“The more you know, the less you need” is by far one of our favourite quotes. To us, it encompasses what sustainability truly is. Sustainability is a way of thinking that influences your lifestyle habits and choices . When it comes to how we create more sustainable lifestyles for ourselves, one of our key focuses is on consuming less. This involves finding multiples uses for things or elongating the lifespan of the products we already own. Here is a short list of things that you might already have in your house, which can be used for multiple purposes:
“yes I can dip my chips into it”
When we talked to Zayaan Khan, she mentioned how she makes tomato ketchup and the ketchup her family doesn’t eat she’ll use to clean brass and stains on the stove.
Another popular fries seasoning that can be used to clean our homes is vinegar. Vinegar is a natural disinfectant and can be used to clean multiple surfaces around our homes. This article by Healthline gives more detailed instructions on creating cleaning products using vinegar for your windows to your laundry.
Pre-Compost
Before our food scraps go into the compost, we make veg stock out of them. All the carrot tops, onion peels and other veg cutoffs go into a Tupperware and get stored in the freezer until it’s full. Once we’ve collected a substantial amount of scraps, we boil it in a pot with salt and other spices for flavour, strain it and store the finished veg stock in jars in the fridge. Then, finally, the veg scraps go into the compost.
That’s The Tea
This tea isn’t for human consumption, it’s for your plants. To make banana peel tea, fill a large jar with water, and add a banana peel. Let it sit for 2 days (48 hours). After 2 days, discard the peel, leaving the water in your jar. Water your plants as usual with your banana tea.
Walking on eggshells
Use your eggshells for fertiliser. Eggshells are a perfect source of calcium for your soil. Boil your eggshells (this step can be skipped) and then crush them to mix with your soil. The eggshells will increase the soil’s aeration, improve the soil’s drainage, and reduce the acidity of your soil’s pH. Read more about using eggshells here.
This article is not about giving you all the answers but we hope some of these examples will inspire you to think about how you can use what you already have in different ways.
With Love,
Masego and Stella x
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