1)I pick up hair ties off sidewalks and hiking trails. I get really excited when I find them. 2)I have a brown bag next to the bathroom garbage for the TP rolls so I can somehow reuse them. 3)I hold onto all packaging from mail so I can find a way to repurpose them. 4)I save my hair to compost (I used to save it to send to a company that uses hair to help clean up oil spills) 5)I have an old mesh bag from a bar of soap I got ages ago that I use for the end of my shampoo bar. 6)I also try to do DIY crafts out of garbage or recycles. I've made some cute things though lol 7) I use my bettafish's old water to fertilize my plants 8) If I'm traveling, I try really hard to get a camp site instead of a hotel 9)I've spent a lot of time in the road, so I'll hold onto anything that is recyclable until I can find a recycling bin. Most of the time gas stations/rest stops don't, so I will hold onto things for several days. I don't think a lot of these are weird, but friends and family who aren't environmentally conscious think these are strange/uncomfortable. It's pretty upsetting how quickly people are to judge, when we're all just trying to do better for the planet.
Something kinda weird I do is I always offer to take the recycling home with me when at someone else’s house or whatever for gatherings where beer bottles or other recyclables are😅 so many people won’t recycle glass because it takes extra steps in my county...so I’m the weird friend that does it for everyone lol.
Okay. We've been camping for several days while now and it's really shown me how little I really need. We have 5 littles one too and seriously all we are missing is coloring stuff. We use white boards and refillable markers. There wise, all 7 of us are fully content here with what we can fit into this one camper. It's such a simple relaxed life and I thoroughly enjoy this. I'm definitely going to be decluttering and down sizing once we go back to our stationary house.
I've heard that you can turn pale green leaves on your plants to bright green again with a 50/50 dilution of your wee-wee, hee hee! Also, I live in a condo, so I've been dumping all my veggie waste under a large evergreen tree for 15 years now. I dump the veggies into my makeshift compost pile when it's dark... my neighbors still don't know it's there ... haha!
Weird things my family does: - The kitchen tap drips for a moment after closing, we keep a bowl under it to collect the water - sewing hankies, sauna seat covers, towels, etc out of rags - keeping a stick in the rain barrel for the squirrels to climb up if they fall in the barrel - having several bird houses in our garden (I think 4) - coming up with hacks to scare the rabbits away politely - heating the house with wood and trash - leaving parts of the grass where there are wild flowers uncut for the pollinators
Fellow curly girl here, I also don’t use conditioner, my shampoo bar is made with natural oils then I also do a good oil half way between hair washes to help keep it hydrated. Not had any issues so far!
I am currently using up my non-reusable period products but I have also never used a tampon because I am very afraid of toxic shock syndrom. I can’t wait until I finished all of the other stuff and can get reusable period underwear 🩲
I started using my diva cup years ago, before I became more eco conscious, because a friend told me it was more comfortable. People don't realize that... It's not just better for the environment, it's better for you. Will never go back to disposables, I love it so much.
weird things i do (at least my parents think it’s a little weird some aren’t as weird) 1. whenever i need to use a q tip, i only use one side and rip that side off once I’m done so I can use the other side the next time. 2. i reuse the oui glass yogurt containers to hold small office supplies like paper clips 3. taking old calendars and using them as wrapping paper 4. i keep some of the extra wrappings of pads if I ever need to get a rid of something gross (like a dead insect or something like that) 5. i have taken old deodorant that hurts the skin on my arm and use it on my feet during the winter to keep my boots from smelling
I also don't use conditioner! I have long, somewhat fine hair and conditioner tends to weigh my hair down and make it dirty faster....and since I have never colored my hair and rarely heat treat my hair, I don't NEED conditioner. So I just don't use it and it has simplified my shower routine SO much, and it feels good to not be adding to water pollution!
Some homeowners keep extra tiles after renovations just in case a tile breaks they have extra to replace them with. If they don't keep a few handy, that particular tile may not be sold anymore and they're sol if they want matching tiles.
Every restaurant I’ve ever worked at does that so I do it now too. Maybe tell them it’s the professional way to do things? I think it’s weird that anyone thinks this is weird.
I get weird vibes to when I tell some people this amazing hack🤷♀️ I’ve done it for years and i then compost the scraps after I’ve cooked them into broth. I also make almond flour from my almond milk pulp:)
This is a super specific thing, but I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal, and our training center had poor plumbing so trainees were asked on day 1 to stick to two squares of tp when using the toilet. That was in 2014 for me, and I still stick to that rule.
That bottle thing with the plants is SO smart and I'm going to try it! Also, LEFTOVER PERIOD WATER i am CACKLING! A lot of these are SO genius, like the TP one! We use bidets here in Japan and I wish they were more "normal" haha.
