Sustainable September 2018 Day 15

Today I am back in Wales visiting my boyfriend. We were supposed to go for a walk between Cardiff and Caerphilly but its now pouring with rain. Whoops! however it gives me a bit of time to post this Blog.

Sustainaible September idea for ...

Day 15. Create a capsule wardrobe

This idea works so well with the  I have done this the last few years and its made a huge difference to not only what I buy but what I wear and how made up I look. And it also means I can be lazier, as everything in my wardrobe goes together.

This is my list of clothes and then I label them in order of what I want to include in my Capsule wardrobe for the next 3 months. 

I only buy things I LOVE and this stops me from buying unnecessary things just because they are cheap. I also make sure that I try everything I buy on. This works in great colaboration with the 30x Rule. Because only when you know it fits with your capsule wardrobe AND you absolutely love it enough to wear it at least 30x will you buy the right things for you.

This stops me from purchasing stuff that I will have to return later. Or in my case, before this, forget to return the items and leave in the bottom of the closet for too long, only for it to never get used and then eventually found and donated to charity with its tags still on.

If we are more deliberate with our choices then we can save money from buying things that will not serve us.

I originally started this by putting together a travel capsule wardrobe for my round the world trip in 2013. I cant believe that it was so long ago.

If you already have a great capsule wardobe, consider giving Project 333 a go! 33 items of clothing for a 3 month period.

I follow the hashtag #Project333 on Instagram too. which is a great source of inspiration.

I hope this finds you all well.

Love Daena x

Sustainable September 2017 - Day Thirty

SEPTEMBER 30 (SATURDAY)

FASHION & BEAUTY - OPSHOPPING/UPCYCLING

Welcome back Sustainable September-ers. It is the last day of the month of Eco Kindnesses. What a crazy wild ride it has been.

One thing I have to say is that it is my Mums birthday today. It is always such a lovely way to end Sustainable September by honouring the woman who gave birth to me. 

You, Mum, are the best, most couragous, genuine, compassionate, determined woman I know. You make other people see the best in themselves even when they didn't realise there was more to them. You have championed so many causes, helped so many people, affected so many lives and you have done so much of it quietly, in the back ground. You are a marvel. I am so blessed that I was put on this earth with you. Thanks for being my mum!

Back to the blog post now...

I love that every September I learn new and interesting ways to reduce my waste and make my life, and everyone else's lives a little better. I forget how much I have done and continue to do for this great planet of ours. It is like a journey I forget I am on. Iimpliment small changes that I forget about as they become normal. It is only as a result of doing Sustainable September that I realise just how far I have come in my journey to reduce my waste. I am a long way off being Zero waste but each year I get a little closer to living with no waste. It is by no means a fast swap. I feel like my small changes are sustainable though. I like it like that. After all this is Sustainable September for a reason. Small changes that can be sustained for a long time to come. 

Kindness is always my priority when it comes to this blog. Kindness to our planet equates to millions of people in poverty having support. People living in poverty are the first casualties as a result of climate change. Being kind to our planet is simply thinking more about our actions so that we can help those who need it most. So everytime you choose glass packaging over unrecyclable plastic... just remember you are doing a kindness for those less fortunate than yourselves. 

What is Sustainable September all about on the last day of the month? It is about FUN!!!

Two of my favourite ideas when it comes to being environmentally friendly...

Sustainable September Day 30 - Op- Shopping and Upcycling. 

The idea and the ACTIVITY are one in the same today. Go Op-shopping (go to the thrift store, buy second hand, even look up pre-loved or used items on ebay). or Upcycle something that needs new life.

Oh... how I love Op-shopping. Usually when I am looking for something specific now though. By now you will have figured out your Capsule Wardrobe and decided if there are a couple holes in your wardobe. I know that as the summer months come into it I have a few more holes in my wardrobe because I have changed shape and a lot of my clothes.

I went to a local op-shop today. My family and I have been blessed with the most amazing gift of a holiday away. My niece, nephew and I went into the local town and went to the local op-shop... like you do! We didn't buy anything but had a look around. My nephew was looking for something very specific, so when that something wasn't to be found, he was out of there. It was probably all of about 4 minutes in the shop, but thankfully it was just a look around. I thankfully didn't need anything and the only thing my neice wanted they didn't have either so we all left. 

