Travel has changed my way of thinking so far. One of the examples is what I need to live. Every time I came back from the travel, I looked back at the things that I didn't use or those I thought I could do without, and I updated my packing list.
Such small reviews lead to my reconsidering my lifestyle, and one of the biggest things that I realized is that maybe I don't need a washing machine anymore.
Because of the covid, my work style has changed from working at the office to working at home. I am able to work while traveling because I don't need to go to the office for work. When I started traveling for weeks, I brought a few clothes, and used a Laundromat to wash my clothes. However, it required some expenses, and also I didn't feel good about always caring about when it was finished.
So one day, I came up with the idea of washing myself in the hotel's bathroom. I used the body soap that was provided and washed my clothes by hand. I thought it worked. After coming back from the travel, I searched on Google about hand washing and learned sodium sesquicarbonate can also be used as the detergent. Sodium sesquicarbonate is alkaline and, it neutralizes with the acid sebum dirt. Nowadays I put rubber gloves and sodium sesquicarbonate in my suitcase when I travel, and handwash my clothes in the hotel room.
Many people seem to think it's hard to wash clothes by hand. That's true if you have a family, but washing clothes for one person doesn't take that time. 15 minutes are sufficient in my case. Comparing with the process of using a Laundromat, which involves waiting for the wash to finish, moving your clothes dryer, and waiting again until it finishes drying, handwashing doesn't take as long, and you don't have to go out.
If I rent a flat for living alone in the future, I think I don't need a washing machine. If I have a problem of handwashing, it's hard to drain the water after washing. So it's better to have a spinner.
There are many things that seem natural for you to have, but actually you can live without them.
For some things, I found it hard to stop using them, but I changed my use of some products. The detergent is an example.
Since I realized I can use sodium sesquicarbonate instead of washing detergent, I thought I could switch to more affordable and environmentally friendly detergent products. And I changed a dishwashing liquid and shampoo recently.
For dishwashing liquid, I now use a bar soap that is specifically made for dishwashing. While staying in hotels, when I needed to wash my dishes and didn't have a dishwashing liquid, I tried using a hand soap and I noticed it could get rid of the dirt, which made me think there might be other things for dishwashing. My mother sometimes use the bar soap, and now I also use it. It doesn't make much bubbles, but you can clean the dishes, and the biggest thing is my hands don't get chapped.
Then, considering the influence of synthesized surfactants on the health and the natural environment, I changed my shampoo. Currently, I use a shampoo that is additive-free from Shabondama Soap Company. Regarding the components that work as shampoo and conditioner, you can make them from baking soda and citric acid, but I haven't tried it yet.
And what I have been thinking these days is if it's possible to live without using toilet papers.
Toilet paper is something that I absolutely need for living, I thought like that before, but one day I had such questions: "During the period when people don't have the toilet paper, how do people use the toilet?" or "Is there a country where people don't use paper in the toilet?".
I just remember when I studied abroad for a few weeks in Southeast Asian countries, and in some countries whose sewage systems were undeveloped, there was a trash box to dispose of papers and a shower used as a bidet. One way to avoid using toilet paper is to use a bidet and wipe the part with a cloth. (Actually, some people do that way as I read blogs. In case you can't get toilet papers in an emergency, you can deal with the situation.)
I also found an article about how people do when they want to go to a toilet in mountain climbing. Obviously, if they can't find the toilet, they relieve themselves in the mountain, but the article raises the problem that the paper used for a toilet is left on the ground and remains undecomposed. Bodily excrements are decomposable by microorganisms underground, but artificially produced toilet papers take much longer to decompose.
In the process of producing toilet paper, the paper is bleached to make it white, and more chemicals and water are used, which leads to environmental pollution. Despite not knowing the background, many individuals choose products based on their appearance. We are very responsible for what is happening.
The life living with nothing,
The life we can't live with nothing,
How to deal with it.
When I look back on the magazines that I have published
After all this time, I realized,
There are so many articles about introducing how to make things.
-Yasuji Hanamori, The time we don't have anything (『なんにもなかったあの頃』)
This is the word from Yasuji Hanamori, who first published the magazine 'Kurashi no Techo'. When I first met the sentences, it struck me, and I thought my lifestyle was something like a symptomatic therapy. I didn't handle the cause.
Reconsidering the common sense and trying to change small things. I believe those small actions gradually create positive spirals.
