Changing habits to meet changing society

According to the ‘experts’ using a dishwasher once a day uses less water than washing up after each meal so I am going to believe them and continue to use mine!

I can relate to most of what you say. I have been cutting back on plastic use for a long time. I use an eco egg for laundry and only do short 30 degree washes. I shortened time immersion is on for hot water. I didn't use the halagon heater over winter....blanket over knees instead. I collected kindling for burner along the river bank instead of buying chemical firelighters or bags of kindling. I hang washing to dry on line on sunny day. I buy preloved clothes on ebay and I sell what I don't wear anymore. Amazing good labels to be found if you look I use shampoo bars for hair which are brilliant. Oh and I dig all those bits of stick antiperspirant that get left out and press them onto the new one. I also cut open tubes. You would not believe what gets left in them. My car is purposely small...I live in rural area so can't be without one. Oh and I have joined local community allotment to grow own veg. Not sure I can do anymore...

I saw a washing machine expert explaining why short washes arent as eco friendly as long ones, a while back.
Shame I can't remember any of what he said.

Plenty of evidenc for that marionk, including 'Which?

merlotgran

I do all those already and nobody’s putting heating on at the moment are they?

Perhaps not in the UK, but my heating is on, and staying on, until the outside temperature is over 25 degrees Centigrade .

Otherwise neither DH nor I would be able to move for pain.

We save by
1 not having a car, only bicycles
2 Only have a light on where we are actually sitting or working
3 cooking food that can be cooked quickly and thus cheaply
4 washing clothes only when there is sufficient to fill the machine and drying clothes outdoors
5 taking very short showers, turning the water off whilst we soap ourselves
6 Re-using washing up water for cleaning bins, door-steps etc.
7 Always going to the charity shops first when looking for new clothes or shoes
8 not wasting food or water

in other words: basically living as our parents and grandparents did.

MissAdventure

I've never smelled anything other than cigarettes in others, and I've used buses for the whole of my life.

How nice for you!

I have sat beside the elderly and incontinent who stank not of fresh urine but of stale.

The old and young unwashed who stank and whose clothes if dampened by rain or snow stank of dirt too.

On one horrible occasion beside a young woman who stank so of badly stale menstrual blood that I and others nearby felt sick.

I don't know where you live, but you have certainly been very fortunate in those who use the same public transport as you do.

I have also ever day of an entire school year come home with fleas, that had jumped for children to me, their teacher. Happily head and body lice don't seem to care for my personal odour.

So all in all, I devoutly hope that no-one will seriously consider washing themselves less in order to save money!

Wash more quickly, or in cooler water, but please do wash yourselves and your clothes.

Dear MisAdventure, ???! Best in thread!

You seem to have a very well developed sense of smell, grandtante.
Menstrual blood, whether urine is fresh or stale.

I think my nose must be destroyed by many years of smelling these whiffs.

Has anyone actually stopped flying out of choice? Stopped eating meat? Got rid of a big car for a smaller one, again out of choice rather than financial necessity?

I very much doubt anyone has caused themselves deliberate hardship to save the planet.
Most is circumstantial.

MissAdventure

I boil myself in a bucket with some pieces of old cloth, then throw in some lentils to turn it into a nutritious soup when I've finished.

It's interesting to see what different people do.

The only thing I actively do is try to cut down on food waste. It all goes on the compost heap.

The problem that I can see, is that even if everyone on the planet took all the measures already mentioned, the effect on the climate would still be close to zero.

Also, it's a small number of people who actively take measures, and when they do, it's more about personal preferences or saving money than about the earth. We are past the point of small gestures.

The elephant in the room, which no government wants to address, is that there are simply too many people. And I have no idea how that can possibly be fixed.

Antonia
Your right. We are past the point of no return.
What I do is a personal choice.

Sinking cities.

www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/09/11-sinking-cities-that-could-soon-be-underwater.

The elephant in the room, which no government wants to address, is that there are simply too many people. And I have no idea how that can possibly be fixed.