Normally I probably would have spent more time riffling through the back rooms to find little treasures... but not today. My nephew is pretty determined when his tummy rumbles... I guess that serves me right for not feeding him BEFORE we went into the opshop. oh well. I wasn't really looking for anything and I don't need to add to my piles of stuff at home... a lot of which is already destined for the opshop.

This is what i look at when I need something new.... Use what i have first... borrow second, swap third, then thrift, make is the next option leaving buy new a final resort. It takes into account all of the Zero Waste principals too.

If you have nothing that you need when it comes to opshopping/thrift shopping, then look at your waste and think of creative ways to Upcycle some of that waste. Have an old flannel shirt with paint stains? then turn it into a couple of gift bags, some hand warmers and a Apron.

Or you can thing about other types of waste too. What do you often throw out that can be upcycled and given new life, without going to the tip? Can't figure out what to do with an old tyre? Turn it into an ottoman. or a swing for your kids in the back yard, or a planter box. There are so many ideas for giving old things a new life... and therefore keeping them out of landfill. It just calls for creativity.

If you are interested in Upcycling then there are a huge range of boards and ideas on Pinterest.

I know, for those of you who have followed this blog ALL month, that Upcycling is not a new idea. But tomorrow is a saturday when people are most likely to be able to do fun things like op-shopping and upcycling... so i thought... why not bring it back again! :)

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed Sustainable September for 2017. I always intend to do so much more stuff, be more creative and more informative... and then life gets in the way and you end up with a interesting shorter version of what i had planned in my mind. I guess living life and living this sustainable ecofriendly lifestyle is what the whole month is about so I guess that is part of the fun... not knowing what life will bring in a month.

I hope you will all continue to work to make this world better for everyone who lives here... make it kinder for everyone.
Sending love to you all.
Love Daena xx

ps. if you need a challenge for October starting on the 1st... it is "Buy Nothing New Month". Which puts another spin on reducing what you buy in Fast Fashion and also looking at alternative ways to help the environment.  Give it a go. I really enjoyed doing this last year. It was a little bit of a challenge but ultimately it was worth it. 

Sustainable September 2017 - Day Twenty Nine

SEPTEMBER 29 (FRIDAY)

FASHION & BEAUTY - RESPONSIBLE DEJUNKING & RECYCLING

Making life a little kinder for our planet and all those who live here.

Welcome back to the last week of Sustainable September. This week is all about Fashion and Beauty.

It is simple the less we consume and the more we wear the clothes we already have the more environmentally friendly they become. However, there are times that it is impossible to keep clothes. They don't fit, they are unflattering, they are out of fashion, they are stained or ripped, they are thoroughly warn out.

Sustainable September Day Twenty Nine: Dejunk your excess.

This may seem a little strange to talk about Dejunking now after talking about waste this last 28 days. However consuming less and owning less is a massive part of reducing your environmental foot print. So I am here to talk about responsible dejunking and recycling.

If you are going to be creating a a capsule wardrobe (check out the last two days worth of blog posts for more information) it often involves getting rid of lots of clothes that no longer fit, aren't your style and are are stained or broken. Even though I will be talking about this in terms of clothing, some of these ideas apply to all the things you are getting rid of. 

Yesterday you would have started going through your wardrobe and putting aside the things that don't fit, are broken or stained, are too big, too small and aren't your personal style. Instead of just chucking all this in a bag and dumping it in landfill, I want you to look at what you have. 

DONATE: The things that are too big and small and aren't your personal style can be donated to a local thrift store, asuming they are in good enough condition to be sold exactly as they are (anything else is not going to be resold). You could also resell them yourself if you want to (to earn some extra cash). This means that anything with stains or breaks must not be taken to a thrift store, it is the same thing as throwing it in landfill because ultimately that is where it will be sent. 

First lets talk about REDUCING what you going to be sending to landfill. After all your resellable stuff is donated or resold you can then move on to the next group of things. The ones that are broken.

