Two cents on becoming a vegan
I was vegetarian for many years because I thought being vegan was impossible. I put vegans on a pedestal. My journey may inspire you like others have inspired me.
Tag: environment
Homemade laundry detergent, a bang for your money
Making your own all-natural and cheap laundry detergent can be a bit of a hassle. Avoid failure and learn from my mistakes.
Cleaning your mattress is easy as baking soda
Now we are happy owners of a free bed plus many other items of furniture. How to clean the mattress and what keep to mind, when caring for new old things?
The five items we got were free, but for the van rental, we had to pay – 50€. Divided by the items, each item cost us 10€. Not bad, not bad at all. Plus on top of it, we got a mirror and two floor/doormats!
Anyway, one thing you definitely have to keep in mind, when getting things for free, is their condition. They may come from a neat household, well-taken care of and tidy. Or from a smoker’s home, with stains, smells, and signs of wear. If you have never brought free furniture into your home, it may be a bit scary, as the items may need some work. In our case, the mattress needed the most care.
You may be thinking, why talk about about a bed (or you may wonder why to save one from a landfill), as this is what we just use when sleeping. That’s it, this is the reason we need to talk about it and take care of it. I hope this post will help people like myself. I had to do thorough research on the internet to complete my cleaning task.
Get to know your mattress
Our mattress came with a cover and an extra cover. These were both dirty. Had stains and everything smelled of cigar smoke. Pretty gross – for many a garbage, but for us a treasure, which needed a little TLC. I wasn’t sure if the cleaning was going to work out. Really, how was I supposed to get rid of the smoking smell??? Google to rescue. After my many unfruitful searches, finally, a treasure revealed itself – Clean My Space. I really enjoyed their video and the “leading actress” does a great role, talking about cleaning and maintenance.
What to keep in mind while cleaning the mattress and maintaining it:
*cleaning mattress is not only necessary, when getting a used mattress, but it has to be carried out with every one you are owning and using to sleep on, even if they are brand new and once came from the store, like brand new;
*mattresses become extremely dirty, as we sweat every night a lot, which all will be stored in the mattress, therefore the airing of mattress and your bedclothes is very important;
*turn and flip your mattress every season;
*no water/liquids on your mattress, especially on memory foam mattresses, use a fan to try any wet spots;
*get the protector to protect your mattress, wash it and clean often;
*most mattresses are not cleanable, as they do not come with a cover, you can zip off
Cleaning a mattress without a zip-off cover
If the cover can’t be zipped off, then you should follow these steps:
*vacuum the mattress, to get rid of whatever may be there; do that at least once a season;
*deodorize your mattress, while shifting baking soda on your mattress and letting it sit for a little and then vacuuming it off, adding few drops of essential oils, will add a nice aroma to the cleaning;
*spot cleaning and stains, better tune in the video to get a complete overview of the stain types and how to handle them, but the main thing to know is, tackle the stains ASAP.
Take a look at the video HERE.
Clean My Space is an awesome outlet for all cleaning related questions you may ever have, check them definitely out!
The place where we are living at the moment is not our permanent home. So, therefore, all these mishaps are easier to handle. As we really do not want to bury so much money into something we are not going to use in the long run. Remember you can use these tips in your permanent home. Don’t be afraid of trying.
Read more on how we managed to get the cigarette smells out of our old new mattress in our future posts!
Being vegetarian before vegan is unnecessary
Being vegetarian? How come I wasn’t aware of the word vegan? As a teenager, I worked at a grocery store near my house and I was a cashier. I remember being at the first belt near the door, the worst position when it was winter. …
What is being vegan all about?
Sounds simple? On top of it all, vegans do not wear leather, wool, silk or any other fabrics derived from animals and also do not use products tested on animals. Vegans are known to be more environmentally friendly, active, healthier and often avoid smoking, alcohol, and drugs.
How can you not have a fridge?!
Do we really need a fridge or it has become one of those commodity items in our households? Read here about our life without a fridge in a quite warm climate.
While looking for furniture for our new home, we were also looking to get a fridge. Our new kitchen didn’t come with one. We wanted just something small for our little needs. I almost got the fridge and was quite happy about it. But when I showed the ad to my friend asking for his help to pick it up, he said it was an old model and probably uses lots of electricity.
This got me thinking, do we really need a fridge? Google came to help and I came across a wonderful article at a very lovely webpage www.survivalsullivan.com. They had published a gorgeous article on How to live without a fridge. After finishing it – I was sold. Hahaaa, I am such an easy customer! Read below and see if these few points would work for you to start your own adventure. You can find the link of the whole article below.
Is it possible to live without a fridge?
Our major reason for going fridge-free was that it was a hassle to get one and we wanted trying out living green. Fridges suck up a lot of electricity, so we were open to using less electricity.
Remember I wrote about a change. The idea of having no fridge was nicely adding to the big picture of changing our habits and start saving some money. We were eagerly making this big step, a change and be different. I know we all are afraid of being different. But it doesn’t hurt to test the waters and get comfortable in your own skin and with your choices.
Going fridge free is super easy when you are vegan!
If you do not consume any animal products, which usually demand being stored in the fridge, you really do not need a fridge. Or if you are mostly eating fruits and vegetables, legumes, grains, condiments and as luck has it – none of those really have to be in the fridge. Keep in mind something when buying fruits and vegetables. Though the produce may not come from the fridge in the shopping hall, they most likely were kept in the fridge. It is easy to understand when touching the fruit/vegetable. If possible it is recommended to purchase those items, which weren’t refrigerated before.
NB! If you are not vegan, don’t worry Survival Sullivan has you still covered for making it a step closer becoming fridge-free!
Forgetting having a fridge if you have any of these:
*A cold room in the basement
*A root cellar
*Large 5-gallon buckets (get used ones from wine or grocery store) and place them in a hole in your yard; if the bucket has a lid and the food is underground, it will stay cooler
*A cooler or cooler bag
*A zeer pot or pot-in-pot refrigerator (one smaller clay or terracotta pot inside a larger pot and separated by a barrier of wet sand)
*The great outdoors, such as a backyard or balcony, which is obviously only an option for people who live in colder climates.
We are lucky to have a basement just below us. So it is easy to go there and store vegetables or whatever needs a cooler environment. Plus, it is great to also have a balcony, which I can already imagine, treats us well in the wintertime. Especially during the colder times, we can buy more products, which otherwise need refrigerating.
So how do you feel? Ready to make that big change? If not fully, then give yourself a month or two and see if you manage. As you can always get a fridge if you need.
Read Survival Sullivan’s article how to live without a fridge HERE.
*UPDATE! We survived the hot summer with a constant degree of 30 C and nothing we cooked went bad. All the food stored in the basement was edible. We are completely satisfied and definitely, we are not looking for a fridge in our life.
… A note from Eve:
When Kerly first brought up the idea of living without a fridge, I was more supportive than even I thought I would be. Again, after living on so little for months, I was simply happy to have a beautiful roof over our heads. Living minimally makes sense in the mind and heart too. It feels good to choose to live on less. I was ready for the challenge, therefore positive.
The biggest blessing and an important factor in the no fridge equation is our cold room located in the basement. As Kerly stated, living on the first floor is a huge blessing because we care able to have immediate access. At first, I enjoyed taking a backseat while Kerly went up and down with food, but I soon started going myself.
She also made it super homey, by cleaning and organizing this massive storage/fridge of ours. Adding a new LED light made it even more comfortable. It’s now beautiful, bright when we need to see everything, and most of all, it helps us live happily fridge-free!