Plastic Freedom: Cleancult

In my latest foray of de-plasticing my life I have gotten my hands on an array of household cleaners by cleancult.

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Cleancult products are made with clean, all natural ingredients and come in reusable shatter-resistant glass containers that are super cute and feel high-quality. Refills for the products come in plastic-free packaging and every time you place an order they offset the carbon emissions from your shipment! You can see why I am into them, right?

The next question is do the products work? I received a bar of soap, dryer balls, laundry detergent tablets, liquid dish soap, dishwasher tablets, liquid hand soap, and an all purpose cleaner spray in my kit. Thus far I have been happy with all of them, although the bar soap is nothing to write home about. What I think has been one of the most impressive products is the all purpose spray. I was super skeptical of natural all purpose sprays until this one. I love it for cleaning stuck on food on the stove and even soap scum in the tub!

I am looking forward to my first refill shipment so I can analyze the packaging it comes in, maybe I’ll share an update then.

If you are interested in trying out Cleancult for yourself use my code GINA15 for 15% off your first order. And check out my Instagram for a fun time lapse of me using the all purpose cleaner.

100 Days to Plastic Freedom

This year for my annual 100 day project I switched things up from my usual mindfulness challenge. I have been looking to reduce my waste and particularly use of single-use plastics, so I decided to use this as an opportunity to do so.

Each weekday I chose one single-use plastic item I but with some regularity and research alternative products that would produce no plastic waste, and minimal waste generally. I documented each of these in my Instagram stories, but for posterity I want to share that research here. I will call this series of posts my journey to “Plastic Freedom.”

100 Days of Mindfulness

I currently have a pretty severe strain in my right forearm. I've had it for nearly a week and it will still be there for at least a few more days. I swear I have a reason for telling you this...

The thing is that I know exactly what it is from because I have had this pain before. It's a result of my appalling desk posture. I often will work in an uncomfortable position, mindlessly, for hours only to realize it the next day when I go to grab something and I feel a sharp pain. I, like most people, have a lot of these mindless habits. I bite my nails, I forget to eat lunch, I leave the house to work and arrive at my desk not noticing the 15 minutes that had passed. I just get lost in my thoughts. Often.

Getting lost in your thoughts aren't a big deal but, as I have discussed in the past, I feel like these little mindless moments add up to a lot of life lost, or enable habits I'd prefer not to have; flashback to all those times I have eaten a whole box of cookies in one sitting and not notice until my knuckles hit the cardboard. Oops.

This is why I challenged myself to the 100 Day Project, but my version of it. This project was initially created for makers to make for 100 days in a row. It is an exercise in appreciating the process and understanding one's creativity. I want to use it to build my mindfulness muscle. I plan to do this through meditating, developing mindfulness "triggers," and studying up on mindful philosophy. I have begin documenting my first days on Instagram (if you aren't following me there please do, that's where all the magic has been happening lately!) and am about to say buh-bye to week 1!

I am very excited to see how this goes, I have no hypotheses at this point. I am just taking a shot in the dark and feeling my way through hoping to be a more present and appreciative version of myself by the end of it all.