Our story It began in a foreign country in Western Europe. It was the summer of 2018. We made a move and later, another decision that would change our lives f o r e v e r. The city was Berlin. The year was 2017, in the … Read more...
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Every month is Veganuary
Now when the most important month for the environment and animals is over, continuous attention to Veganuary is much needed.
I had no idea for the longest time what Veganuary was. I had never participated in it in and so never recommended it. Now that I have been vegan for more than three years, I am more awake. I know that there is a need to spread the word. Not only in January.
What is Veganuary?
Veganuary is a UK non-profit organization founded in 2014. It seeks to bring awareness to a vegan lifestyle free of animal products every January. In a way, you can call it the vegan awareness month. The participants of this groundbreaking event have more than doubled every year since its start 6 years ago. Luckily, the idea of being a plant-based consumer for a whole month is getting more and more popular:
- The 2017 campaign had 50,000 participants signed up as of January 4.
- In 2018 170,000 people signed up, a 183% increase over 2017 numbers.
- The 2019 event signups were reported to be as many as 14,000 per day for a total of 250,000 signups from 193 countries.
- By January 5th, 2020 a record 350,000 people had registered to take part in Veganuary.
These numbers speak loud and clear that things are changing. And for the better. Hopefully. But it is quite disappointing that all the attention is for just one month. Why not every month? It is
Think of Veganuary every month
The extra awareness for veganism for the first month of the year is highly needed, but why not take an extra step and think of Veganuary every month. There are many positive effects of going vegan for more than one month, as it can promote better health for you and those around you, contribute to a better environmental state, and make the lives of animals better.
Being vegan is proven to promote good health and increase vitality, which makes you feel good. But perhaps more important to many of us is the well-being of dear ones around us. We can have our family and friends longer with us. Eating meat is not suitable for any of us, it is harmful to our health. Did you know that the length of our and all herbivores’ intestines is 27 times longer than the body? This is because breaking down cellulose in plant foods is a GINORMOUS job that requires ”untold billions of bacteria which do the breaking down for the herbivore.” Carnivores like lions, unlike rabbits and humans, have sharp teeth to shred meant and short powerful intestines to digest the flesh quickly. Imagine the meat you eat taking so long to travel through your long intestines? The bacteria aren’t meant to digest that! And it is not only meat that causes many health problems. It is also dairy.
Look at the simple graph below from the documentary. The two little dots on the left are data sections for the other two leading causes of deaths. The first is violence, wars, etc. and the middle describes accidental deaths. You can barely see those, because chronic disease kills annually 30 000 000 people in total, leaving them far behind.
Dairy
When drinking milk and using dairy products, we consume bodily liquids of a cow, who is lactating to feed its baby. Unfortunately, after her calf is born, they will lose their mother and their rightful nutrition, which goes to humans. The female cow becomes just a milking machine, not for her calves, but for humans. The male calves will be killed and sold as veal, as they are no use for the dairy industry. Female calves are raised for the same reason as their mothers – to produce milk for humans. Contrary to popular propaganda, drinking milk does no good for the body. Dairy companies had bought the scientist for the longest time, to fool us all to believe that milk gives you good bones and lots of protein. It doesn’t really work like that. As those nations that consume the most cow’s milk and other dairy products have the highest rates of osteoporosis and hip fracture.
Environment
Raising animals, producing products out of them, etc. is very exhausting for our planet. Cow cattle need lots of space, lots of water and lots of feed. And even more water is needed when the flesh of animals is processed for human taste buds. Oftentimes, the country where the cattle are raised does not have enough feed. So then it has to be transported from another country. More forests are cut down to grow more food for animals. It is all adding to the high greenhouse gas emissions.
We have a water crisis. Though it may seem that we have lots of oceans and water should not be a problem, but only a little part of the water is good for human consumption. Animal agriculture is destroying this water and also the oceans– home of sea life.
There are dead zones in the oceans. This is due to the massive amounts of nitrogen put into the oceans and coral reefs dying for the same reason. Animal agriculture is the main reason for global warming as well. One of three fish caught from the ocean is fed to the animal raised in agriculture. Hence overfishing is causing problems for us. As it really puts our future at stake as well.
Animals
Animals are living in cramped conditions. They can’t enjoy their lives to the fullest: run around, gaze and grow up with their loving parent. Males in animal agriculture, are killed including calves and chicks. Females are raised in bad conditions – to be slaves for human needs.
No death is humane. There is no happy meat or happy eggs. Free-range eggs are just a myth, to make us feel better. Not a single egg manufacturer can provide the needed space for hen’s normal well-being. This is not financially possible for them.
We abuse animals in so many fields. Not only for food but for pleasure too (zoo, circus, entertainment) as well. Not to forget fashion – for our shoes, bags, belts, and jackets, animals ‘have’ to die. But animals are individuals – they have feelings, needs and they also know what pain is.
