourite skirts which will be good when I lose a few kilos (!?)
Gift bag – almost new children’s clothes that are suitable for friends with young children.
Hand-me-down pile – some retro pieces of my clothing that now fit my daughter
Charity store bag – all the good quality clothes that were left
Upcycling box – a few pieces I liked that had fabulous fabric, but no longer a good style are awaiting redesign (when I get a new sewing machine pedal – Monty was experimenting with scissors recently).
Rag bag – too bad to fix but good for rags.
Worm pile – too bad to fix and fully biodegradable.
Rubbish – too bad to fix and not good for rags or worms. (thankfully this was the smallest pile)

My small selection of clothes for storage for another season.

Tomorrow I’ll give the worms a big feed and take the bags to the charity store in town to free up my hallway.

Working out what to wear in the morning is going to be so easy!

This is all that is left in my wardrobe – a couple of skirts, shirts, singlets and long sleeve tops – and my favourite jacket with all the pockets for collecting seeds while I’m out and about.

My next declutter project – my office! Now that’s a real challenge.

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27,000 Trees A Day to Wipe Bottoms – What’s Your Wipe of Choice?

Morag Gamble — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 15:03:00 +0000

Toilet paper. We don’t talk about this much, but I reckon we should. We all need it and use it – well a great proportion of people in developed countries anyway, and global consumption is rising. What’s your wipe of choice? I’m shifting from recycled paper to tree-free.

27,000 trees a day to wipe bottoms.

Worldwide, around 270,000 trees are either flushed or dumped in landfills every day. About 10 percent of this is toilet paper. Also the production of each toilet paper roll uses about 140 litres of water.

Only 5% recycled toilet paper used.

Most toilet paper is made from virgin paper. In Australia, only 5% of our toilet paper comes from recycled paper.

According to the Australian Conservation Foundation every tonne of paper recycled saves:

13 trees
2.5 barrels of oil (average car would use this in 2-3 months)
4100 kilowatts of electricity (average household use per year)
four cubic metres of landfill
31,380 litres of water (roughly a household’s annual water use)

That’s significant.

But if you are choosing recycled loo paper, be sure to pick one that doesn’t use chlorine bleach. Before being pulped and processed, recycled paper is de-inked. Chlorine can be used for this. Chlorine-based chemicals however can react with paper fibres and create toxic compounds such as dioxin and organochlorines.

What toilet paper should I use then?

More and more sources of eco-loo paper are becoming available. New small ethical subscriber-based companies are starting up supplying homes with bulk orders of toilet paper made from non-chlorine bleached recycled paper or bamboo and sugarcane paper (the softer option for sensitive bottoms). Bamboo grows so much faster than trees!

There’s also people exploring fibre crops, such as hemp, and abundant agricultural and industrial byproducts ranging from wheat straw to garment scraps, sunflower stalks, and rags – all logical sources of tree-free pulp.

How many trees are there in the world?

As an aside, while I was writing this, I came across a research paper that showed the planet has 3.04 trillion trees – or approximately 422 trees per person. This information was published last year in the journal Nature and based on research conducted at Yale. The research also says that 15.3 billion trees are chopped down every year – with the highest losses in the tropics where some of the oldest and biggest trees live. It also estimates that almost half of the world’s trees have been cleared already. This has significant implications for the planet in terms of climate change, biodiversity, and therefore also human well-being.

Let’s think before we wipe and go tree-free! If you don’t already use it why not give the paper made from sustainable, renewable resources a go.

Here’s some of the sites I visited while writing this tonight.

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Did you know our clothes are poisoning us? More Reasons to Choose Simple Natural Fashion for Earth Care and People Care

Morag Gamble — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 16:54:00 +0000

Australians throw away over 80% of their textiles each year – we are second highest wasters in the world! I find figure is disturbing – do you too? Most of these fabrics are synthetic and as you know, in landfill these take ages to break down.

image source: www.onegreenplanet.org

Did you know, even more disturbingly, that when we wash our synthetic clothes they are contaminating the oceans too – poisoning all types of sea creatures and coming back as toxic food? Microfibres from degrading synthetics, a type of micro-plastic, are a major global problem. Thousands of fibres come off every time we wash – polar fleeces are one of the worst. The chemicals from these microfibres have been found in the flesh of fish (not just the gut). One quarter of all fish contain micro-plastics and micro-fibres.