I love the water bottle idea to water plants over time! I've seen infomercials for special glass bulbs that are supposed to do that; it's nice knowing if I go on vacation I don't need to buy a whole new product
I do a lot of the same habits. :) Re: squishing the toilet paper roll, I have found that you tend to get that wild unrolling when it's flipped one way or the other? So like, I grew up putting the tp "underneath" so you pull from the bottom, and that way I can control easily how much comes off, but when I go to somebody's home who puts it from the top, when I do whatever that little wrist flick motion is to tear the squares off, that's when the roll is like "oh did you want ten more squares? here you go." So maybe flipping it over from whatever direction is causing the massive unroll would work in that way, as well.
I've been trying to reuse wine bottles as plant waterers but I need to tweak the flow rate, for some of my plants, anything more than a pinprick and it just dumps all the water
I help the planet by looking at food expiration dates as mere suggestions. Most food expiration dates are merely to advise when a product is at peak quality & to encourage consumers to throw away product to rebuy it more frequently. Look, smell & use good common sense about food products. Do not rely only on preprinted dates.
I love that you use your period tea to water your garden! I don't get a period on my IUD but when the day comes to take it out, I definitely plan on using thinx and will water my herbs with my period tea!
So glad you switch to a bidet!!!! Bidets are LIFE! We have a basic mechanical one and a swanky electric one on our other toilet. We also have electric travel bidets that actually work really well! I just got some reusable cotton toilet paper that we will be using to replace toilet paper all together. We will still have regular TP available for guests of course
The period water is so so smart! Just like putting old hair from your brush or comb into your compost for the extra nitrogen which helps plants grow too!
Btw, alot of animal shelters (mostly cats and rodents) will accept cardboard boxes for various uses, so ask around before you throw them into recycling! My local animal shelters use them as beds, storage, scratchers, hiding spots, etc. You can also diy cat scratchers by tightly rolling strips of cardboard into a spiral and using twine to secure it. There are ones you can buy already made, so just Google it to see how they’re made!
I wash my laundry on "tap cold." Some washing machines have "cold" and "tap cold." The cold setting may adjust the temperature of the water depending on the washing machine, while tap cold just uses the tap water without adjustment. If you have both, always use tap cold to save on energy.
My weird habits are I only use two squares of TP when I go #1 And I take random things off the street (broken chains, spare elastic, etc.) and use them for craft projects.
My 9 yr old son picks up "garbage" he finds to use for crafts too. But then he ends up just squirrel-stashing them in his room and not getting around to using them. But I dont want to discourage his habit because I think its a good idea. I should probably have craft days with him.
You are not alone at all. Being zero waste is definitely not mainstream quite yet, even my family doesn’t really understand it. But that’s the thing, when you understand how you impact the world you want to make a difference. A lot of the time you just need to show them the facts. My mom has recently got on board in reducing her waste now. ❤️
I received compost from the place we send our food scraps in a large coffee tin and after I used the compost I made the tin into a gardening can by poking holes in the plastic top since I do not have a gardening can just yet and needed something to water my plants right away until I could buy a can second hand.
I don’t know if this is considered weird or not, but I make my own yogurt. It’s actually really sustainable because you only have buy to the starter once, and then you can use the previous batch to make the next one (also you don’t end up buying plastic yoghurt containers).
u r always inspiration to me..for zero waste .. thank u from u i have learnt manythings....like use of ecosia ...period panties. etc...thank u shelbizlee.. for all this ,.........a lot to learn from u still....lots of love from an Indian girl....
I've always made hair ties from stockings, idk if that's considered weird but I've never seen anyone talk about it. When a stocking is no longer usable, we just cut it and get a lot of new hair ties that otherwise would go to the landfill. Also, they're surprisingly durable and everyone in my household is comfortable using them even though both my mom and I have quite curly hair.
Omg I love the blood bucket. I do this too. Some people around me think I'm insane for using washable pads. Binge watching your channel btw. Learned so much!
I recently started buying tea leaves in bulk instead of getting tea from the supermarket (which creates plastic waste), but before that I used the thread from tea bags to sew 😅
I definitely commend your use of cold showers. I could never. If the shower isn't hot enough to slightly sting its too cold. For this reason I don't swim either. Always been an issue.
I love your videos even more now because I can relate on some of these “weirder” things. I like taking cold showers and I’m definitely going to try and squish the toilet paper roll because I have a over-user in my house! Thanks for the great tips!
It is okay to use conditioner. It helps with the Ph of your hair and scalp after shampoo. Also, i found a zero waste zinc pyrithione shampoo if anyone needs any haha.
I've used conditioner and not used conditioner on my hair, it makes no difference for me. However my mother needs to use conditioner or her hair will get tangled all the time. So I think this really depends a lot on your hair type.
