Quarantines and social distancing have a way of causing chaos. But I have a few ideas to
help you prepare sustainably instead of panicking instantly.
Hey y’all it’s Ashley Renne and welcome back to my channel where I show you how to
live your best green life through plant-based eating, eco-friendly living, and sustainable
technology. And today’s video will show you how to apply some of my green living principles
to help you live more efficiently if you ever find yourself quarantined for a long time.
Friends and family have been sending me photos of empty aisles in grocery stores, links to
items being insanely marked up online, and stories of hour-long waits to pay for basic
products that are usually grab-and-go.
I decided to put together this video to offer a different perspective on items that can
help you prepare in a more long-term way. My question to you is - If everything shut
down in an instant– are the resources you currently have in your home perishable or
are they resources you can rely on for a good while until things eventually stabilize? If
you have a sustainable mindset, then you probably will have an easier time adapting to this
scenario. If you mostly rely on disposable products however, now is the time to learn
how you can make sustainable swaps in your household that won’t put you in a situation
where you quickly run out of something you might need. So let’s begin.
1. A bidet attachment As a pandemic is sweeping the country, shoppers
are sweeping the aisles to stock up on toilet paper. Look, I get it. I like keeping my butt
clean just like everyone else. But toilet paper runs out. And then what you gonna do.
Instead, order a bidet attachment. Bidets clean your nether regions by spraying it with
water as opposed to toilet paper which merely smears your bodily functions around down there.
Bidets come at all different kinds of price points depending on how fancy you wanna get.
I have two. One is super fancy and comes with a heated toilet seat, a night light, warm
water, and a wireless remote control. But then I also have a simple one that gets the
job done without all the extras for a fraction of the cost.
2. Reusable Menstrual Products Disposable menstrual products like tampons
and pads are wasteful to the environment and toxic to our bodies. They don’t decompose
for hundreds of years. When you think about it, the same pads your mom used back in the
80s are still out in the world somewhere. It’s time to make the switch to menstrual
products that you don’t need to throw out. I have 3 reusable options that I get to choose
from every month. The first is menstrual cups. They function like a tampon but instead of
absorbing blood, it collects it. When the cup is full, you pull it out, dump the content
out, clean it, and insert it back in. Just make sure you sanitize it properly when your
period is over – I put mine in a pot of boiling water before the start of my next
period. The second option is period panties which I love because it’s super absorbent
underwear that you can just put on and go about your day. I have a pack of 7 that lasts
me my entire period and when I’m done I wash them and reuse the next month. Thirdly,
there’s cloth pads. These function like a disposable pad, except it’s made of cloth
that you can wash and reuse. So If I was quarantined, I’d have 99 problems but my period wouldn’t
be one.
3. HousePlants If you’re like me and believed at some point
in time that you are incapable of keeping a plant alive – now’s the perfect time
to adjust that mindset. You CAN keep plants alive and in return, they can help keep you
alive too. Plants aren’t just pretty to look at, they purify the air and can help
your overall health. If you’re quarantined, you’ll have to deal with indoor air pollution.
According to the EPA, our homes can have 3-5 times more pollutants that the outdoors. Years
ago, NASA conducted a study that revealed several houseplants you can use to clean the
air in your homes. The most effective air filtering plants they listed are the following:
Dwarf Date Palm, Boston Fern, Kimberly Queen Fern, Spider Plant, Chinese Evergreen, Bamboo
Palm, Weeping Fig, Devil’s Ivy, Flamingo Lily, Lilyturf, Broadleaf lady palm, Barberton
Daisy, Corstalk Dracaena, English Ivy, Snake Plant, Red-Edged Dracaena, Peace Lily, and
Florist’s chrysanthemum
4. Seed Packets While we’re on the subject of plants, let’s
talk about how useful it would be to grow an edible garden. In a worst case scenario,
if you didn’t have access to a grocery store, those who can grow their own food will be
just fine. I bought organic seeds so I can grow herbs, spices, fruits, and veggies right
inside my home. If sunlight is an issue for you, you can purchase grow lights that act
as a substitute for sunlight.
5. Compost Bin To cut down on the amount of trash you’d
be building up during a quarantine, get a compost bin so you can transform some of your
waste into something you can actually turn right around and use for your plants and edible
garden. You can combine organic items like grass clippings, leaves, vegetable food scraps,
coffee grounds, and some types of paper in a compost bin and if you properly manage it,
it won’t smell bad and can be ready to add to your plants in 2-5 weeks. There are a ton
of inexpensive compost bins you can get, you can make your own, Or if you just happen to
have $1000 to blow you can get the Zera Food Recycler which is just mind-blowing to me
that this even exists. It’s a high tech indoor composting machine that converts kitchen
food scraps to fertilizer in as little as 24 hours. That’s insane but I also kinda
want it, but I also don’t want to spend $1000. So for now, I am sticking to my compost
tumbler.
6. Beauty Bars Ditch the plastic shampoos, conditioners,
deodorants, and body washes. I have bars for just about everything. I have shampoo bars,
conditioner bars, lotion bars, body soap bars, deodorant bars. And if it's not in bar format,
then it's either something I make at home or comes in some of other form of plastic-free
packaging. Not only are these plastic-free beauty options eco-friendly, they also typically
last longer than the products that come in plastic bottles. in a time when many of us
need to conserve our money, it's smart to focus on sustainable products that will last
longer and result in us spending less.