BROKEN: If they are broken, see if they can be mended. If they can be mended, can you rewear them? If you can rewear them, do they fit? are they stylish enough? do they go with more than one thing in your Capsule Wardrobe? The best thing you can do is repair them even though they no longer fit you, your style and dont match anything in your wardrobe. Then they can be sold or donated. I did this with a pair of shoes I owned at the beginning of the year. They were ones that i had worn to be bridesmaid at my best friends wedding, but i rarely wore them. The only times i did wear them, the straps broke on them. The straps pulled out of underneath the sole of the shoe. So I went to a cobbler and had them repaired. It cost me $10 to have 2 shoes fixed but then I was able to donate them as they were going to be useable/saleable for a charity thrift shop. It might seem silly to have something fixed to then give them away, but they were good shoes and I knew they would come in handy to someone sometime in the future.

Is something ripped or stained so badly that it can't be donated? Is it so bad it can't be fixed?  Then there are two options 1) Upcycle it into something that will be useful. 2) Rip it up and use it as rags.

I have done both of these.

UPCYCLING: For the first one I turned an old Flannelette t-shirt into a bunch of different things. Hand warmers, gift bags, a BBQ apron and more. I even had someone love the Apron so much they bought it off me and someone else loved it so much they commissioned me to make another one in Red! :) 

RAGS: Then there is those clothes that are stained so much that they can become nothing but rags. I had an old t-shirt that was so badly stained and holey that it would have ended up in landfill if I had decided to take it to an op-shop. Thankfully it was a cotton t-shirt so it could be ripped up fairly easily and then used as rags. I use it now in the shed for all kinds of things. From wiping up the paint from my projects to dusting, to using it for checking the oil guage in the car. I didn't realise how many tissues/papertowels I used that have been saved because I reused my own rubbish and turned my old clothes into scraps. I turned my old university t-shirts and promotional-shirts (one off t-shirts that no-one would buy from a thrift shop) into rags and now they have a use and have not ended up in landfill. I have been able to wash these rags over and over again. They are mostly made of cotton so they can be thrown into my compost once they are well beyond washing.

FANCY DRESSES: I have a bag of dresses at home that are waiting to go to a new home. And i have a plan for them rather than sending them to an opshop. There is a school not too far away from me that is looking for pretty dresses. They loan the dresses students whose families cant afford to purchase ones for school dances or School Balls. Everytime i find a fancy dress (in an Opshop) or I grow out of one of the ones id worn in the past, or ones my friends is getting rid of some of their fancy dresses, I put them aside ready to take to this school. There may be something like this in an area near you.

Those of you who want to donate your wedding dresses can either resell them, donate them to charity or even donate them to a cause where they will be Upcycled. What i am talking about when i say Upcycled is turning these dresses into Angel Gowns. "
"Angel Gowns Australia Incorporated ...provides services to bereaved families who have suffered the unimaginable stillbirth or death of their baby, families who are or have gone through the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit or families who are impacted on by a child's life-limiting illness or special needs.From donated wedding dresses we lovingly hand craft Angel Gown garments which are then donated to hospitals, funeral homes and directly to families through special orders.

To bring a ray of sunshine into special children's lives we use the left over tulle from wedding dresses and transform it in to the most beautiful Tutus, which we also donate to hospitals and other children's charities all around Australia" 

Currently they have an over-supply of wedding dresses. They will be taking more dresses in the future, when they are work their way through their current supply. So donating your wedding dress to this cause would mean that you would have to hold on to it (in Australia at least). 

I am sure there are a lot of other things that you can do with your old clothes!

TOWELS, SHEETS & BLANKETS: If you want to donate old towels, blankets and sheets you can donate them to homeless shelters and pet shelters. The worse condition they are in the better they are for animals and less for human use. Donating these items can be a huge kindness particularly in winter times and when blankets and sheets are needed to keep people and animals warm. 

I hope this helps you with your donating and recycling of old clothes and fabrics. 

With Love,
Daena x

Sustainable September 2017 - Day Twenty Eight

SEPTEMBER 28 (THURSDAY)

FASHION & BEAUTY - CAPSULE WARDROBES

Welcome back to the amazing Eco Kindness month... Sustainable September. This is the month where we focus on being kind to this amazing planet of ours and all those who live here. This week the focus is on Fashion and Beauty and how we can reduce our environmental impact in this area.

