How Green is Your Hygiene? - Intro

Hands up if your bathroom looks more like a chemist's lab than a place to remove the grime and dirt of your days. My hand is up, but I'm working on it. It has finally dawned on me that I may well be walking out of the bathroom with more shit in my hair and skin than when I walked in. And if it's doing that to ME...what's it doing to our water?

Time to take a closer look...

But forget all the science. I don't have the time or the inclination to figure out what all those chemicals are in the stuff I use, and which of them are the worst. So here's how this is going to work:

No chemicals. Easy peasy...but what is a chemical? For the purposes of this experiment, we will define a chemical as:

1. anything I don't recognize; or
   
2. anything I can't pronounce on the first try.

Good! The ground rules are laid...we'll start with hair in Pt. 1 of How Green is Your Hygiene?

Being Green Can Make You Blue

Little bit of a rant again today, please bear with me.

I like stuff. I have a lot of stuff. There's lots more stuff that I would love to get. There's stuff that I probably WILL get, at some point. But I do try to keep it in control, as best I can. I'm not perfect, by any means. I often see commercials for products which are single use and disposable, and I think "Oh, how HANDY!"...then quickly force myself to take a step back and consider the impact of purchases like that on our environment. To this end, I'm very proud that I've never owned a container of disposable kitchen or bathroom disinfectant wipes, no matter how much I think they would make my life easier. I have a reusable mini wetwipe container that I refill to stick in my purse when going out with baby...I buy my wetwipes in bulk to keep down on the litter they create. Yes, I DO use wetwipes...I'm not so "holy granola" that I'm willing to make my own reusable ones, because frankly, that just grosses me out.

So there's that. I'm not perfect. But I try.

Which brings me to my point:

Why, oh why, when people KNOW they're not even making an effort, am I made to feel like *I'M* the weirdo extremist who wants everyone to live in a treehouse (seasonally, of course)? And why do the people who drink bottled water announce "But I recycle the bottles!" and feel like purists? Why do people think I'm ONLY cheap when I ask them to close the damn door in the middle of winter and they want to stand there in the open doorway and chat? And the one that really gets me...oh grr...is when I talk about reusing things, re-purposing things, throwing out less stuff because I can find new life for it, do I feel like people think I do it because I can't afford to do "better"?

Dear readers, what are your experiences/thoughts on the diseducation (my own word, thank you) of the seeming masses? Anyone else find their actions being questioned by friends or family who just don't get it? I'd really love to hear from you...everyone on my street puts out their blue and gray boxes each week, but in taking further steps, I often feel alone.

Passionately Drawing a Blank

This is my third, maybe fourth time, sitting and staring at a blank page in front of me. I know that starting this blog is a great idea, it's going to raise awareness of environmental issues, it's going to help people learn what little things they can integrate into their daily life to make a big impact on the Earth, it's going to drive visitors to my website and have them buy Recycled Sandals!

But really, where do I start? I have a list of ideas for posts that I care about, feel strongly about, and therefore could whip off and have published before the kids are even out of bed. But I can't start with any of those, because I haven't STARTED yet! You, dear reader, don't yet know me. Tossing out a post completely out of context seems the wrong thing to do...like walking up to a stranger, slipping my hand into theirs without saying a word and just walking along with them. I don't think I'd get very far.

So let's get back to basics:
I'm Laurel, Canadian, 33, mother of two.
I love vivid colours; reds, oranges, hot pink.
I hate green.
I'm terrified of almost all insects, but bite back my screams when my son finds a spider in the garden because I don't want HIM to think that mommy thinks these things are scary, and be scared too.
I've seen "An Inconvenient Truth" and "Story of Stuff" and want to live better for the planet, so my children HAVE a planet, but don't always know what to do to that end.
I recycle, I reuse, I try to reduce. My set of plastic storage containers came filled with a bonus of margarine, cottage cheese, etc.
My 3 year old knows the difference between the blue and gray boxes, and what type of items belong in each.

Next time, I'll tell you about the Recycling Bastards.