Referring to both points:
People will move inland and to higher ground and habitable areas of the planet will become more densely populated.

Without some kind of drastic population control (or a series of natural disasters) Earth will become a very unpleasant and stressful (and stressed) planet.

We had our water bill cut by more than half when we went on a meter.
I wish companies would sell items like laundry liquid and washing up liquid in sachets so we could decanter.

Antonia, as I have posted before , the population increase in the West is due to the elderly living so long, not the birth rate. It has been a while since 2.4 children - the current rate is 1.6, and decreasing. So, sadly, Antonia, and Callistemon, we are the elephant in the room- you know, grey, wrinkly and slow moving !

grey, wrinkly and slow moving

Love it, Chocolatelovinggran!

GagaJo if you want to occasionally wash your black clothes in detergent the Waitrose black wash liquid is good, although I only use half the recommended amount.

We do most things already mentioned and have never owned a tumble drier or dishwasher.

I have a bag in the freezer where I put odds and ends of vegetables. When there is enough I make soup.

Chocolatelovinggran

Antonia, as I have posted before , the population increase in the West is due to the elderly living so long, not the birth rate. It has been a while since 2.4 children - the current rate is 1.6, and decreasing. So, sadly, Antonia, and Callistemon, we are the elephant in the room- you know, grey, wrinkly and slow moving !

I'm not grey ???
Not many wrinkles either, surprisingly, although I am a habit slower these days.

A bit!

I make my own deodorant from coconut oil, bicarbonate of soda and arrowroot (plus a few drops of grapefruit essential oil because I like the smell). It works a treat (it really does) and you are not putting any nasty chemicals on your skin. There are plenty of YouTube videos showing how to make it.

pintuck

I make my own deodorant from coconut oil, bicarbonate of soda and arrowroot (plus a few drops of grapefruit essential oil because I like the smell). It works a treat (it really does) and you are not putting any nasty chemicals on your skin. There are plenty of YouTube videos showing how to make it.

Is that just a deodorant or is it an antiperspirant?

I really must try and make some deodorant.
How does arrowroot come?
Is it powdered?

Sorry about your pain grandtanteJE65, but glad you can still ride bikes. DH struggles to do that now because of arthritis.
I’m with you in many of the savings you mention but some wouldn’t work for me.

basically living as our parents and grandparents did

3 cooking food that can be cooked quickly and thus cheaply
My parents and grandparents cooked stews, pies, and puddings, all of which took far longer to cook than many meals I make now.
5 taking very short showers, turning the water off whilst we soap ourselves
We take short showers, but if we turned the water off whilst soaping or shampooing, we’d waste a lot of water waiting for it to heat up again.
6 Re-using washing up water for cleaning bins, door-steps etc.
Using washing up water, probably greasy or containing food debris to wash anything else? I’d have to use even more water to rinse that off.
7 Always going to the charity shops first when looking for new clothes or shoes
My Grandma made most clothes from scratch and mended things as did Mum in her youth. Did charity shops exist back then? We often got clothes handed on from better off relatives, but someone has to buy the new things to pass on, or fill the charity shops.

Re-deodorants/anti-perspirants.
My grandma never used either of those. She used talc on her underarms. She never smelled, but she used to shower in the morning with one of those hose things you attached to taps, strip wash (face, neck and pits but not bits) after housework and bath in the evening.
I can’t help wondering how much extra water is used for cleansing the cloths used by those advocating strip washes. Do people use the same cloth for face and neck, pits and bits (eeuw!)
Do they get washed (with what) and rinsed by hand or just rinsed under the tap in hot or cold water?
Does everyone in the family have their own set? Where do they hang them to dry? How often do they get replaced?
We had face flannels as children. When they got manky, mum used to bleach and rinse them (harsh chemicals and more water!) or boil them (fossil fuel usage!)
It’s not that I really want to know, but this thread brought back lots of memories and makes me wonder how environmentally friendly we were back then.

Yep.
Face, neck, pits and bits, in that order.
Flannel in the wash after.