My family washes ziploc bags and reuses them. Apparently that’s weird. . . But it’s perfectly normal to me. In fact, I was horrified when I discovered that people throw out ziploc bags after only one use. I haven’t got around to purchasing stasher bags yet (because $$), but washing my ziplocs is working pretty well for me.
I'm also a bidet queen! I don't live near my family, so my s.o. and I guerilla installed a bidet at my parents house. They loved it so much that my dad and I guerilla installed one at my younger brothers house! I have 1 brother left as well as all my s.o.'s family, but I'm just spreading tush joy wherever I need to poo! #noshame
Good video with great vibes. I feel as tho u r more normal from the area I come from except shaving because people give me grief about not shaving. Lucky me I just don't grow alot of hair on my legs. When my 13 year old daughter thought it was time to shave she was shocked to find no shaving equipment in the bathroom 😱
I learned recently that you have to only wash your scalp according to hairdressers and that washing all the hair is actually damaging (especially if you wash too often and put a lot of product). Have a look at Brad Mondo video on hair washing if you don’t believe me!
Your videos started showing up on my RU-vid feeds. I am by far not zero waste but I have made some changes over time, no bottled water purchases, no paper plates and using jars from other products from storage. I don’t think you are to weird when you think of how people handled things way back before modern times. Back to basics. I too only shampoo my scalp and let residual suds clean the rest. Unfortunately if I don’t use conditioners my curls are just frizz in my Georgia climate. Now that I know you are from my home town of San Antonio I’m subscribing. Kudos for all the info you provide.
I go back and forth between not shaving and shaving. I will go 6 months without shaving my legs and then I'll shave weekly and then I'll stop again for a few months.. It took my mom SO long to learn to not talk about my leg hair. My mother has told me multiple times that it must bother my husband.... even though I've had multiple conversations with him to make sure it doesn't... He couldn't care less.
Feed the juicer scraps to my dog (don’t worry just apple or carrot pulp) he loves it, I love that he has the vitamins and we get giggles from my sister
I’ve only ever washed my clothes in cold water because we don’t have our hot water hooked up to the washer 😂 it makes it easier too because you don’t need to separate whites and lights. Also, I totally only shampoo my scalp and condition my ends, not only to save product but just to keep my long hair healthier 😊
My weird low-waste thing of the day: I picked up TONS of stuff from the ends of driveways in my neighborhood. After I cleaned it up, whatever my friends didn't want, I donated. Definately got some weird looks from family, but hey- 2 car loads of items not going to the landfill!
I love hot showers but once a week I talk cooler ones for hair benefits the heat from water can damage hair overtime so if you use luke warm or colder water then it's supposed to be better for your hair
i've been only washing my scalp for years because i read online that's what you should do anyway! i never rly thought about how that would reduce the amount of shampoo i was using
Hey! I’m about to be a freshman in college this year and taking the incoming independence to try an better my impact on the world. I was wondering if you could make a video about the things that you still don’t do perfectly. I sit and look at the changes I plan to make and am intimidated and feel guilty about some things I mess up on.
My boyfriends mum had the fantastically wasteful idea of a Christmas calendar - a wrapped (usually shitty plastic toy) present for the 12 days leading up to Christmas... needless to say I was horrified
Will you do a video on eco friendly back to school? And kids things? I try to do the best I can with MY stuff, but kids things are more difficult it seems. I am currently having a hard time with eco friendly lunch boxes. Is it just me or am I looking in the wrong places?
I've never used a tampon either, you can imagine just how weird it was getting used to the cup :)) Also, why is it not considered weird to use blood meal and excrements from animals to fertilize our plants, but our own bodily fluids are considered gross? I think we're just so removed from making the connection when it's a packaged product.
Do you use family cloth/washable toilet paper? I cut up old bedsheets at the beginning of lockdown to use when everyone was panic buying tp and honestly my paper tp has lasted SO LONG now because we are using much less. I also use a bidet with it, it seems like a big step but honestly it was such an easy one! Have you found using a bidet has also helped reduce tp use?
I do a decent amount of things because it is part of my natural state without really considering the effect of the planet and I just happen through it stuff. Like something’s that you said, like not using conditioner, only shampooing my scalp, not washing my hair every day, reusable carry products, etc. I tried to rehome my items when I get rid of them, I didn’t realize that donating to a thrift store was not a good way to go about that so I’m watching your videos. I would make everyone save things, if I saw a perfect legend of garment in the trash I would grab it out and tell them why you were doing this away I’ll think it’s a good wolf for you. I don’t usually shave it either because I necessary, there’s nothing inherently unclean about female body hair compares a male body. But I do always wear pants so there’s no point in me failing anyway and I’ve never been comfortable with my leg hair since I never force myself to go out in shorts. But that’s beside the point.