If you are a pet owner, consider the fact that you are not eating your pets. So why should you eat other animals then altogether?
So….every month is Veganuary, right?
It is very difficult not to think of every month as a Veganuary after watching “Let us be Heroes – The True Cost of our Food Choices (2018)“. Though, as a vegan I have seen a fair amount of such documentaries, they still have an immense effect on me because the message is always so simple, but yet so powerful:
go vegan
for your health,
the planet,
the animals!
These are enough reasons to put the needs of your tastebuds aside and start making changes in your life, which would not harm animals or our home – planet Earth as we all need to manage and dwell happily here. Yet, animal agriculture, in other words, the majority’s eating and lifestyle habits, are straining the world and, we are at the edge of a catastrophe. It is here actually, no matter if you feel it in your corner of the world or not.
Take steps and stop eating animal products, as that way you also contribute to a better today and better future. Spread the word and make a change!
Why love your soap bar?
Should you grab that soap bar? Yes, definitely, if you want to save money and eliminate plastic in your bathroom! Don’t worry about the germs!
Trying to use less plastic may be quite an adventure in the beginning. Especially when you haven’t done any research and just come up with your own stuff, as in our case. Soap is probably the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of a bathroom. Also perhaps the first thing to cross your mind, when you enter your completely empty washroom. Soap bar can become really handy first not just washing your hands, but also to do some quick laundry if needed.
Skip the plastic package
Bar soaps, used to be on sale without packaging, then came paper and then plastic. Now we are going hopefully, back the same way: we should skip the plastic and then look soaps in a cardboard box. Or even better without any packaging.
Soaps without packaging are common in health or really rustic hardware stores, which have a section for all kinds of cleaning products. Those products are not only environmentally friendlier, but they are always very cost-effective. Bar soap lasts for a long time. Way longer than its partner in a liquid form in a plastic container.
We used our first bar soap daily for washing our hands, up in six months. Do the math, with one soap you a family of two can use it for a whole year!
The downside of bar soap or is there one really?
The one thing about soap, what people have said is not so fun, is that it tends to dry the hands. I have to disagree, as I do not get dry hands at home. I get dry hands when I am traveling and washing hands at the airports. The soaps used there are liquid and come in dispensers with a pump. Even the foamy ones are really drying.
When I started using bar soap, I was really worried about the fact, that I will get dry hands. But I worried without a reason. Just to be sure and to take care of our guests, we have a little jar of coconut oil in our bathroom. We are using this for our hands and body after taking a shower. I am sure we will talk more about coconut oil in the future, but I just want to write it down now, that coconut oil is not suggested to use on your face. As it has a more delicate and different pore system, which doesn’t respond so well to very oily coconut oil.
While showering, we use, yes, you guessed it right, luxury body soap, a birthday gift that came in as a set of three in a cardboard box wrapped separately in a thin handicraft paper. Just a little remark, keep your soap on a higher shelf near the shower or on the other side of the bathtub. The more water it gets, the faster the soap will disappear and the softer it will turn. Have a good soap holder to avoid problems. Or even better, make your own.
Are bar soaps dirty?
There is a false understanding circulating around that bar soaps are dirty, as they are publicly used as door handles, counters, taps, but studies that prove that it’s the other way around. The bar soap gets some bacteria from each user, then it gets washed off by a next user, as well, drying the soap seems to eliminate the bacteria. What is known is that soap doesn’t store bacteria after each use by different people.
Soap bars are perfectly safe, better for the environment and easy on your wallet, just go ahead and soap away! Even in public spaces.
Normalizing fasting for better health
Fasting is as natural as breathing. Imagine how healthy our relationship with food would be if we didn’t give ourselves access 24/7?
From the moment we wake up, we use energy that we are not even aware of thinking of what we’ll eat and when. This time and energy we spend thinking about eating, preparing food, and eating can be used for something else! Perhaps it is time to try fasting?
Let’s first look at the amount of nutrition one needs to stay alive and healthy. Privileged people practice fasting (while many starve…), so there must be a hidden gem when it comes to giving ourselves a break from ALL things food. Give your hands a break from preparing food and your body a break from the hard work of breaking down the food you consume.
What is fasting?
Fasting is quite simply abstaining from eating any food for a period of time that can range from a few hours to a few months (under medical supervision!) The latter end of the range may be extreme. But we naturally fast for at least 8 hours every single day when we sleep. As we sleep, the body is focused on internal housekeeping and night-only repairs, since during the day, it is breaking down food for energy.
In the West where we have 24/7 access to food, we have become addicted to overfeeding ourselves. It’s recommended that we eat 3 square meals every day–breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The word breakfast literally means to break from the fast. We have been taught that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and yet this is the easiest time for some of us to continue fasting. Many people can skip breakfast, but to skip dinner is much harder since we naturally fast when we sleep and falling asleep on an empty tank is hard– again, acknowledge your privilege.
