Bar Soap?  Is that the best I can do?

I am barely a month into this journey and I already feel easily discouraged.  I want to make all of these changes over night.  I want them to happen quickly…not one bar of soap at a time. 

However, I am trying to make changes only as I am able to write about them.  Writing paces me and helps me process the impact of each change.  Writing forces me to go slowly even though it may feel frustrating.  I hope a slower pace will allow me to maintain each change.

In the meantime, I thought it would help if I wrote out a list of things I would like to accomplish this year as I learn to live like Grandma.  This is not an exhaustive list but a start.  Yikes!

Adopt a general attitude of “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
Can or freeze and store as much food as possible
Eat seasonally, eat locally
Maintain my garden and prepare for next year
Compost
No eating out or ordering in
Make homemade versions of our favorites - pizza dough, bread, tortillas, etc.
Cloth napkins - no paper towel
Find a coffee percolator
No microwave
Use fewer small appliances in general
Save and reuse as much as possible
Learn to fix broken items
Hang dry my clothes all year
Cloth diapers
No new clothes for me or my hubby
Buy clothes from resale shops for my kids
Use hankies for cold and flu season
Homemade laundry soap
Homemade cleaners
Homemade hair and beauty products
Safety razor or straight razors for shaving
No make-up or less with minimal packaging
No nail polish or other chemical based products
No hair dryer or straight iron
Use less water and use leftover water
Use less toilet paper
Follow the rule, “If it’s yellow, let it mellow, if it’s brown, flush it down.”
Use a Diva cup - not disposable tampons or pads
Gas free lawn care
Paint my walls with low or no VOC paint
No movies or TV (for me)
Choose quiet over the radio
Walk more
Drive less 

Some of you may already do many of the things listed above, some of you may do a few and some may do none at all.  If you already do something, then teach me how to do it, if you want to learn something new, try it with me, and if you are too overwhelmed, think about things you can do in the future.  No judgment here.  This is a movement toward a more sustainable and simple lifestyle.  I do not think I will ever declare that I have arrived.  I hope I will always be moving forward no matter how slow - two steps forward, one step back.

I am reading a book by Anne Lamott called, Bird by Bird.  It is a how-to book on writing but I think the following words really relate to my Grandma journey:

“E.L. Doctorow once said that ‘writing a novel is like driving a car at night.  You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.’ You don’t have to see where you’re going, you don’t have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way.  You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you.  This is right up there with the best advice about writing, or life, I have ever heard.”

And that is how my journey feels.  I feel like I am driving in the dark.  But if I steadily move forward I know I will cover significant distance over the coming year.  I hope I will be surprised at how far I have come when I look back.

Do you have any suggestions?  Is there anything you think I should learn to do like Grandma (or Grandpa)?

My bar soap is getting messy but not in the way I expected.  I need your help on behalf of the wonderful soap makers I recently met thanks to my bar soap challenge.

Soap makers, Joy at Kinderhaven Farms and Heidi at Vintage Fresh Soaps and Sundries, both mentioned an act that is going before Congress called the Globalization Act of 2008.  It would impose disabling fees and paperwork on the owners of small soap and cosmetics companies to the point that most of them will be put out of business.

If you want to learn more, visit the Indie Business blog started by Donna Maria Coles Johnson.  She is truly inspiring.

Take a moment to watch her video.  But most importantly, sign her petition against the Globalization Act by scrolling to the bottom of the comments section and writing a simple sentence such as, “I do not support the Globalization Act of 2008!”  Leave your name with your comment as your signature to the petition.

I can’t ignore the fact that my new soap friends may be put out of business.  I want to do all I can to support them.  Their mess is now my mess. 

Speaking of soap.

Thank you to everyone who took time to write comments to my first Grandma Challenge called Give Up Your Soap.  Your tips will be very helpful. 

I felt so proud of myself as I replaced my liquid soap pumps with beautiful smelling bars of locally made soap only to be humbled by how difficult a seemingly simple challenge can be.

As soon as I posted my soap challenge, I got off my computer and excitedly instructed my three kiddos on how to wash their hands with bar soap.  My 4-year old son, Jude, quickly discovered the easiest way to hold a slippery bar of soap was to cram it against his shirt as he attempted to twirl it around in his hands.  His shirt was a soapy mess but he didn’t care.  I had to laugh, shrug my shoulders, and be glad that he smelled good which is not always the case.