According to Dr Mark Brown of UNSW, 85% of plastics in the environment are micro-plastics and these are persistent, cumulative and toxic. Dr Brown has studied fish on 6 continents and found that micro-fibres from synthetic clothing are the main micro-plastics in fish. So what does this mean? For one, micro-fibres contain flame retardants which are endocrine disruptors affecting our hormonal systems and altering our immune responses. Read more in the ABC Catalyst story : http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/4424996.htm .

There are billions of people wearing and washing plastic clothing every day. This micro-fibre problem is immense – more diabolical than micro-beads.

Let’s stop and ask “What impact do the clothes I am wearing and the sheets I am sleeping on have on my my health, my family’s health, on the health of Earth’s ecological systems, as well as the well-being of the people that made them?”

The long and short of this:

Synthetic fibres shed and accumulate as toxicity in nature.
Natural fibres biodegrade and are recycled by nature. (Most of my old clothes end up as mulch, worm food and compost)

Those of you who have read my blog posts before know I focus on food and growing, but today I am moved to write from a different angle. Thanks to the many recent conversations I’ve had with people on this disastrous link between fast fashion, ecological systems disruption and toxicity in our food.

Please join me in thinking about this big issue and next time you are heading out to make a textile purchase. And please me spread the word by sharing this post with your friends and networks.

Think, buy, use, renew and make natural!

Might be time to get those alpacas ….

image source: www.goodonyou.org.au

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Organic, Simple, Natural, Affordable & Plastic-Free Hair Care

Morag Gamble — Sat, 30 Jul 2016 15:17:00 +0000

I’d never thought before of washing my hair with a bar of soap. I’d always assumed that I needed shampoo and conditioner. I’m about to test out washing with bar soap and rinsing with apple cider vinegar. Many of you may have tried this before and I’d love to hear of your experiences.

As plastic-free July draws to a close, I find myself still stopping each time I find another thing that always enters my house in plastic and consider the alternatives. This is today’s new experiment. Shampoo bars can contribute to a zero plastic waste household. I think they’d be a handy thing to travel with too – no oozing bottles.

In the past, I have tried to choose the most natural shampoos and conditioners I can find. However the list of ingredients is still long and incomprehensible, and the plastic packaging significant, – even if recyclable. Besides, those shampoos are loaded with so many synthetic materials and chemicals that I can actually no longer use them – my scalp screams and my eyes hurt. Beware of the commercial shampoo bars – they are full of chemicals too.

I really like refilling my old bottles with bulk shampoos from my local cooperative shop, but now it’s time for something different – a new experiment in simplifying:

Shampoo: Paper-wrapped organic fair trade bar soap

Conditioner: Diluted Raw Apple Cider Vinegar Rinse (bought bulk in glass jars). Use 1tbsp to 250 mls water.

Shampoo Bar

I’m pretty keen to embark on some of my own soap making soon using natural ingredients – such as coconut oil, olive oil, shea butter and natural essential oils. Until I do, I’m going to buy some natural bar soap. Actually I am going to begin with the bar I bought for my DIY laundry powder and go from there.

My inspiration for this was reading the packaging of the Dr Bonner’s soap package and seeing it was good for hair too. I have been enjoying the peppermint one grated into my laundry powder mix and of course as a hand and body wash.

Apple Cider Vinegar Rinse

After washing my hair, I’m going to try rinsing with raw apple cider vinegar (1 tbsp: 250 mls water). It is meant to help balance hair pH, remove the build up of silicone sludge from commercial hair products, smooth the hair cuticles, treat an itchy dry scalp, work as a natural de-tangler and promote healthy hair growth. Just pour it on (avoiding eyes), massage in then rinse – you don’t need a conditioner. While your hair is drying it may smell of vinegar, but once it’s dry, the smell goes.

I love multifunctional things – a great permaculture principle. It makes me wonder why we clutter up our laundries and bathrooms with so many products when a handful of good ones can do the job of many.

I’ll let you know how I go with this and would love to hear your experiences of abandoning commercial shampoos and conditioners.

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The 4.7 billion toothbrushes made each year last around 1000 years.

Morag Gamble — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 14:57:00 +0000

Did you know that there are around 4.7 billion toothbrushes made each year and each of these lasts indefinitely? Imagine in 100 years how many toothbrushes there will be on Earth, buried somewhere, or in the ocean.

I have signed up for the Plastic-Free July. It’s still June, but I’ve started already.