Snacking between meals
If we snack in between meals, we are loading our body with more food before it has the chance to digest our bigger meals ”square meals”. In doing so, we are sending the wrong information, which keeps our digestive systems working less than optimal.
It’s not a surprise that as society has become more consumerist, eating more during the day is encouraged and normalized. Snacking has become a serious business. There are many companies that make millions every year selling us snacks full of salt, sugar and saturated fats. What if we started eating our 3 meals a day and nothing else? Would we die of malnutrition? Of course not! Many people don’t know when their next meal is coming.
Why should I fast?
There are many benefits to fasting, both health and lifestyle-related.
- Gives your body a break so it can heal, repair, and discard defective cells.
- Get a mind vacation from thinking of food, grocery shopping, preparing and finally, eating.
- Food can be costly if you are “feed the beast” every few hours.
- The more you eat your feelings, the more you rely on food for emotional numbness over your plates.
- Time to explore other interests.
- It challenges you to meet your friends for something other than food. Your wallet will thank you because you can eat before meeting up.
- It can provide mental clarity and space to communicate with a higher power.
- Teaches you discipline, mind over matter.
- Lose weight.
- Appreciate the food you eat. When you don’t over-feed, you appreciate the food you eat more.
- It makes you a better person as you know what hunger pains feel like, so you’re more likely to help those who need it.
Vegans and fasting
Many people reduce veganism to JUST food. This is not accurate for many who enter this lifestyle out of compassion for animals, the environment, and health. While vegan food is great, if we eat mindlessness whenever we want, we step on our own toes. Avocados, for example, use a lot of energy to produce and yet they have become a defining point for online veganism. You can do something about this by not buying avocados because even the people whose native food it is can often not afford it because we are obsessed with it.
My fasting experience
I have done intermittent fasting for many years without knowing. The longest I have ever done so is 1 day, not including fasting during the night. It hasn’t been easy once my stomach starts rumbling and churning, but once I keep at it, it gets easier.
On Sunday night, we watched a documentary on fasting. It educated us on all types of fasting. Including intermittent fasting, water-only fasting, religious fasting, weight loss, chronic disease like cancer, hypertension, diabetes and more. The one that stood out to us was intermittent fasting because this is the one that is most common. Have you ever had to fast before doing bloodwork? This is intermittent fasting because you don’t eat after dinner, then go straight to the doctor when you wake up on an empty stomach. Water is the only permissible drink during such fast.
Giddily after our movie dinner and dessert, we jumped right in and fasted from 7 pm Sunday to 4 pm Monday. 2020 herald a 4 day work week for me, with Mondays off. We worked out for 1 hour 45 minutes including the walks to and from the park.
It was easier than we thought! We continued fasting during the week–after dinner at 7 or 8 pm until lunch between 1:30 to 2:30 pm. On Friday, I finally succumbed to the crepes that my wife had lovingly packed for me as an emergency lunch at work.
My Positive side effects of fasting
- Not thinking about food so much.
- Fewer cravings.
- Body positive – it helps that my stomach stays flat throughout the day as I work off my holiday food of yesteryear.
- Enjoying food more when I have it.
- Eating slower.
- Being satiated with one full serving instead of eating more and more, until I feel like I’m about to explode.
- Taking my 10k steps seriously and being overall more healthy
- Drinking more water and herbal teas to cleanse and feel less empty, especially teas in the morning which warms me.
With all the above benefits I have experienced, I will continue intermittent fasting for as long as it feels good for my body as I feel that normalizing fasting for better health is important.
What to know about a shampoo (bar)?
Nature lovers headache: who would have known that a transfer from your everyday shampoo to an all-organic shampoo bar can be such a hassle?
I must admit that honestly for the longest time, I really didn’t give much thought about what I was washing my hair with. If it was in a container, it promised many good things and it was meant for hair, I was okay using it! I mean, how wrong can one go with a shampoo anyway. Right? Shampoo bar-say what?
By now I have found the hard truth on my own and it is not pretty. Transitioning from consumer products to all-natural products may be a bit complicated. The new items may not give the wished results. It may even give worse!!
Let me share my painful path from using any shampoo to an all-natural shampoo bar.
Why did I decide to start using a shampoo bar?
Since the late spring of 2018, we have been trying not to bring plastic home. Though we were really committed to not buying plastic, we oftentimes still did. Mostly when buying groceries. Also, we weren’t really committed to the whole idea, ass we were thinking like a usual Aldi, Lidl, or any grocery store user. If it was not there to grab plastic-free, then it probably doesn’t exist.
We agreed to use up what we already had in plastic containers and plastic packaging. And then make a change gradually, when we run out of different items. It took us some time to get to change our plastic toothbrushes to bamboo ones. We just recently made the switch to a toothpowder, as we used up our last tube of organic toothpaste that we cheaply stocked up on when leaving Bulgaria in the summer of 2017. Unfortunately, we are still using plastic razors, given to us by friends, so…anyways, back to shampoo containers.
