A Day in My Plastic-Free Life: Part 2
In the first part of “A Day in My Plastic-Free Life“, I go through a typical Friday which includes grocery shopping during my lunch break. Since most potential plastic waste comes from food, Fridays and Saturdays are the days where I do the most shopping for food.
So, here’s a typical Saturday for me.
HERE COMES THE SUN (DO-DUN-DO-DO)
I let my toddler wake me up on Saturdays. Sometimes she even lets me sleep until 7:30 am! It’s glorious.
I get a bottle of milk started for her then start collecting the first load of laundry. After having skin issues during my pregnancy, I switched to this seventh generation powdered laundry detergent.
For a while I made a homemade laundry soap but after reading how laundry soaps basically trap dirt and bacteria in your clothes instead of washing it away like detergent, I went back to purchasing detergent.
After putting the first load of laundry in the washer, I brush my teeth with homemade toothpaste and get dressed for a 2-mile run.
RUN, RUN, RUDOLPH
I know it’s not Christmas anymore, but I’m going through Christmas music withdrawals.
Half way through 2019 I made a goal to run four days a week. I would usually run right before I ate lunch during the weekdays. As I mentioned in “How Plastic-Free Living Helps You Stick to a New Year’s Resolution“, my co-worker started training for a marathon, so I would do some short runs with her. This made the running so much easier since it was just a fun conversation with my coworker.
Now, I’ve started running on the weekends to free up some of my lunches at work.
As I mentioned in “5 Tips for a Plastic-Free Workout“, I choose to work out in organic cotton clothing for a few reasons.
- Natural fibers breathe better
- Traditional cotton is very chemical intensive
- I don’t want plastic microfibers shedding from my clothes
When you wash your clothes regardless of the material, it sheds tiny microfibers. When natural fibers are released, they eventually biodegrade. But when synthetic materials release fibers, their microfibers have the same effects as plastic because synthetic materials like polyester and nylon are essentially plastic.
So, it’s important to choose natural fibers like cotton. I talk more about natural fibers in “11 Tips for an Eco-Friendly Wardrobe“.
BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S (BUT REALLY OLIVIA’S)
After my run I make some coffee using my Chemex coffee maker.
For breakfast nearly every day, I eat a mixture of baby kale, roasted red onions and king oyster mushrooms.
After I eat breakfast, I switch over the first load of laundry from the washer to the dryer. I know it is much more eco-friendly to hang dry your clothes. However, since we wash our clothes with cold water and it’s winter, they would never be sterilized. Your clothes either need to be exposed to direct sunlight or be exposed to heat for them to be sterilized.
By sterilize I mean killing the bacteria to ensure it doesn’t grow on your clothes. If your clothes smell after the wash that means they probably haven’t been sterilized. Wash and sterilize are not the same thing! Washing is just removing physical dirt off your clothes, but bacteria could still be lingering on your clothes.
Long story short, I dry my clothes in the dryer during the winter. I don’t use dryer sheets or wool dryer balls I just toss all the clothes in the dryer.
SAY HI TO SHIRLEY AT THE FARMER’S MARKET
I head to the farmer’s market to pick up my fruits and vegetables. Usually I buy all the seasonal fruits and vegetables at the farmer’s market and let that dictate our meals.
Here is a typical farmer’s market haul:
- celery
- broccoli
- cauliflower
- baby kale
- baby spinach
- lettuce
- Italian broccoli
- cilantro
- napa cabbage
- bok choy
- daikon
- raisins
- strawberries
- blackberries
- Asian pears
- oranges
Just like my butcher, Phil, at my locally-owned grocery store, I love chatting with my fruit farmer Shirley and her son Tim. It’s nice to support people you know and like.
I use a lot of mesh produce bags at the farmer’s market.
I get baby kale and spinach from a Filipino farmer (I feel bad because I can’t remember her name right now) who packages them in plastic bags. I simply shake out all the leaves into my mesh produce bags and then hand the plastic bag back to her. I made sure she would reuse them before doing this.
I bring these large 32-oz wide-mouth mason jars to get berries at the farmer’s market. It keeps my berries from getting crushed and saves me from using those plastic berry boxes. I checked to make sure they reuse those as well. My berry guy is named Jesus. He’s a third-generation berry farmer!
After I get home, I put away all the produce and start making my large batch of breakfast veggies for the week.
MMM…MAC & CHEESE
I usually make the kids homemade mac and cheese for lunch on Saturdays. This is an easy and nearly plastic-free meal as I use dried pasta from a paper box, milk from a glass container, and cheese which I get from the deli and bring home in beeswax wraps.
I love this roll of beeswax wrap from Bees 4 Seas. Most beeswax wraps are pre-cut for sizes that are too small. With this huge roll I can cut big pieces to wrap the large cheese blocks I get from the deli.
Oftentimes my husband will pick up sandwiches for him and I. Sandwiches are easy since they are wrapped in paper which we use to hold our compost in the freezer until “trash day” where we get trash, recycling, and compost picked up.
I pull out the first load of laundry and switch over the second load. We luckily only have two loads of laundry per week but it’s still a lot of laundry…not my favorite. :/
TAKIN’ CARE OF BUSINESS
After lunch it’s quiet time or nap time for my kids. I use this time to clean the bathrooms, do other chores, and work on my blog. When cleaning my bathroom, I only use three ingredients: baking soda, vinegar and Castile soap. I go into more detail about how I clean my house in “Plastic-Free Cleaning“.
It usually takes me about 30 minutes to clean the three bathrooms. After this I put away the first load of laundry. This usually also takes about 30 minutes. I recently started listening to a short podcast during this time because I’m one of those people who needs to squeeze every last ounce out of a day–I might need professional help.
After my chores are finished, I sit down at the dining room table and work on my blog. If you’ve been following my trash audits, you know I break the months up into weeks to review my trash. I start and end my week on Fridays, so I take the week’s pictures on Saturday.
Here’s an example from December:
AND THAT’S ALL FOLKS
The rest of the day is very similar to the Friday night routine. Dinner, shower, bathe the kids, put them to bed and then relax. I won’t repeat the details here.
What does your day look like? Did seeing my day give you some ideas on how you can reduce plastic in your day? If so, tell me in the comments!
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