Yesterday I wrote about the problems with the fashion industry... particularly FAST FASHION.

The challenge yesterday was to reduce the amount of Clothing we buy, and then when you do go to purchase stuff, choose sustainable options like Seconds Hand, Envionmentally friendly, Fair trade, Organic, Vegan & Cruelty Free, Vintage etc.

This might seem hard... saying no to fast fashion. However, I have some tips and tricks for you to look at. Like this one...

Sustainable September Day Twenty Eight: Create a Capsule Wardrobe.

What is a capsule wardobe you might ask? Well it is basically a collection of clothes you wear regularly that all mix and match so you are left with less options overall and less choice fatigue - yes that is a real thing! This doesn't mean you really have less choices, you just get to use the smaller number of things you own and love in more creative ways.

Start with shopping your own closet. That means going through all of the clothes you own (Yes... ALL of the clothes you own) and figuring out if you love it, hate it, if it fits, if its still a style you feel comfortable wearing, if it still has its tags on check if it is worth taking the tags off.

I know how it goes, you look in your closet everyday and feel like there is nothing to wear.

Today, I'm going to share my excitement because I have been using a Capsule Wardrobes for the last 3 months.

I have been following a popular minimalist Blogger called Courtney Carver from from Be More With Less who created a Capsule Wardrobe challenge called Project 333. Thats 33 items of clothing for 3 Months.

"The Rules

• When: Every three months (It’s never too late to start so join in anytime!)

• What: 33 items including clothing, accessories, jewelry, outerwear and shoes.

• What not: these items are not counted as part of the 33 items – wedding ring or another sentimental piece of jewelry that you never take off, underwear, sleep wear, in-home lounge wear, and workout clothing (you can only wear your workout clothing to workout)

• How: Choose your 33 items, box up the remainder of your fashion statement, seal it with tape and put it out of sight.

• What else: consider that you are creating a wardrobe that you can live, work and play in for three months. Remember that this is not a project in suffering. If your clothes don’t fit or are in poor condition, replace them."
  (Check out the rest of Project 333 here)

For the last 3 months I have been working on using only 33 items of clothing/accessories/Shoes that fit together to form my Winter Capsule Wardrobe. That way I limit decision fatigure and spend less time looking at clothes (or in my case, it used to be 'worrying' about clothes). It actually makes my life easier... because I know what I have to choose from and all of these things are my favourite things to wear.

It's a challenge that may not suit everybody but i decided to give it a go.

I can make heaps of different outfits from this list too. 

 If I get to the point where these things aren't my favourite I will change them in the next 3 months as the weather warms up.

It has been surprisingly easy. I actually started with about 5 less items than I finally ended up with. I added in the black Toms Shoes, my grey Leggings, my red & black scarf, my University Hoodie and the Ying/Yang singlet. However my grey leggings and ying/yang singlet I often wear to Bootcamp so they might not technically count but oh well. I still have one space for a dress... I just couldn't decided which one! It turns out I haven't really needed a dress this last 3 months. Except for this coming Sunday when I will wear a pretty hand-me-down dress to become a Fairy Godmother... i mean... Godmother *cough*.

And do you know what? I have had more compliments in the last 3 months on my fashion than I ever had before. My favourite compliment was "You look really sophisticated these days." Thank you Shazza! It brightened my day.

My family didn't even notice. I had to tell my mum, my neice and nephew all about it last week. Apart from the fact I have to do washing more regularly, it wasn't too different than before. I still wear my favourite clothes, I just wear them more often and in new and interesting ways. I got really excited when i realised there were ways I could wear things that I never thought of before. Crazy huh? I have owned some of these clothes for YEARS. You can check out my Excel Spreadsheet too.

Yes I made a spread sheet. But that was just so I could keep myself accountable and know that i still have a long way to go when it comes to fast fashion. I bought a majority of my clothes from Fast Fashion outlets. But I also got a lot of hand-me-downs from friends, which I love. I also have a surprising amount of 'gifts" in there too. My favourite jewellery is all gifts from family and friends. 