My first shampoo bar – let the…misery begin!
When the last non-fuzz shampoo bottle was finished, I asked for a shampoo bar as a present for my birthday. I was so excited, as I knew the bar will come in a tin box. Or at least in a cardboard box. Well, it didn’t! It came in a little plastic bag. Oh, well. At least I tried. I wish this could have been the least of my worries with this new shampoo bar!
I took my new bar out of the package (less plastic packing than an average shampoo container) and it really felt like something special. The bar consists of wheat proteins and yellow clay. I loved its shape and size – a perfect fit for my hand and easy to apply. It lathered very well and smelled fresh, not like the average shampoo. I was happy and satisfied when drying my hair.
After a few hours of drying, I felt that my hair felt dirty. It didn’t feel anything like before washing – it felt worse! I thought okay, this is my own fault, as I thought I didn’t rinse my hair properly. I have had this issue before in my younger years – too eager to get out of the shower. My hair is really thick and long, so probably I need more care when rinsing.
When my hair was completely dry, it all looked clean and felt nice. Except for the area near my neck, the nape, which seemed to have quite a big section of smelly sebum infused clumps of hair. Since most of the time I keep my hair in a ponytail anyway, it wasn’t a big problem for me to chew through.
Here we go again!
After a week (I wash my hair once a week), it was time to wash my hair again. I washed as before and rinsed. More thoroughly this time. No luck – still the same results as before! I continued like this for almost two months. Putting so much effort each time to rinsing thoroughly. I divided my hair into different parts to concentrate more on each section.
I forgot to research the hair washing problems with a shampoo bar before washing my hair. So I kind of got used to this. And also hoping that different times would give me different results. I also believed that this was some kind of transition period anyway. I started thinking that perhaps this particular bar is not meant for my hair type.
On one fine day, I remembered to research the problem. When I found out, what was the cause of it – I was blown away. This is a common issue and it takes just a few easy steps to solve this disaster. Thanks to Chagrin Valley Soap and Salve, it all made complete sense! I made the following discovery:
Commercial liquid shampoos and conditioners often contain synthetic silicones and silica that coat your hair, to make it “feel” nice, but leave a residue in your hair. Styling products and your own natural sweat and oil production can add to residue build up.
The detergent shampoos with loads of SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate) are very good at stripping EVERYTHING (even those natural oils we want) and ridding your hair of residue.
Clarifying your hair is a way to remove the build-up some products leave on your hair which can make your hair dull and lifeless. Regular household baking soda (Sodium Bicarbonate aka Baking soda) is an easy clarifier to use.
Source: CVSAS
Baking soda to the rescue – once again!
My hair was emitting all the crap that I had been using for years. Once I realized this – it gave me back my hope! I didn’t blame myself anymore on the fact that I didn’t know how to wash my hair. Nor did I blame the soap. There were now solutions to try and I was ready to change the situation.
Hard water and/or residue from previous products can cause shampoo bar adjustment problems. To tackle both of these problems, baking soda rinse can make miracles.
My recommended rescue regimen for the first month, when transitioning to a bar shampoo:
- Make a simple baking soda clarifying hair rinse using:
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 – 2 cups warm water
- Make your hair wet under the shower and then add the above-mentioned rinse.
- Wash your hair with your shampoo bar – just circling the hair edges on the scalp and scattering the lather all over the head.
- Sprinkle a bit of baking soda on your fingers and massage it on the scalp. Do it in several areas of your head.
- Rinse your hair thoroughly and dry.
- Spray some ACV-water (3 tbsp of apple cider vinegar and a half cup of water) mixture on damp my hair.
After a month I stopped doing everything else, I just continued using a bit of baking soda on my fingers and my scalp, while washing. I haven’t had any problems since. But I haven’t dared to stop using baking soda while washing altogether, as the experience was too painful to go through again.
Share your experiences and tips in the comments, please!
Some valuable links to help your transition to a shampoo bar smoother:
- What is an Apple Cider Vinegar Rinse and when to use it – Apple Cider Vinegar Rinse
- How to wash your hair the best using shampoo bar – hair washing techniques
and
Canada’s food guide is a victory for vegans
As Canada’s food guide tagline states: eat well, live well. Vegans have known this all along. If not for the animals and the planet, then for your health.
As a child, I remember flipping through the colourful few pages of Canada’s food guide. It was accessible at school and at different offices, probably including the doctor’s office. As I flipped the pages, I noticed the daily requirements of each food group, thinking of how I could possibly eat more fruits and vegetables.
As an adult, before becoming vegan, I still felt discouraged by the high serving sizes of fruits and vegetables. Why? Well, even my younger self intuitively knew that these foods were best for me. With vitamins, minerals, and life-saving properties, unlike the brown and white recommended protein, grains and dairy products.