All that to say, when I post a Grandma Challenge, I want to hear your tips, stories, thoughts and anything in between.  I especially want to know if you think a particular challenge sounds too difficult or just plain ole crazy.  Tell me what you agree with as well as what you disagree with.  It will help me think about each topic from every possible angle.  I am only one person and so I can’t do that on my own.  Your comments really help and keep me going!

“Since the soap bars would get too little to use, like they do now, mother did not discard them, but melted them all together and ended up with the ugliest, misshapen “bar” of soap anyone ever saw.”  A comment from Barbara to How Would Grandma Bathe.

It looks like I am going to give up soap - liquid hand soap from a pump that is.  I have used liquid soap for years.  I try to reuse my disposable plastic pumps as long as they will last as well as refill my glass pumps.  However, they all stop working eventually.  I have a glass pump sitting by my kitchen sink right now that I am sure I spent at least $10.00 on.  The pump part of it is plastic and cracked on the inside.  I can still get soap out of it but it is a leaky mess.  When I have to toss out a pump, I recycle as much of it as I can but the rest goes into the trash.  I am pretty sure the pump part of most dispensers cannot be recycled.

I looked at the ingredients listed on my liquid hand soap refill container and most of them are unrecognizable. Sodium C14-16 Olefin Sulfonate, Lauramide DEA, Glycol Stearate, Sodium Chloride, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Fragrance, DMDM Hydartoin, Polyquaternium-7, Citric Acid, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Tetrasodium EDTA, Mel (Honey), Lactose, Milk Protein, Glycerin, Hydrolized Silk, D&C Yellow No. 10, and FD&C Red No. 40.

Although it is not in my soap ingredients listed above, there is a growing controversy over antibacterial chemicals such as Triclosan that have been showing up in all things soap related in recent years.  If you are interested in learning more, the website Food and Water Watch has an informative article called What’s Lurking in Your Soap? 

Most homemade or all natural bar soap have a minimal number of ingredients.  I have a bar of hand soap made by a local company and it contains palm oil, water, goat milk, flax seed, coconut, rice bran, sunflower and olive oils, lye, shea butter, palm kernel and essential oils, silk fibre.  I recognize each of those ingredients.

Bar soap usually has little to no packaging.  When I have purchased it from a local source there is often only a little piece of wax paper, a small piece of cardboard or nothing at all used for packaging.  Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.  I have been recycling for awhile but I want to work on the other R’s - especially reducing the amount of items I throw away or recycle.  If I follow my grandparents’ lead, bar soap is one area where I can reduce my use of packaging.     

I am a little nervous about the “yuck” factor with bar soap.  I am sure it is going to leave my sinks a little more messy.  I will probably find blobs of soap on the floor from those times when one of my kids is washing their hands only to lose control of the bar and send it shooting to the floor.  I suppose it is a good excuse to give my much neglected bathroom floors some spot cleaning.

I have been using a locally made bar soap from Kinderhaven Farms (contact Joy at kinderhavensoap@voyager.net) which is available at Harvest Health.  I also recently bought some soap from Brickyard Farms (contact Cate at laneburke@aol.com) at my local Farmer’s Market.  I am going to pick up some soap this week from a local online retailer called Vintage Fresh Soap and Sundries (order from Heidi at Vintage Fresh Soap and Sundries).

Homemade or all natural soap costs approximately $4.00 per bar which may seem more expensive than liquid soap at first glance.  However, according to Heidi at Vintage Fresh Soaps, homemade soaps have more natural oils so people find they do not need to use as much hand or body moisturizers as a result.  I use my bar soap to shave and no longer need to buy shaving cream.  I am going to ask my husband to give it a try this week when he shaves his face.

I like the fact that I can use bar soap for more than one purpose.  I have also really enjoyed talking to the makers of each of the soaps I mentioned above.  I feel good knowing I am supporting a living, breathing person with my purchase.  It feels so basic and human and real. 

So starting today I am going to put all of my liquid soap dispensers into a box a box and find some little dishes laying around I can use to hold a bar of soap at each sink.  Soap is the perfect place to start my Grandma Challenges.  I use it multiple times throughout the day.  It will remind me to keep asking What Would Grandma Do?

Please send me a comment if you are going to try to switch to bar soap.  Let me know if you find a bar soap you like and send in your stories - your own or your grandparents!  I will let you know how I am doing with the bar soap switch over the coming weeks.