I needed to replace some toothbrushes at home. Rather than buy more plastic disposable ones, I found these 100% biodegradable toothbrushes made from bamboo. When we’re finished with them, we’ll use them to clean our bikes and taps. After that we’ll put them in the compost – fantastic!

Each little step collectively makes a difference.

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How to Make Natural Laundry Powder – save money, reduce waste and chemicals in the home.

Morag Gamble — Fri, 13 May 2016 11:52:00 +0000

Making your own laundry powder is a quick and easy way to save money, to get rid of unwanted chemicals in the home, reduce packaging waste, and know what’s in your products – and still effectively wash clothes. It literally takes minutes and costs just a few cents per wash.

Grate natural fair trade and organic soap – this one is peppermint castile soap and it smells amazing.

I am also so delighted that I don’t need to walk down the smelly aisle anymore searching high and low for the eco-options. I really have to hold my breath.

This is the absolutely most simplest recipe I could find that is also suitable for greywater systems like mine. I discovered that a lot of homemade recipes contain borax – which can accumulate in the soil if, like ours, the greywater outlet is in a fixed location.

Even though I have typically used a liquid, I chose to make a laundry powder rather than the liquid for a couple of reasons – it is simpler and it does not require borax (liquids do).

After just a few moments of buzzing the ingredients together in the food processor, it is ready.

SUPER SIMPLE NATURAL LAUNDRY POWDER RECIPE

Ingredients

1 bar of castille soap or coconut soap (organic and fair trade vegetable oil-based soaps)
2 cups washing soda (Sodium carbonate – it easily removes dirt and greasy stains from clothes)

Method

Finely grate soap.
Mix together in food processor with washing soda until fine powder (cover top with tea towel if needed so that powder does not escape).
Transfer into an airtight container.

With my water, I find 3 tbspns for a full load just fine (I have a 5kg washer).

Extra tips

I like to add a capful of eucalyptus oil in with the wash – anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, kills dust mites, and makes washing smell really fresh
It is useful to add half a cup of vinegar in rinse cycle to balance pH, soften clothes and help get rid of soap residues.

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DIY handmade cleaning cloth

Morag Gamble — Sat, 27 Feb 2016 13:22:00 +0000

Learning to knit is proving to be a very practical activity at our house. My daughter’s first completed piece has become our milk frother cleaner – and it is very effective at doing this. I love it! Not only is it useful, but every time I use it I appreciate her efforts and feel the love of her gift.

We have seen some very fancy handmade washcloth designs on the internet (both knitted and crocheted) and aspire to this level of skill, but for now we are happy just making a relatively square-ish shape. These are a great way to reduce waste – replacing wipers that last for just a short period before being destined for the bin.

Maia is learning how to knit and crochet to participate in the Knitfest yarnbombing of Maleny, our local town on June 10-12. We have found an amazing local mentor who is helping her (I learnt how to sew well when I was young, but I have always been just a very basic knitter, and somehow missed crochet altogether). Maia is a fast learner and patient teacher (she is teaching me!!).

I anticipate there’ll be some yarn-bombing of our place in preparation for Knitfest. I am looking forward to the funky colour wraps on our posts, trees, bicycles and animals soon.

Animals – yes. There are plans for the guinea pigs to have winter blankets and I just learnt that chicken capes are becoming all the rage – probably more-so in cooler climes … but we do get frosts.

Clickety-clack, clickety clack…

The colourful new milk frother cleaner

Just the perfect size for this job.

The hand-knitted cloth cleans super well and rinses out easily.

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Plastic-free shopping – how to avoid coming home with a bagful of unnecessary plastic.

Morag Gamble — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 14:49:00 +0000

When reducing plastic waste is a core goal while out shopping for household needs, there are so many other positive ripple effects. The food is typically more local and fresh – straight from my garden, from a local farmer, market or coop.

The food is also predominantly whole and unprocessed and bought in bulk. I notice that I don’t come home with the spontaneous purchases of snack foods which are all wrapped up in plastic (often happened when I went shopping while I was hungry). My thoughts go instead to the things I can make with the kids when we get home using healthy ingredients.

I am not only reducing waste, but saving money and reducing the amount of processed food we are consuming. The food is so much healthier – for us and the planet. The kids are also really into this project and embracing the shift. They are super helpful in selecting products and accepting why some things just aren’t in the house anymore.