In January 2019, Canada finally released an updated food guide (the last was in 1992) that is much more well-rounded. As well, it is a great teaching tool for the population to take our health in our own hands by consuming more of the foods that we intuitively know is better for our bodies.
Source: Canada’s food guide wiki
What the food guide highlights:
No serving sizes
This is fantastic for people who like me, felt discouraged by the daily recommendations… Is a bowl of grapes two servings or one? Are grapes too sweet to compare to a serving of berries? You see, the serving sizes can complicate things, and take the attention away from the main thing, which is to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables.
Have plenty of fruits and vegetables (1/2 of your plate)
Increase intake of plant-based foods
The new Canadian food guide simply illustrated that most foods consumed should be plants. There is no emphasis on animal products, which we should consume minimally if at all. This is a great achievement for vegans! It is known that animal foods can increase the risk of chronic diseases like heart attacks and cancer. Plant-based foods, on the other hand, are known to reverse chronic disease.
but a known fact.
Canada’s Food Guide states…
Eat protein foods (a 1/4 of your plate)
There are many alternative plant-based sources of protein as pictured above. These include but not limited to lentils, chickpeas, beans, tofu, nuts, and seeds.
The heart and stroke foundation promotes the consumption of protein as per the Canada food guide animal foods as a normal part of nutrition, without mentioning the link between the illness they seek to cure. On a positive note, the foundation encourages choosing plant-based protein more often.
”Canada’s Food Guide recommends that protein foods should make up a quarter of your plate and be consumed regularly. Eat more plant-based protein. When choosing your protein foods, opt for plant-based more often. Plant-based protein foods can provide more fibre and less saturated fat than other type of protein foods.”
A long-term study published in October 2016 finds a link between the cardiovascular cause of death, animal protein intake. And at least one risk factor such as limited exercise, smoking, alcohol intake, obesity, etc. The study followed two large populations of nurses and other health professionals from the 1980s to 2012.
”Moreover, we observed that substitution of plant protein for animal protein from a variety of food sources, particularly processed red meat, was associated with a lower risk for mortality, suggesting that the protein source is important for long-term health.”
Canada’s Food Guide recommends…
Eat whole grains (a 1/4 of your plate)
The emphasis is on “whole”. Simple carbohydrates are unhealthy because they spike blood sugar levels quickly. And the false energy spike that we get short-lived, leaving us tired and hungry. Whole grains are closer to what nature intended. They keep us fuller longer and don’t digest as quickly, so they don’t affect our blood sugar at the same rate.
Choose brown rice, red rice or wild rice over white rice when possible.
Opt for millet, amaranth, and quinoa over simple carbs
Whenever possible, eat spelt, Ezekiel or sprouted grain bread over white or “whole wheat” bread.
Better yet, choose gluten-free bread. Whatever you do, see how you feel after eating food.
Notice that wheat hasn’t been mentioned. This is because the wheat crop of today is not like the past.
‘Today’s wheat is greatly genetically modified to grow faster and provide a higher yield of wheat per acre. More food to the starving poor was a blessing, but could there be disadvantages with the modern super wheat?” Source
Many people have discovered that eating wheat/gluten causes a “foggy brain”, a sluggishness and bloating. Even worse, many people’s health is threatened due to celiac disease, while others, as mentioned above, are simply sensitive to wheat gluten.
Also, when food is overproduced, appears in most processed foods, we should probably be careful of it, ie. wheat and soy.
Canada’s Food Guide suggests…
Make water your drink of choice
The above suggestion is self-explanatory, but why must we drink enough water?
Nutritionists agree that to say that our body needs water is a gross understatement, after all, water is key in the body’s function:
- all organs of the body use water
- for digestion
- nutrient absorption
- produces and cleanse our blood
- cleanses the body of waste
- regulates body temperature and much more.
Dr. Robertai Lee explains American’s chronic dehydration at Medicine Daily, stating that “60 percent of our body is composed of water, 75 percent in our muscles, 85 percent in our brains, it’s like oil to a machine”.
Have you seen documentaries like 127 hours where a man trapped on a mountain survives for days after drinking water? His likelihood of survival increased because dehydration can kill us faster than starvation, so get a metal or glass water bottle and drink water!
Still, there is the fear of drinking too much water, but in truth, most of us don’t drink enough pure water. The water contained in processed drinks doesn’t count!
Many people aim for 8 cups of water, but most of us don’t drink nearly this much, yet as Diabetes Strong explains, for Diabetics, “Even a mild level of dehydration – something you may not even feel – could easily leave your blood sugar levels 50 to 100 mg/dL higher than if you were drinking enough water”.
Canada’s food guide simplifies nutrition for us, but it is key that we take a personal interest in what we consume, how active we are, and how many ‘bad habits’ we have because these factors affect the quality of our life today and in the future.
What do you think of the Canada food guide?
