Straws, water bottles, and diapers
I am trying to tackle 2 main “minimalist” endeavors right now:
Create less mess in my home. Have less stuff. Less stuff = less mess.
Create less mess for our planet. Be more environmentally friendly, sustainable, and ethical in my purchasing and every day choices. I’m also still trying to shop good bargains, but trying to no longer do so at the expense (haha I ❤️ puns) of ethical purchasing.
Honestly, all of that can feel impossible to balance and make me feel frozen. Which is why I’m trying to just bite off one chunk (or nibble) at a time.
The clothes and fashion piece of this will probably be difficult for me. Fast fashion is cheaper and easier to access (and therefore easier to try on). I expect it to be a battle to feel confident enough in my post-second-pregnancy body to shop in a different way than I’m used to. Which is why i haven’t bought new clothes in a long time. But I do want to try. The idea of having having fewer clothes that are higher quality, versatile, and ethically-made makes me feel like it will be worth the work to make sure they are also look-great-on-me clothes. But since this is very new for me, please feel free to send any advice my way! (Comment sections on the blog or on social media, direct messages, email, etc!). More on this when I actually summon the courage (and the babysitting?) to get out there and try.
Our recent small choices are:
- Not to use disposable straws
- Not to use plastic water bottles
- To use at least ONE cloth diaper a day instead of a disposable one (and increase cloth diaper use from there)
The straw thing was a choice that just kind of happened. Having kids makes straws quite useful - I can throw a straw in any beverage and my 3-year-old can drink it without my help and without spilling (theoretically). Our good friend Brianna introduced us to the concept of a reusable metal straw in the fall and gave my son his first one (it was purple/green and he was PUMPED). So, for Christmas we asked for more straws, and it’s just kind of progressed from there. When we go out, I pack a couple of straws in the food bag I’m bringing for the kids and then if we order something somewhere that would normally come with a straw we just specify that we don’t need it. This has barely required any effort or sacrifice in our lifestyle, so I’m grateful for that! (The straws from Christmas came with special little brushes to clean them which make a HUGE difference. Without them it would be annoying the clean up post-smoothie straws).
The plastic bottle use has been a little harder because it requires a balance between health needs and earth needs. When we first moved to Italy we learned that due to old pipes and water quality almost everyone buys water at the store (1.5 liter sized plastic water bottles). The water is not poison or dangerous, but there’s a high limescale content. At first, we alternated, sometimes drinking tap water and sometimes buying water at the store - but carrying those bottles up 85 stairs to our apartment got tiring and we definitely ended up doing a lot of tap water. Until I got kidney stones in the second trimester of my first pregnancy. Then I was told by multiple doctors that I should not drink unfiltered tap water because the limescale can increase the risk of kidney stones. I’ve tried a few options (just buying all plastic bottles, using a brita, etc) and what I landed on was a Berkey filter (which I have had for a year and I love). To avoid buying plastic bottles while we are out, my most recent purchase is four different glass water bottles. Two are 1 liter and two are half liter bottles and they each have either silicon or cloth covers to protect them from breaking. I’m pretty excited about these and hopeful that this will drastically cut down on our plastic bottle usage! Here in Milan, the trash and recycling are separated and sorted very specifically, and because of this you really end up seeing how much plastic you are throwing away. I was feeling guilty for all the plastic bottles we were going through so this purchase just felt necessary. These bottles, however, are not very practical for travel. That is a need that I will have to seek a solution for in the future - again, open to suggestions!)
Then the diapers. This is a much bigger lifestyle change. Choosing cloth diapers over disposable is basically choosing more laundry to do in order to have less trash to throw away. I’m always behind on laundry so this one was a tougher choice... which is why I’m starting small! I don’t do cloth diapers when we are out or when we are traveling. But when we are home I try to use them as much as possible. And my stated goal for now is just replace one disposable diaper a day, and work my way up from there. I’m currently using BambinoMio brand and my mom is bringing me a few GroVia brand that I ordered. I’ve seen a few good options with easy, biodegradable absorbent inserts so you can still have the ease of easier cleanup - but I have not seen any of those inserts here in Europe - so if you are in Europe and see them, please let me know where!!
So those are my baby steps for now!
I’ve already lost 2 or 3 of the straws in various countries that we’ve traveled to, and I’ve already ruined one cloth diaper by not washing it quickly enough (*insert barf emoji*), so I have definitely not perfected these baby steps. But I’m just focusing on progress.