Today’s shopping at my local coop – plastic free – hooray!! Bulk organic flour, organic tahini, freshly crushed organic peanut paste, local organic honey, organic buckwheat, organic rolled oats, organic chia, organic nicola potatoes, organic Australian dahl, and toilet paper.

My dinner tonight was salad with tahini, and I’m looking forward to buckwheat and chia porridge with honey for breakfast.

I love taking my own glass jars and buying in bulk – honey, tahini, olive oil, tamari, fresh peanut paste …

Another way I reduce plastic coming into my home is buying loose fruit or veg. I just pop them straight in my shopping basket as is – no need for plastic carry bags. I will wash and peel these spuds before I eat them anyway.

Buy loose vegetables to reduce plastic waste.

My kids love pasta. All pasta at the shops comes in plastic wrapping. The other day, we dusted off the pasta maker and refreshed our memories of how it worked. Young Hugh was chief paster maker and of course therefore loved it (which is great, because he is also chief food critic). On his request, I purchased that big bag of flour today for him to make more and more pasta – experimenting with adding various herbs and vegetables, perhaps even some bamboo charcoal. We plan to dry some too. I’ll post more about our home-made unwrapped pasta-making soon.

My old pasta maker is probably 20 years old and a little rusty on the outside, but it works just fine.

Hugh’s first pasta experiment – organic wholemeal spaghetti and fettuccine. It was absolutely delicious.

In trying to reduce plastic, I also notice that many of the personal items and cleaning products I buy are now in refillable bottles and unwrapped.

In the local food coop, there’s a whole range of household cleaners and personal items available in bulk – dishwashing liquid, laundry liquid, body lotions, conditioners, shampoos and body wash… I simply take my containers in and refill.

This hand-made soap is made by Self Managed Soap, a South-East Queensland co-operative. They are a community based group who have social justice and environmental ethics. Their soap is made from pure vegetable oils with no added chemicals. Actually, the cold-pressed virgin coconut oil is extracted by the coconut farmers themselves which means the oil is fresher and of higher quality, and more profits stay in the local community. The world coconut oil trade has been controlled by trans-national corporations, buying copra cheaply from tropical producers and sending it to Europe or Asia for processing.

I love this soap – unpackaged, palm oil free and really affordable – and just $1.50 a bar. They have a great range of natural scents – my favourites are the peppermint and cinnamon scrub.

I’m sorry Mum, I know you would say “That’s a bit rude!” about the name of this loo paper, but I am a real fan. It is a long roll of very nice 3 ply, 100% recycled paper with no dyes, inks or scents. The wrapping is made of thin paper which can go down our compost toilet, or popped into the worm farm. An added appeal for me is that half of their profits go to Wateraid. I buy it at my local coop for $1.50 a roll which is comparable to other high quality papers. It’s even cheaper if I order it by the box online.

Paper wrapped 100% recycled loo paper that’s nice on your bottom.

I sometimes get caught out and don’t have enough cloth bags so I grab a box from the shops instead. The boxes always find another few good uses – for mulching, for craft projects my children are doing, or for workshops I run. I dislike the poly reusable bags. they don’t last that long, then become rubbish too. I think it’s better to buy or make strong cotton bags instead that go back into the soil when they can no longer be repaired.

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Yarn bombing – colouring the streets with knitting and crochet

Morag Gamble — Thu, 28 Jan 2016 06:29:00 +0000

Yarn bombing’s popularity has spread across the world over the past decade and reached our little town. Knitters and crocheters will take over Maleny from June 10-12 and the whole town will be yarn bombed. This is part of the Yarn and Fibre Arts Festival of Maleny. It’s going to be amazing!

A couple of years ago at the Gippsland lakes I saw curious signposts covered in knitting, fence tops crocheted, trees with jumpers on, bicycle racks decorated – it was so colourful, so eclectic, so unusual – just wonderful. I had idea it was a global movement.

I am so delighted to learn that the yarners in Maleny have initiated this event. The only problem is I can sew, but I am a very slow knitter, and even slower at crochet. Maia wants to join in, and I’d love to too.

To learn, we’ve decided to join the Yarn and Fibre Arts Group that meets at the local library every Thursday morning. Today was our first visit and Maia got started.

Here are some examples from around the world….

