10 non-aesthetic sustainable things in my life
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- Опубліковано 12 тра 2024
- Sustainability is UGLY. It isn’t about having an aesthetic pantry anymore. The best way to live an eco-friendly lifestyle is by using WHAT YOU ALREADY OWN. In this video I’m inviting you into my ugly but sustainable life to inspire you to break out of consumerism and keep your ugly possessions. Let me know in the comments what your non-aesthetic belongings are 👇
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 What is ugly sustainability
00:30 Consumerism isn’t sustainable
01:04 Receipts & junk mail ✉️
02:39 Old laptop case 💻
03:32 Greeting cards
05:08 Packaging 🫙
07:04 Sewn up clothing 🧵
08:50 Compost heap 🍌
09:41 Dog lead 🐕
11:23 Half used toiletries
12:52 Reusing plastic bags
14:57 Shower bucket 🚿
16:39 Use what you already own
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👋 Hey, I’m Charlie! I make videos about everyday sustainability, from living a realistic eco lifestyle to DIYs and product reviews. I also have a website and blog for more tips, guidance and sustainable products, check it out www.lifebeforeplastic.co.uk/ - Навчання та стиль
All my t shirts go from everyday t shirt to pajama shirt to cut of tank tops then end as rags.
Ultimate repurposing I love it!
Snap ✌️I do this too 😊
I do this as well tho some of my tshirts become reusable bags
In Poland we have a whole drawer dedicated for all plastic bags we collect. We use it for basically everything - dog poop, open cans in the fridge, cut flowers, freezing meat in freezer, or even for clothes while moving. Me and my 100+ plastic bags 😅
Haha I remember this from when I was a kid and we’d do the same. That’s what they were designed for in the first place - being used multiple times. It’s the single use that causes the pollution
Even often it’s a plastic bag filled with other plastic bags! I use the thin tiny ones as a bin liner in the bathroom
We do that in America it's even a joke in the AA household that we have a place full of plastic bags. We use them for a lot of different reasons.
A wonderful thing in our small city is that a group of people get together four times each month to repair electircal items, bikes, computers, sewn items and sewing machines - anything portable.
A repair cafe! I would love to join a group like that near me. Such a cool concept and great way to get involved with your community
@@LifeBeforePlastic gather a few peopel and start one? ours meets twice a month at the public library.
Oh yes! Our county library has been sponsoring a Repair Cafe once a month at a different branch. Our closest branch will host one next Saturday for the first time.
I thought everyone used random plastic bags for garbage! Glad you mentioned it!!
I hope they do! But I know people who use store bought plastic bags in their bins
Uhm..here in Norway they encourage people to buy plastic bags on rollls from the store rather than using the random plastic bags you get your groceries in. So the oposite of what is logical to the rest of the world😂
I get extremely agitated with labels and bright colours and visual stimulation, so for me, removing the labels from glass jars I reuse them for storing the ingredients I get from my bulk store. Also most op shops/thrift stores will only accept jars without the labels. I also like to "beautify" my damaged items, using embroidery for mending, or painting/ drawing on items to reuse them elsewhere without them just feeling like...trash
This is lovely. I do tend to take the labels off too, the ones pictured have newly been added to the collection (of already too many haha). I definitely want to learn more about embroidery to make my things more beautiful!
Removing labels to make your mental health is good.
I spent about an hour yesterday mending clothes and socks. I had to fix 3 jumpers and I think that I did a pretty good job of it. If you don't look after your clothes they will fall apart faster.
this is so refreshing! thanks for de-influencing me from buying new things I don't really need
I’m glad you found it helpful!!
To make clothes and linens last longer - do not dry anything on hot, use the warm setting. Drying on hot makes the threads brittle, then they break and you get tears and holes.
Mending - I use the backstitch to mend (there are yt videos on how- it is quite easy) and my stitches are about 2mm - sew along the line of the mend (don't do Frankenstein stitches). If you can get it, get quilting thread (which is stronger than all-purpose thread). Also learn an "invisible" hemming stitch (it is invisible because you hide the thread in the foldover of the hem. For making knots, I wrap the thread one and a half times around the end section of the first finger and and then roll the wrapped thread off my finger and pull it tight to make the knot. If the thread won't roll together because my hand is cold and dry, I put a little hand lotion on my finger for friction. This seems fussy but after a few tries this will be easy.
I love this video. This actually has quite a few tips I haven't thought of! Personally, I'll use dirty laundry to clean up spills or sometimes blow my nose. That sounds disgusting but it's gonna get washed anyways so why not 🤷🏻♀️
This is genius! Not disgusting, it’s the same as using a cloth and washing it 👏
we save all our paper and cardboard and use for fireplaces for heat in the winter - which we can cook on and dry laundry with it
Shelters will often take opened bottles of shampoo, shower gel, etc. for their guests/residents.
We live in the country so all junk mail I use for fire starter to burn yard waste.
now this is creative!
I am upcyclng my old clothes with holes into clothes for my daughter. It doesn't look ugly at all. It actually looks even better than the original when I combine different fabrics
That’s the best thing about sustainability. By fixing and mending you can make your possessions unique!
my favorite thing is using plastic bags from shops for my bathroom trashcan lol. i save them to reuse them for other things as well.
Oh yeah, I use random packaging for bin and it does the job! Never ever buy a bin bag 🤣
I admire your reuse of bits of paper, envelopes, etc for note-taking. But I ask that you do some research on cash register receipts as what I have learned is that the coating on them is toxic. I care about your safety.