If you want to know how I got started well it was pretty simple. I started by taking a record of what I was actually wearing. See that photo above of all the little outfits? That's from an app. It's called Stylebook (its currently only in the Apple App Store). It's awesome. For a month before I started the Project 333 challenge, every day I photographed what I had decided to wear that day and added it to the Stylebook app. After a month you will realise what you are wearing all the time and what is your favourite outfits. This helps when planning your Capsule Wardrobe for Project 333. Or any Capsule Wardrobe really. It gave me my core clothes. Ones I basically couldn't live without. 

From there I started seeing where the gaps were in my closet. For example the reason I bought the blue peplum top (whilst I was holidaying in Sydney in June) was because I needed a top that I could dress up and down and i didnt have something that could do that. I really liked the style and colour and I knew I could wear it again and again. AND I also decided I wanted it because I liked the way it fit, particularly how it flatters my waist. I know that when it gets to the end of it's life I can cut a pattern from it and make more like it. I may even do that BEFORE the end of it's life. It is a Fast Fashion brand (which I'm not pleased at myself with) but I needed something in a hurry and it filled my need. It doesn't mean I'm going to discard it after this 3 months either. I love it, so it will stay in my closet for a long time to come.

What I want to tell you is that I went into that particular store THREE times before I actually bought the Blue top. Why? Because I didn't really want to buy a Fast Fashion item. I dont know why I went in to that shop to start with... I usually avoid shops that I don't like ethically. But I was sucked in there and then I found the blue top and I was like YAY... something that fit the gap in my planned "Capsule Wardrobe" and then I asked myself did I really need it. After deciding No i didnt NEED it, I left. Then I had an unexpected event I was going to that was Smart/Casual. I didn't really have anything that fit it. So when I went back to that store and I, again, walked away in the hopes that I could find something from a better environmentally friendly and ethical store... but alas I found nothing so that is when I went back and bought that top. If I had had more time to scour the Op-shops/Thrift Shops I think I could have found something lovely. But I was in a foreign city without knowledge of where these shops were. I did the best I could with the time, money and information that I had. I also know I have a lot room for improvement and I look forward to experimenting more with capsule wardrobes. 

Interested in starting your own Capsule Wardrobe but need more inspiration from others? I have a Pinterest board dedicated to Capsule Wardrobes and also one dedicated to Travel Wardrobes (Which is basically a smaller Capsule Wardrobe that fits in a carry-on case). Travel Capsule Wardrobes are a great place to start because it makes travel easier AND you get to see if you can cope with a Capsule Wardrobe! Here is another persons Capsule Wardrobe for visuel inspiration...

Check out this really good video too...

ACTIVITY: Start planning a capsule wardrobe by recording the clothes you already wear regularly. This paired with yesterdays activity of not buying anything new will be a challenge for some. If you already know what you wear regularly and would feel confident putting together a capsule wardobe (as an experiment) then give it a go. It sure works for me. 

Not interested in doing Project 333... no problem! You don't need to limit yourself to just 33 items for 3 months. You can still create an awesome Capsule Wardrobe. Check out this video by SugarMumma for ideas on a larger Capsule Wardrobe...

I hope you have found this as useful and interesting as I did putting it all together. I look forward to seeing and hearing all about your new (or old) capsule wardrobes.

Much love to you all,
Daena

Sustainable September 2015 - Day Nineteen

Hello again!

Thank you for coming back again! :)

What have you been up to today? Today I have still rested, and also decided to steam mop the house. I have decided the steam mop does NOT bring me joy! I have a pretty tiny house, but when you have to actually steam mop three rooms (the bathroom, laundry and kitchen) takes 3 hours to clean, its just easier to get the ordinary mop out. So my solution is that I will be getting rid of the steam mop (with my mums blessing of course). It is amazing that now I am looking around the house with a thought to de-junk and live a less impact-full lifestyle, I am noticing the stuff that sits in areas and collects dust.

Today when I was resting I was reading more of Zero Waste Home! I am almost half way through! :) One thing Bea Johnson talks about is living a minimal life so that you do not have to spend so much time cleaning (thankfully) and you have more time to do things you enjoy, like spending time with family and friends.