7. Reusable Napkins It takes forevvvvver for us to go through
a roll of paper towels. Why? Because most of what traditionally use paper towels for
can be substituted for a reusable option. Instead of reaching for a paper towel or paper
napkin to wipe our hands and faces, we have cloth napkins in our pantry that work just
fine. We machine wash these cloth napkins to keep them clean. And that also leads me
to...
8. Plant-based Sponges Get out of the habit of grabbing a paper towel
every time you want to wipe a spill or clean your house in general. It’s so wasteful
and during a quarantine you will quickly run out. Instead get some plant-based sponges.
If you’re worried about sponges being a breeding ground for bacteria, clean your sponge
when you’re done, wet the sponge and pop it in a microwave for two minutes to eliminate
any germs that may be lurking in the crevices. I used to work for WebMD y’all and you can
find that information on their website. I have a ton of walnut scrubber sponges I got
from Grove Collaborative which is an online store that sells household products that are
typically non-toxic, sustainable, cruelty-free, and a lot of stuff on there is plant-based
aka vegan-friendly, for my fellow vegans out there.
9. Coffee Presses Admittedly I don’t drink coffee. I am naturally
hyper the minute I wake up in the morning and since going vegan several years ago, I
find my plant based diet gives me even more energy. So I don’t do caffeine. BUT I know
most people do. So I want to share a tip for the coffee drinkers out there.
First, avoid single serve coffee pods at all costs, they are possibly the most detrimental
form of coffee on the environment. Y’all! John Sylvan. the man who invented the Keurig coffee
pod system has admitted that he regrets inventing it and can't understand why it continues to
be so popular even though critics have shed light on how much of an environmental catastrophe
it is. For context. there are so many discarded K-Cups that if you lined them up it would
be enough to circle the earth more than 10 times — and that's just from one year's
worth of Keurig coffee pods. Also avoid paper filters. Not only are they wasteful, a lot
of them are chlorine-bleached.
If you want to be the most sustainable with your coffee drinking – choose an option
that produces less waste, less toxins, and of course will last you longer if you’re
quarantined. For that, you should opt for a coffee press. Perhaps the least impactful
of all coffee brewing methods is French press. You add some ground coffee and boiling water,
allow to sit for a few minutes, and then press the plunger down to access your cup of wonderfully
fresh, and plastic free coffee. With a French Press you don’t need a filter and it will
save you a lot of potentially wasted coffee.
10. Water Filter So in the midst of the pandemic, people seem
to have gone into a plastic water bottle buying frenzy. If you live in a country where tap
water is drinkable, loading up on water bottles is not necessary for a quarantine. A pandemic
is unlikely to affect availability of drinking water here in the US for example. A water
filter is a much more sustainable option anyway.. It’s less wasteful and will last longer
than a carton of water bottles. Keep those water bottles stashed away for a different
kind of emergency – like say if you had to abandon your home and go on the run. But
at home, if you have access to tap water, just put a filter on it and carry on.
11. Nonperishable Plant-Based Food My kitchen is stocked with non perishable
food, because I’m vegan and follow a plant-based diet that includes foods that are long lasting
on my pantry shelf. There are tons of Vegan Pantry Only Recipe Ideas that are nourishing
and can be made using only shelf stable foods that you just might already have in your pantry.
Basic pantry items that will last long are legumes, grains, pastas and sauces, flours,
nuts, seeds, dried fruits, healthy sweeteners, oils & vinegars, canned veggies and purees.
Here are just a few ideas of dishes you can make using only pantry items:
1. Lentil Pasta – for this you would need some past sauce, can of lentils, and some
dry pasta. 2. Oat meal – for this you would need oats,
water, and a plant based sweetener. Some of my faves are brown sugar, coconut sugar, maple
syrup. Sweet potato syrup, coconut nectar. These are great.
3. Chickpea Curry with cumin, turmeric, a can of chickpeas, a can of chopped tomatoes,
1 can of coconut milk, and some rice.
Seriously there are so many meals you can make from non perishable vegan pantry staples.
Additionally, you can stock up on frozen fruits and vegetables to add to your dishes. Also
don’t forget that plant-based dairy alternatives don’t expire quickly like animal-based dairy
does.
Stocking your kitchen with plant-based foods will not only help sustain you in a quarantine,
but it’s also the most sustainable diet you can have no matter what because it produces
less greenhouse gas emissions, consumes less energy for food production, uses up less land
and water, and it saves animals.
12. Bonus Tip: This isn't a household product, but moreso a reminder that you can utilize
sustainable delivery services to meet your needs So long as businesses are still operating
as usual. For example, you have the option of utilizing plant based meal delivery services.
My favorites are Green Chef and Purple Carrot. Both of those services send healthy, plant
based ingredients to your doorstep and all you have to do is cook it. In the middle of
a public health crisis, it's so important to eat healthy and keep our immune systems
strong.
So that’s it! Those are my top 12 tips for sustainable household products to use in a
quarantine. Hopefully, you’ll consider using these options on a regular basis and not just
for an emergency. A conscious, sustainable lifestyle is a rewarding on so many levels.
It can help us have healthier bodies, healthier homes, and a healthier planet.
If you learned something in this video or just liked it, give it a thumbs up and subscribe
for more sustainable and plant-based lifestyle tips. Until next time, stay safe out there
y’all and keep on living an adventurously green life.