I think they have PFAS on them
maybe it's because i lived for a while somewhere with no sewage (and where we got our water shut off on a regular basis due to drought), but i've always had shower buckets of sorts. we have water tanks here and all, so we could last the week, but why waste anything coming from the tap/shower? anything can be used to wash dishes, clean the yard, mop the pet areas, wash clothes, etc. i've always filled my toilet tank with shower water because it's such an easy job (my current rental has no tank, though, sadly)
also the washing machine! soapy water is useful to keep for cleaning, but the rinse cycle can rinse your dishes later if you add a bucket and a draining hose!
- Old receipts are great handlelists.
- I have bought lots of kitchen utencils at the local schools flee market.
- Repairing clothes *is* fun. I promise!
When I see junk mail sometime I look at it as a `Font` and `clip art` treasure trove. If a birthday is coming up I'll look through the mail and cut of letters that make their name. For the art aspect, my groceries tend to have banners during certain holidays so if I want to spice up my journal entries I'll paste some of the banners and clip art into my journal. It's free art that's colorful and I don't have to waste my ink to print it, win win win.
Sometimes it's a lengthy process to find all the letters and roughly alike sizes but I adore the smiles on the face when they see my efforts.
Love the idea for receipts, I should use that for sure.
this comment alone has done so much for me my brain chemistry is forever altered
Wow this is incredible and you have given me so much to think about how junk Mail really doesn’t need to be junk. Thank you for sharing what you do!
What a great video! I love that you used a little stick to fix the leash, I think that actually looked so cute. Thank you for sharing these great ideas!
Thank you! I was bummed that I’d broken it but think it’s cute now. Nature has a way of helping us fix things 🥰
I use my old receipts as bookmarks
Love this idea! I’m trying to think of more ways to use them even after I’ve written notes on every last bit of them
If one has a dog you can use newspaper to pick up the dog poop! I have a small / medium dog so I put a newspaper where she is going to poop and once she’s done I pick it up.
I really wish I could do this but my dog poops randomly/in the bushes on walks so it’s hard to predict when or where he’s gunna go 😂
I have many items of clothing that are older than you (I guess), I recently stopped using a pair of shoes that was literally falling apart, I realised that I had them for 27 years!!! One tip that I can give is to keep using your old laptop by ditching windows and installing Linux lite instead!
does the operating system really impact perfomance that much, or is this caused by updates(or more like lack of updates past a certain version)?
@@dazey8706 Yes it does impact performance as it's much lighter to run and you don't get as many updates as windows, but don't take my word for it, I'm not an expert, but I'm still using a 15 yr old laptop...
Thank you so much for this video. It was so encouraging and inspiring and just what I needed to hear.
I’m so glad you found it helpful!
Very excited to have discovered your channel!
Thank you ☺️ I’ve just restarted my long form content and have been loving it. Hope you can stick around 🥰
I don't use napkins, paper towels, or even those pretty "washable cloth napkins"...just rags and dish towels! Also I (a cisgender women in the USA) don't shave my armpits, legs, etc which I have been informed by others may be seen as "ugly" but saves so much time, money, and waste!
I’ve never thought that about shaving! Maybe I need to try it 😅
¡Good tips! Thanks Charlie ❤ I use jars and plastic bags I sometimes get from food as pen cases 😅 Very fancy 😂
the perfect example of non-aesthetic sustainability! Thanks for sharing what you do too Kareen!
Love all your tips! Most I was already doing on my daily life because it just makes sense
I totally agree. I think it’s easy to be distracted by beautiful things but I kinda like my mismatched ugly things 🤣
I wear my jeans till they rip. then i stitch them up, but usually it is so worn that they immediately rip right next to the section I stitched... so I end up just wearing them ripped. fortunately ripped jeans are sort of fashionable again so I dont stand out too much because of my old ripped jeans...
I have some that are the same! I find jeans pretty hard to repair without patches, but it depends on where the holes are. I'm not to bothered by knee holes. I'm hoping to learn some more sewing skills this year, maybe I'll learn how to properly patch up my jeans!
@@LifeBeforePlastic i used the patches as well but it then rips around them and unless you also stitch the iron-on patches to the jean it eventually comes free... I discovered the best thread to use on jeans is embroidery thread, I found a nice powder blue one that looked great and felt soft and natural. I was going to use wool but ended up going with the thinner thread. Unfortunately no matter how much you try, a jean at the end of its career is just toast... cutting coasters out of the remains is great...i cut the legs open along the seam lay it flat on a melamine board and use a spackle to trowel clear silicone into the fabric. once it dries it is denim silicone sheeting. cut into coasters or even place mats...
Really enjoyed this video.
Thank you!
There are naturals dyes (onions skins is the most common) - I am sure YT has videos
rather than buy plastic rubbish bags use packaging you receive like bread bags, petfood packaging anything and fill it so it gets at least another use and saves you money
I love doing that too!
I think older , more used things are more beautiful because they've served their purpose and then some.
Most of the things mentioned in video sounds reasonable but the last one sounds a little bit crazy
It’s actually really simple, especially if you only use the bucket while the water heats up. If the bucket is in the bathroom already it’s a simple switch up to flush the toilet with the water. Try it and let me know how you get on!
but isn't using half used cosmetics from second hand shops unhygenic?
I get this. I usually just wash the packaging as soon as I get it and remove the first part of the product. Often they’re sold new secondhand or barely used. Depending on the cosmetic it doesn’t really bother me that someone else has used it
Same thought here. Especially since you can't know how long it's been open and if it's still good - the "keeps for 12 months after opening" sign on the packaging sadly tells you absolutely nothing when you don't know the opening date. Expired cosmetics can cause infections and skin irritations depending on the kind, where on the body it is used, and how sensitive your skin is.
@@xRiriRebel the soap bought here had never been opened! I totally understand what you’re saying. Some cosmetics sold secondhand haven’t been used before.