I use cloth diapers on my baby and try doing elimination communication with her also. Cloth diapers make for last waste in the landfill. EC causes west waste in the diaper, meaning less washing since I can reuse the inserts sometimes. When I first bought Cloth diaper‘s I didn’t know I can buy them secondhand so I bought a new. But since then I’ve bought some second hand cough diaper and products. Most of which I didn’t need and gave them for free to different people that just had a pay shipping for the items. So I saved one of them about $100 and the other one about two $5300. There was a third person who was going to buy some but she never got back to me I just ended up keeping those and might eventually use them. Are you have disposable diapers, and disposable inserts for the cloth favors. But affordable inserts I use when we are camping and I disposable diapers I give it to the babysitters so that they don’t have to deal with because they agreed that they were not comfortable with. But I pay a little bit extra for it diapers from… I can’t think of the website, but they’re supposed to be compostable bamboo disposable diapers.
Another thing that you do at Man Hollis that is not actually it because it’s better for the planet but it just happened to any better for the planet, is that we do a fair amount of camping and typing. When we’re out camping we are all the house we’re not using energy like to sleep or the air conditioning or the fan or the electricity. And that some of the stuff we buy is from companies that are helping the environment. Like the child carrier backpack I just bought from is it healthy brand, I liked the stuff I saw when looking up their ethics and what not, admittedly I don’t really know what to look for or how to read around any empty phrases they may be throwing out there, But I can only go by what I see and how I understand it so it seems like a good brand to buy from.
Shelbi you wanted to know about plastic free perfumes, there is a brand "Juicy Chemistry " in India,you can try them,I have recently bought them and they are amazing
I have a bit of a dilemma about makeup and suncream removal. I’ve been using cotton pads because I was worried about washing chemicals down the drain but then it also creates waste. So I’m not sure which is the better option: using reusable cotton pads but washing them and potentially putting the makeup into the ocean, or to use disposable pads but create waste 🥰 I’m not in a position to stop using makeup as I’m a makeup artist although I’ve tried to switch to more conscious brands and don’t use glitter or disposable plastic mascara/lip brushes on clients. Any advice on which option to go with? Really love your tips on here (and your earth necklace too!) x
(i don't think it's weird at all) but the thing that i do that my mom thinks is super weird is that i try and thrift or salvage all of my food storage containers, kitchenware, and dishes. i would say at least 90% of our food storage, mugs, plates, utensils and kitchen doodads were either free, hand-me-downs, or thrifted. i casually mentioned to her last time she visited that i hadn't been able to find a good butter dish at the thrift store yet and she got so annoyed with me that she just bought me one 😂 on top of being less wasteful, i'm also very clumsy so it's actually practical not to buy brand new expensive kitchen stuffs if i'm just going to break it 5 minutes later!
I want period undies. Yeah I collect from my menstrual cup and it goes on my ferns and flowers. Not my food plants yet.... stuck with compost for that.
One weird thing I do when thrift shopping is I pick up all the clothes on the ground and hang them up because I noticed no one even does it and it ends up damaging the clothes :) it shouldn’t be weird it should be common sense but before being zero waste I just left them sitting there :/
One thing I've started doing is using a kettle to boil some water and soak my items I'm concerned about bacteria on (makeup wipes, towels, pillowcases, period products) before washing in cold. My grandma used to do all of her laundry that way because her washer didn't make hot water, and I realized it was probably easier on the planet to do that than fill a whole thing with hot water.
Not me, But I am in a period cup group and someone keeps their period blood to use on their plants! I think it's smart, especially if it benefits the plants!
I had a hairbrush that didnt really work with my hair type and so it was just sitting around and I needed money so i put it on ebay and my mum was like lol is someone gonna buy your old brush? and they DID haha finding owners for everything is great
I buy single bananas when I grocery shop because people are less likely to buy the single bananas than a bunch and those ones are more likely to go in the bin
so kind of a weird comment on conditioner, I know you don't use it but I've been to hair school and they train us to wring out clients hair before putting conditioner on, because if your hair is perfectly wet that conditioner essentially goes down the drain, you want your hair to be damp dry when adding conditioner, I know not many people will see this but it's a good thing for the planet because we're essentially wasting conditioner just falls right off in the shower
The pores of the hair open and close. When theyre warm they expand and cold contract. Its awesome to wring out the excess water and rinse with cold water. If theyre coated in water they have trouble allowing much else in, thats why they must be slightly dryed to be coated in conditioner instead of water.
Shelby, is your area in Texas a sudden fire risk? If so, how do you handle it? 😥 We're told we have to water constantly in the summer to make sure we're not a fire hazard.
A weird thing that I do to help the planet: I buy my bamboo tooth brushes in bulk. Since I have to order them online (no stores near me have them) I prefer to buy a year's worth of toothbrushes at once to conserve shipping and packaging (also, it's much cheaper)
I also wash my hair the same way because I have curly hair! It's a lot healthier for your hair because it won't dry out your hair! (At least for me anyways)
