With my husband Ben due home tomorrow after 8 long, eventful weeks away in Japan filming the Rugby World Cup, I thought I'd get ahead of the game with this week's post. As promised last week, this is the last in my mini bathroom series, but it's another awesome swap that is definitely here to stay in the Worrell household.
A few weeks ago, fellow #Write52er Susanne Wakefield mentioned on one of my blog posts that she's swapped over to bars of soap rather than liquid hand soap that comes with a non-recyclable pump. But she also said she's struggling to find soap not wrapped in plastic. I share her frustration on this one - why we need to put bars of soap in anything but a cardboard box is beyond me. Or indeed why do multiple boxes need to be packaged together with non-recyclable plastic film?! Argh.
Anyway, we also swapped to bar soap a while ago, but given that we're a household with a toddler and a dog, it's fair to say hands get washed *very* regularly here so we get through soap at a rate of knots. I was originally buying handcrafted, natural, plastic-packaging-free soaps as and when I happened to spot them, but as lovely these soaps are, they're not always that lovely on the wallet. So then I found myself buying normal soap in the supermarket, but that meant accepting single-use plastic waste again. Then I discovered Splosh.
It's not an entirely zero-waste solution, but it's pretty darn close, and it doesn't burn a hole in the bank account either. Splosh is really easy to use, especially if you download their smartphone app too. Simply start by ordering full bottles, then when you're running out, order a mega-concentrated refill pouch. Pouches arrive in a cardboard box designed to fit through your letterbox, so you don't have to worry about missing the postie. When it's time to refill, mix the specified volume of water and concentrate together and hey presto - you're all set to go again. Pouches generally contain 3 refills, so are super cost-effective and are a really easy way to cut down your plastic waste by around 90%. To improve that stat even further, once you've collected 8 empty pouches, you can return them to Splosh free of charge and they'll reprocess the material into other products. Hurrah!
So, what's Sploshing in our bathroom? We really like the mint & green tea liquid hand soap, and I absolutely love the rosemary & lavender shower gel. The smell reminds me of Badedas bubble bath, which was my gran's favourite and always on her Christmas wish-list, so I get a lovely waft of nostalgia every morning. My mum opted for the ginger & grapefruit shower gel, and while it still smells nice, it's far more subtle so not as big a hit. Having said that, it still lathers up beautifully and leaves my skin feeling soft.
All in all, I think Splosh is a fantastic initiative and next week, I'll look at the other Splosh products we're now using regularly.