I have been noticing more and more referenced to knitted and crocheted facewashers and dishcloths. So, as well as making pieces of bunting for Maleny, I am going to aim to make a whole set of cotton washers and cloths at home to replace any need for paper towelling or non-biodegradable wipes. Each time, I hope to refine my skills and techniques. There are so many free patterns online – and I’m sure the ladies at the fibre arts group will be able to show us lots of tricks. This is going to be fun.

It’s really been a textiles kind of week. On Tuesday morning many of the community clubs in Maleny had an expo to showcase the projects and activities available to locals. This is where we met the yarn bombers, but also the Maleny Arts and Crafts Group. Unfortunately they don’t currently have any programs for children. There’d be so so many children around here that would love all the types of making and creating they do – from pottery to spinning, to weaving, painting and more. I am hoping they may offer some sessions soon. They were very encouraging of the kids and were very patient teaching Maia and Hugh how to spin. I loved the portable version they had from New Zealand.

Hugh produced a really lovely length of yarn on this portable spinning wheel.

Maia really wants to get a couple of Alpacas. This week has been a great introduction to the kinds of skills she’ll need to cultivate to use their wool.

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10 Uses for Vinegar for Health and Personal Care

Morag Gamble — Tue, 19 Jan 2016 13:55:00 +0000

There are so many uses for vinegar – for personal care, for health, for weightloss, for cooking, in the laundry, for odour control, for cleaning indoors and and outdoors, in renovating, for pet care, for pest management, insect bites and so much more.

We’ve been enjoying some family reading and experimenting with vinegar lately…. cleaning the stench of old possum wee out of a yacht, cleaning a tooth for the tooth fairy…

Here are 10 great uses for vinegar in relation to health and personal care that I’m experimenting with or will try soon (there are so many many more too!):

1. Vinegar is a deodorant

Use white vinegar on underarms as a deodorant to neutralise odour, although it won’t stop perspiration – which seems a bit unnatural anyway.

2. Vinegar strengthens brittle nails

Put vinegar directly on nails to strengthen them if brittle. My gardening hands and nails might benefit from this. I have a thumb nail particulary prone to splitting – I will use this as my test case.

3. Vinegar stops chapped skin

Liberally put on sore spots and they will heal quickly. It also helps with those sore little splits at the ends of your fingers.

4. Vinegar heals split heels

Soak your feet in a glass bowl of diluted vinegar (and some coconut or olive oil to moisturise) for 15 minutes. Use a pumice to scrub your heals. Repeat again the following day and your heels should be much softer. Do this at least once a month to maintain your heels. My heels are a disaster as I mostly do barefoot gardening. I will do an experiment with before and after shots and post soon.

5. Vinegar heals coldsores

Douse a cold sore with vinegar often and it will dry up. If taken regularly, it should eventually prevent further outbreaks. (I am going to test this one next time I get a coldsore – this is the first thing that happens to me when I am feeling a little run down.).

6. Vinegar and hair care

Wash your hair with a mixture of vinegar and water to add shine (and remove dandruff). Vinegar removes surplus soap and also neutralises the alkali left by shampoos. Use a tablespoon to two in the final rinse – the smell doesn’t linger.

With so much hair in this household, some simple ideas for hair health is welcome.

7. Vinegar relieves nasal congestion

Many people who suffer from nasal congestion experience relief simply by adding apple cider vinegar to their diet. I know it has already cleared Maia’s throat tickles in the morning which I think in her case were related to nasal congestion.

8. Vinegar eases nausea

To ease nausea, sip on a small cup of water mixed with one teaspoon of vinegar with some added honey (to improve the taste). Perhaps I should take a bottle of this with me when we drive up our windy mountain roads and see if it helps.

9. Vinegar soothes minor burns

If you burn yourself cooking, splash some white vinegar on a tea towel or paper towelling and put it on the burn. Straight away it stops hurting and if you keep it on it will not blister. I usually reach for the aloe vera growing right outside my door, put I’m willing to give this a go next time.

10. Vinegar stops hiccoughs:

Apparently hiccoughs have been stopped by drinking a teaspoon of cider vinegar straight. Gargling cider vinegar is also effective. Worth a try for a serious case of hiccoughs. Hugh often suffers from hiccoughs, so I’ll offer him a vinegar gargle next time – as well as keep on encouraging him to eat more slowly and mindfully, rather than gulping his food so fast that he takes in too much extra air.

Adapted from 1001 Practical Uses for Vinegar by Margaret Briggs

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