References:
- Nutrition Studies.org
- Song M, Fung T, Hu FB, et al. Association of Animal and Plant Protein Intake With All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality. JAMA Intern Med 2016.
- The Daily Meal
- Diet Doctor.com
Mattress odors “be gone” with these simple steps
We are happy owners of the old new bed. But there is a slight issue of odors, we have to tackle before our sleep can be safe and sound.
After the cleaning of our new old mattress, it’s time to tackle the odors problem. As previously mentioned, it came from a smoker’s household which means it had a nasty stench of smoke. Sounds quite nasty and I can imagine you all squinting while reading these lines, but rest assured the mattress came with a mattress protector and a full-on zip cover, which we took off and all we saw was an old-school foam mattress of an IKEA bed.
Was it that bad?
The cover was stained, and the odors of smoke were strong. Neither of us can stand the smell of smoke, so naturally, we oppose smoking. By now, you can imagine how little we wanted this addition in our clean and tidy household.
I ripped off the covers of the mattress and squeezed it all into the bathtub (thank god for having one!). I used the hottest tap water to clean the preliminary filth off. I got most of the surface dirt out after soaking it for half an hour. Then I put the mattress cover and the protector to the washer and washed it at the highest temperature to clean it as much as possible.
While the covers were in a washing machine, I started wrestling with the 2-meter long mattress on our balcony. Before that, I did thorough research on how to get cigarette smell out of the mattress. Unfortunately, there is not much information out there. The wisdom I obtained from the few sources proved the be trustworthy and will become a good help.
Simple steps, for a clean and fresh smelling mattress:
- Use a vacuum on a low suction setting. Vacuum the mattress with the vacuum’s upholstery attachment to remove any dirt and dust, which are in the cover. If you have a traditional mattress, remove the cover and do the same covering both sides.
- If you notice vacuuming doesn’t give results, then try the old-school tapping the mattress with a carpet flapper.
- Using a spray bottle fill it with equal amounts of water and distilled white vinegar. Lightly spray the surface of the mattress. Apply enough of the solution to dampen the upholstery but not to saturate it. The same goes for the plain foam mattress.
- Allow the mattress to air-dry. Flip it over and spray the other side similarly. Allow it to air-dry.
- Cover the mattress in a thin coat of baking soda. Let it sit overnight and soak up the odors. Vacuum the baking soda off the mattress in the morning.
- Flip the mattress and cover the other side with baking soda. Let it sit overnight. Vacuum it off in the morning.
- If possible take your mattress on the tarp out for the day, letting it absorb the direct sunlight. Bring the mattress indoors overnight, then expose the other side to the sun the following day or keep it in a balcony, as what I did. We had quite warm nights and no rain, so luck was on our side!
Keep going, a full night’s rest will be your reward!
I repeated points 2, 3 and 7 over and over to make sure that the smoke stench had disappeared. I was really surprised about the vinegar-water solution, which really made the whole situation hopeful for me and indeed provided us a clean-smelling mattress.
When the mattress cover and the mattress protector were all nicely wind-dried on the clothesline I put them back on the mattress. Finally, I sprinkled some lavender essential oil on them to add a nice and relaxing fragrance of our favorite plant.
Ah, the smell of success!
In all, it took me a week to get the mattress to the frame of the bed, so we could enjoy our 10€ salvaged bed. I can tell that those 15 minutes I spent every day working on the mattress was completely worth it. Good luck working on yours. If you come across any new tips, please be kind and share them below in the comments.
You may profit from reading this article on how to get odors out of your mattress.
*UPDATE – I have successfully cleaned the vintage shoulder bag inner lining, which smelled like mold and old things, but the vinegar-water solution really did the game again.
First steps on shopping plastic-free
A year ago we decided to cut down bringing plastic into our home. Following is the result of our first time trying plastic-free shopping. Our future is bright!
June 2018 thoughts
Those who have read our earlier posts know that we are on the path of consuming less, saving more, putting our minds and home into a minimalism mode and trying to survive without a fridge and buying less plastic. We can manage with most of the above-mentioned things just fine. Now we have to tackle the plastic matter. Is it possible to shop plastic-free?
Little (plastic-free) steps do matter
So far the first month has passed quite nicely for us. As we were able to save food from going to waste. Eve rescued it from the work canteen. So we were able to save more money and put it into our savings. Eve’s posts should give you a better overview of this subject. We haven’t been buying a lot. As all the little things we need, we already have. And if we have run out of something, then we are always looking to buy it in a glass, tin can or some other form, except in plastic.
Since it is the end of the month, it means we are ought to cook a complete new vegan meal we always have wanted to cook. This is part of celebrating our wedding date every month. I guess you need some kind of traditions in your family. And we are proud that we can join our forces on something we both love equally, maybe Eve a bit more than me – food!