One thing that came up is a bit of a love of mine. A secret love of the Capsule Wardrobe.

Picture from Adventure Chick via Pinterest.

September 19: Create a Capsule wardrobe. 

For those who don't know what it is, it is about having a wardrobe where everything is classic style and can be mixed and matched so that you can layer and it all matches/contrasts. It often means having a very small collection of clothing that is good quality and long lasting. I used a capsule Wardrobe when I went to Europe in May. It meant I only needed to take Hand luggage, and it had 3 weeks worth of clothes. Amazingly there were still a few pieces of clothing that I didn't use, and a couple that had to be replaced on the way. I was so in love with the idea that I learnt a lot about myself and my purchasing habits along the way. I got lots of my ideas from Pinterest. If you want to see what I am talking about you can look at my Travel Wardrobe folder here.

I also used the App on my iPhone called Stylebook. It helped me figure out what would go with what for my travelling. I also use it now to make sure when I buy something it will go with the rest of my wardrobe. It sounds weird, but i found it fun. You can also see how much stuff you have. Like that massive pile of clothing that was in my lounge room yesterday, you can avoid, overbuying.

We are often compelled to buy more and more, and then we find that we have less and less to wear. When you have a compact wardrobe it is easy to choose what to wear because you wear what you have, and it all matches or contrasts so it all works together. You also are more likely to look after the clothes you have rather than finding them disposable. 80% of all cloth that is not usable goes to landfill. Reducing this percentage for ourselves is really important.

I admit I am not perfect. When I started creating a capsule wardrobe in May, I had a lot of clothing that didn't fit into this philosophy, and some of it doesn't work for me, or bring me joy, any more (hence why I got rid of 5 bags). I also learned that for this to work you need to buy quality clothing with durable fabrics. I had been buying cheap clothes that died pretty quickly, and now I buy better quality ones so that I know that they will last the distance. I have discovered that you don't need to spend a fortune to get a good quality capsule wardrobe when you check out the Thrift stores/Op Shops either! :) Buying second hand is a great option when you are looking for quality because items of clothing have been pre-tested for you. Don't you hate getting that t shirt home only to discover it gets covered in pills in a day? or the jeans that even after washing them 5 times, still leave your legs blue? I like charity stores/thrift-shops/op-shops for helping me to get the things I want or need for my wardrobe. Like recently I bought 3 beautiful scarves for $3AUD total ($1AUD each) at a St Vinnes store. YAY! i have had so many people ask me where I got my grey scarf from, because it also doubles as a wrap in cool weather! Plus recycling clothes is better for the environment! Having less helps your immediate environment, because you are using what you have. It definitely saves you money because you are less likely to buy clothes that do not fit in the capsule!

One of Bea Johnsons suggestions and reasons for having a small wardobe is in case of emergency. She is able to literally throw everything into a suitcase and nothing gets left behind. I think this is super important in an area like where my sister lives, that is prone to Bushfires. She lives in a beautifully lucious and green area filled with trees, bushes, greenery, native animals and birds It is beautiful. It is also dangerous. In the 8 years that they have lived in the house in the hills they have had to evacuate 3 times. The last time was the closest to their home. Thank the heavens their house has been safe every time! I see the benefit for a capsule wardrobe so that we can get our clothes out of the house in the case of an evacuation. It could also something that could help when you have to rush for national or international travel in a hurry. I have had friends and family in other countries who I wished (at various times) that i could just pop on a plane and be by their side. Having a capsule wardrobe means you could pack and be in the airport fast! I like that idea. I guess because it is based in kindness. Being for people you love in their time of need. Making that easier has to be worth it! :)

For clothes that aren't worth keeping and have huge stains and rips in them, consider turning them into house hold rags to use in the place of paper towels. 

KINDNESS IDEA: Buy socks for Homeless people. Often the one thing that is needed most for Homeless people is socks and it is often the thing that is not remembered that is needed. Warm/thick socks are usually good during winter months. And lighter ones during hotter months. But buy what you think you would wear. There is even a campaign in my city for this purpose exactly at the moment it is called Socks in the City. Check it out here.

I hope this finds you all well!
Love Daena x