I am no greenpeace warrior, but I was determined to do my part, so my children and their children will have a better earth to live. I was very conscious of all my actions. I recycled whatever that can be recycled ( including permission slips from school that I was meant to sign), reused what can be reused. I didn’t even buy hardwood furniture when we were living in Malaysia because I didn’t want to encourage the rapid deforestation that was happening in Malaysia.

Here, I still shop at my local hardwood store where the price is about 12% more than the major retailers. The little guys will only surivive the David and Goliath fight if we support them. I buy Australian made products even though they are expensive and kind of cheat me by adding the cost of the package to make the product Australian. ( ‘Product of Australia’ label can be used if 50% including the packaging of the product is Australian!).

All is well, so I thought, till Yaya and toothless started coming with me for my weekly grocery shopping.

First they went after the meat and added extra 30% cost to my weekly bills by only buying organic meat. I didn’t say anything.

Then it was the juice ( sugar content). Did you not see the amount of sugar in the juice? they asked. I didn’t say anything

Then it was my almond milk ( it only has 2% almond and the rest lime water or something like that). You really should make your own almond milk, they said and I didn’t say anything.

Eventually, we reached the cleaning aisle.

I have OCD. I don’t like greasy kitchen counter and I am a fan of ‘Bam’ Every night before going to bed, I spray it on the hob,exhaust and all the cupboard doors, fridge door and the sink, give it all a quick wipe and rinse and  I go to bed dreaming of heaven. It is the same with my clothes. I think this particular obsession I inherited from my mother. All the whites had to be Ujjala white !! And I buy the best soap with those extra enzymes that does what it is supposed to do. “But Mom, do you know what damage the phosphates can do to the environment? Have you thought of the fishes?? and after a quick check on her phone, I got more words of wisdom. “a dash of vinegar and water is all you need to clean the house”

We bought earth friendly soap that didn’t even come with a plastic scoop ( How was I supposed to know that earth friendly soaps expect you to reuse the plastic scoop? I recycled mine along with the empty soap container!). But that is not all, My whites came out of the washing looking like I didn’t wash it. It had a yellow hue..like I rinsed it it muddy water..

I don’t know how a dash of vinegar removes grime. I tried full concentration vinegar, the grime is still there and vinegar bottle is half empty.

Years ago, when I was studying in England and worked as a Nanny part time, one of my job was to do the grocery shopping before picking up the kids. I had to refill the empty original weet-bix box with store brand weet-bix as the kids I was looking after only ate original weet-bix.

I didn’t know how to dispose the contents of a box of earth friendly soap in the most enivironmentally friendly way. Should I dump it in the drain or in the bin? I opted for the bin because it will take time to reach the fish from the landfill. ( besides none of my kids will touch the bins, part of their OCD)

I now have a spray bottle of  dash of vinegar with water on display and a bottle of real Bam under the sink. hidden behind the recycle bin. I also have triple concentrate enzyme soap in my earth friendly soap container.

And I am back to dreaming of heaven with everything gleaming and shining.. ( and feel a bit guilty too for cheating my kids)