Let’s investigate the (plastic-free?) haul
Let’s talk about the photo below, our haul for the anniversary cooking. Most things on the picture we bought for the two-course meal: oven-baked nachos and American style strawberry cake. As you can see most is in glass or in tin jars. (There will be a post soon talking about the difference between a can and a can) BUT of course, there are few BUT’s: starting from the left, vitamin B and Magnesium drink tablets, lemon extract, margarine, toothbrushes, glass noodles, nachos and strawberries in a plastic container. The potatoes are in a recyclable green bag.*
What we failed at?
The toothbrushes – we desperately needed them (I know, what a lousy excuse!). But we could have waited a day and get a bamboo one from some other store.
Vitamin drinks, as we are deficient on B12 and Mg, and had no medicine by hand.
Lemon extract, well not sure why did we buy it maybe thinking of using it for a long time. Definitely not to be bought in the future in such form.
Margarine was a must for the cake and since there are not really many vegan options available in the first place, let’s not even go to plastic-free options here…perhaps in the near future.
Glass noodles are our favorites and we have really grown on them. But if consuming them means bringing all this plastic home, then I think we should change our habits than continue this flow of plastic.
Nachos, are there really plastic-free options?
Strawberries, after we bought them we thought they could have poured them all in the red plastic bag, what we had with us. So we could have saved three containers, but since we were on a long walk from the store with heavy bags, we realized when reaching home it all would have been a big mush.
This amount of plastic really made my heart hurt. It was the last time we did such a purchase. Next time we would have our own containers or bags with us not to take anything from the farmer.
So there you go, not bad at all, but many changes could still be done. Moral of the story:
prepare ahead of time, know your needs, do your research and bring your own containers or bags, when shopping for produce.
November 2019 plastic-free update
As time has passed, we have become more environmentally aware, conscious of our actions and adjusted our needs. Also, we have found alternatives for products coming in plastic containers in different stores.
Let’s see what has changed 1,5 year later:
*Vitamin B and Magnesium drink tablets – we no longer buy them. They come only in plastic and are not really healthy. We have liquid B12 we take from a glass jar.
*Lemon extract – this actually lasted for a while, as we finished it perhaps a month ago. But now we would never buy it. As real lemon is the real way to go!
*Margarine – it is a very processed product, so we have been avoiding it. We mostly use coconut oil now. Recently we found small cubes in the store, which come in paper.
*Toothbrushes – we have turned a long time ago to bamboo brushes.
*Glass noodles – we have stopped buying those. Have twice bought big bags of noodles to last us for long.
*Nachos – haven’t bought any since then!
*Strawberries – we have always put them in our own containers.
Stay tuned to read more about our current life, while aiming for zero-waste, plastic-free, and less consuming life.
November – no spend month!
Some call it Morevember, we call it no spend November! In other words, we decided not to spend any money, but the universe had other plans!
We like challenges and we always like to take new steps to help our Earth in crisis. Most of the food we get on these days is free. We try to avoid plastic packaging and supermarkets. Our means of transportation is public or bike. We swap our clothes instead of buying them. So it should be no surprise that we decided to call November a no spend a month.
Why did I spend on wafer i.e. failing on the first day
Well, after a long day I found myself starving and heading to a grocery store. I usually do not buy food from stores like that, but I was in a pickle and needed to grab something. My first pick would have been a banana. Love these and they come package-free. But unfortunately, they were really green, so this option was out.
Secondly, I was looking at a Stollen. I never had that, though I have purchased it as a present for the family for Christmas. I realized that it was actually vegan. Sure, I wanted it! But since it was wrapped in a plastic wrapping and deeply covered in powdered sugar, I decided to pass. I couldn’t imagine myself biting into it and walking in the streets while carrying heavy bags. Then I saw the package of four wafers, similar to the world-famous Austrian Manner wafer, packed in an alu foil. It seems that this is a bit better material than just plain clear plastic. The price was wonderful at 0.99 cents. So this was the first purchase we did on the 1st day of no spend November.
Money is spent, but for the others
The failure on the first days was made up nicely, as we didn’t buy anything for ourselves for weeks. Money was still spent, as we entertained a few times and needed some groceries bought. If we wouldn’t have had anybody coming over, we wouldn’t have bought those items. I am not going to list them, as they were a whipped cream for a Thanksgiving pumpkin pie we baked, some potatoes, bok choy, etc.
Groceries for others: 15,22 €
Most of the money we spent on others was due to approaching the Christmas holidays. Since it will be for some time the last Christmas we are going to spend with family, we wanted to pamper then this time. Then again, if you look at the number below it is not much. But it is not final, some items have to be added.
Presents for others: 138,20 €
We are not materialistic people and we do not put so much value on the fancy stuff people usually are. Like no iPhone gadgets will be gifted or some brand names bought. We had names drawn and so we each make presents based on the list of that person had written down. We will add come little items, we know they want for sure.
What we spend on ourselves
The total of money spend, except the tickets we had to buy to commute to work, was 16,95 €.
