Less is more

I believe that the key to a more sustainable life is to buy and use fewer things. Sometimes less can be more and to rationalise what we really need the first big step towards change. And while it may seem daunting, we don't have to look too far for inspiration. Afterall only a few generations before us led healthy and satisfying lives without indulging in excesses and keeping waste to a minimum.

For her daily bath, Amma mostly used only three items - a steel bucket, lota (round water pot), and a sandalwood soap bar. Hot water was a luxury (as indeed was running water!) so Amma had to make the best use of her one full bucket of water. Growing up I did not appreciate why she would choose to use a dull looking steel bucket with the nuisance of having to clean it instead of using a cheap, cheerful and easy to replace plastic bucket. However, those exact attributes made it an obvious choice for her, its durability and ease of cleaning meant that she didn't have to throw and replace it that often. Her one personal cleansing product - the Mysore sandalwood soap bar - worked as a bath gel, face wash, shampoo, and conditioner! That one bar of soap helped her smelling fresh, looking radiant and keeping cool during those extreme Delhi summers. Occasionally, she would use boiled reetha, amla, and other plant products to treat her hair with an indulgent shampoo. 

Fast forward a few decades, my shower routine required an array of products on most days namely, running hot water, shower gel, shampoo, conditioner, face wash, and loofah. So a few months ago I set out to do a little experiment of my own, to restrain from buying those enticing and ubiquitous personal care products which I had grown so accustomed to over the years. I began by dropping face wash and bath gel from my shopping list - replacing those with a humble soap bar packed in a small cardboard box. At first, it felt odd to not have to faff around with a synthetic loofah doused in a glistening gel to scrub myself squeaky clean. But it only took a few days to get used to the change, not least because of the time (and water) that it saved me. I did not find any obvious difference in how clean or fresh I felt, with the bonus of having reduced the daily dose of artificial ingredients (and some microbeads) applied to my skin and swept through the waterways. All in all, it proved to be a beneficial change that has bolstered my belief in stripping out non-essentials to declutter my life (as indeed my bathroom window sill!).