Items bought:
- 0,99 wafer 1.11 – kind of necessary
- 2,79 Veganz cookies 18.11 – unnecessary
- 1,99 vegan ice cream for the date night 26.11 – kind of necessary
- 2,40 € sweets to share with our friend, when she was visiting 29.11 – not really needed
- 2,49 € toilet paper 30.11 – ran out, could have used the extra free tissue we had obtained…
- 6,29 € surprise present for Eve – I could have waited for December to buy it, so unnecessary
Eating out: 21 €
10 € for a shared vegan meal combo, while meeting a friend
11 € on Black Friday, when we were out with friends and got some little things for family, we both had burrito bowls.
Conclusion
As you can see we didn’t manage to avoid not spending any money. 16,95 € is not a whole lot of money shared between two people but could have definitely avoided. We just gave in to our needs. Sugar craving crept in. This is another subject we will try to manage after the holidays. Eating out twice during the holiday season wasn’t that bad as well. It probably will happen again.
We will definitely try to spend no money in 30 days again. It was fun and it was refreshing. Most of all I liked the idea of not going to any stores and not needing anything. Hopefully, we can try this again in January, as we have still lots of food at home, which we can make many meals out of. This will also inspire saving food from canteen and food sharing. This would be the main place to get out fruits and vegetables.
That leaves us just the toilet paper issue…
The beginner’s guide to composting at home
Composting is a vital step that we all take to reduce the current garbage crisis. In other words: roll up your sleeves!
Composting is an option to manage food waste. It is the process by which organic material is decomposed in order to provide nutrients and fuel to enrich the
There have been different studies on the efficiency of household composting. One of these found that on average, composting saved 125 kg of waste per person per year. (The link of this research can be found at the end of this post.) If you do not trash your organic waste, your garbage doesn’t fill up so easily as well.
Let’s get back to those harmful greenhouse gases, which appears when food decomposes in a landfill. As it is underground, which means that it doesn’t have any access to oxygen. It undergoes a process called anaerobic decomposition. This releases methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. The better and less harmful is when organic matter decomposes above ground in compost. Since it has access to oxygen, it undergoes aerobic decomposition, which doesn’t generate methane.
All you need to know on composting
If you choose to compost, the process is quite simple, but there are some guidelines to know.
You can compost eggshells, nutshells, teabags, coffee grounds, fruits, vegetables, and other plant matter.
You cannot compost dairy products, grease, oils, bones, and meat scraps.
If you are composting at home:
- Select a dry shady spot in your yard to keep your compost.
- Mix food scraps with plant materials such as dead leaves or branches.
- Add water to your compost pile as needed to encourage decomposition.
- Turn over your compost pile regularly to mix the top additions into the base of the pile.
Composting at a small apartment, the cold method
If you have limited space in your apartment, which is common in big cities, you might think that composting is not for you. Luckily there are two easy ways to compost indoors.
The simple way is called vermicomposting, which is managed by the help of worms to break down the organic matter.
The idea is simple:
You need a bin with a lid, filled with soil and some red wiggler worms. Now, your organic matter is ready to dump in there. The worms will do the work to break down your garbage into something called castings, which are extremely rich in nutrients. Then you can transplant your castings into potted plants or a small garden. At the end of the post, you can find a link, which describes vermicomposting in full-depth.
Composting in the backyard, the cold method
This method of composting for people is for those who live in the suburbs, in the countryside or just happen to have a backyard. The low-maintenance composting is the so-called cold method. It requires an enclosed area or an unused spot where you dump all available leaves, yard waste, and grass into the pile. Now, wait six months to two years, then continuously more stuff to it, and turn it around a bit with a rake or a shovel. You’re done, it will eventually decompose.
This is what the gardeners in our area are kindly doing, though I do not think that people actually turn the piles around.
The hot method of composting
The hot method is for those, who do not want to wait around but rather do some muscle work. For this method, the right type of “starter” material is needed. That involves an equal balance of ingredients that are carbon-rich and nitrogen-rich.
Things like paper, twigs, and leaves are rich in carbon, while grass, coffee and, tea grounds, fruit, and vegetables are rich in nitrogen. The proper mixture is key – you should have far more carbon than nitrogen. Once you have enough material to create a pile that is at least 1 by 1 meter, start adding the organic matter in. When carbon and nitrogen are mixed, the microorganisms inside will begin their work immediately and the mixture will keep heating up at first, but after about a month, it will cool down and finish the composting at about half that temperature. It takes a few month’s time, but the process will yield nutrient-rich soil that you can use throughout your garden.
The fact is if you are composting at home or bringing your food scraps elsewhere to be composted, you are benefiting the environment with minimal effort.
If you happen to keep a home garden, you will soon see the benefit as your soil quality improves and your plants and universe thank you!
Tips for writing this post came from Maximumyield.com and Popsci.com
Read more: How about organic waste?
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