foxymochakitten

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repair cafes are oriented to “give you fish”, rather than “teach a man to fish”

Repair cafes are great for getting appliances fixed. But I think they could improve from volunteers just doing the work to a more instructional format. It’s great that you can watch them work and ask questions. It’s almost a teachng experience in that regard, but teaching is merely incidental. The repairer probes around with ...

foxymochakitten ,

My local repair cafe has said that folks are welcome to show up and just learn from the other volunteers. Have you asked your local one if it'd be okay to just hang out?

foxymochakitten ,

I've seen so few this year. Everything is so manicured around me and the landlord pays for landscaping/mowing/etc so I can't keep the leaves out for them :C I'll start keeping the porch light off at night though!

foxymochakitten ,

This sounds really cool!! I love board games

DIY Menstrual Pads - cut down on waste and save money

Not my website! Just a cool thing I encountered. I no longer have periods, but when I did, my flow was incredibly heavy and I spent a lot of money on pads (and of course threw away hundreds of them). I know reusable pads aren't an option for everybody, but they're definitely a great way to reduce waste! Of course, another good ...

Twelve reusable menstrual pads
ALT
foxymochakitten OP ,

Yeah, sadly I have a tilted uterus so menstrual cups are... shall we say, ineffective. Some folks also don't like to have anything inserted there which is valid.

foxymochakitten OP ,

that's what I was thinking! I wouldn't really care what color my pads are as long as I'm sure that they're clean.

Plus you could make some in black!

foxymochakitten OP ,

that's wonderful!! I know in a lot of cultures women and trans men face a lot of shame for menstruating. I mean, even in the US people are still mocked with stuff like "oh you must be on your period," boyfriends refuse to be seen buying pads, etc...

foxymochakitten ,

Hey there! My partner recently went through this whole process. They wanted something really sturdy and low-tech - for reference, they use a flip phone in regular life, so you get the idea. Specifically, the requirements were no touch screen, no Bluetooth, just load music files on there and be able to hit play and pause. They also had a fairly low budget.

We ended up choosing the Snowsky Mini. It's light, pocket-sized, physical buttons, you can pop a micro SD in there to get up to 256GB of storage space. It sounds fantastic with a decent pair of earbuds.

I cannot speak to how repairable it is at the moment, and I will say that my partner is very careful with devices so I also can't speak to how durable it is against someone clumsy like me. I'm also not a tech nerd so I can't speak on altering hardware or software. But I can say that my partner loves it and has no complaints.

foxymochakitten ,

I'm with you on this one. So many scenarios in which someone might want to buy just one/one quantity of something, separate from all the rest... I think we should put more pressure on businesses to use non-plastic materials (or at least more biodegradable plastics) and encourage returning those containers to the company for reuse.

foxymochakitten ,

Y'know, I've heard about people who do this and I really am fascinated. Do you strip naked every time? Are you standing outside the shower and doing a sort of twerk position to point your butt into the stream or do you properly get into the shower to do this?

foxymochakitten ,

For the things on your list, here's my approach!

Underwear: I've heard of people turning old underwear into rags for stuff like washing windows or glasses since the fabric tends to be very soft! Or just rags for any kind of cleaning since it doesn't matter if it gets gross. Personally, I've used the cotton jersey out of my old underwear and sewed them into soft cotton pads to apply skincare - maybe a little ick for some people, but I washed everything in boiling hot water so I know it's sanitary at least. I also keep the elastic bands for other sewing projects, but I've heard of people using them to help with cord management or other scenarios where you need to tie something. Lastly, cotton underwear is better for your body anyway and biodegrades much faster than polyester, so I try to only buy cotton if I can.

Toilet paper: I try to buy bamboo toilet paper if I can. I am not brave enough to try those reusable wipes that hikers use, but they do exist... otherwise, I just try to buy as responsibly as I can and move on.

Tissues: I avoid tissues entirely! I have a selection of soft, old handkerchiefs that I got for dirt cheap at a church thrift store! I'm not kidding, they were all 50 cents. Before we had disposable tissues, we had handkerchiefs, and they're not as gross as you might think - you can blow your nose and then fold them up so the snot is tucked away on the inside (though I'll be honest, sometimes when I'm sick or crying, I do just throw the handkerchief directly into the laundry after using). You can also boil them to sanitize them. On the rare occasion that I've bought a box of tissues, I did hang onto the boxes to use for organizing drawers etc.

Menstrual pads: I made a post recently about DIY reusable pads (plenty sanitary, don't worry!), but there's also options like Diva Cups and period panties. That said, for a disposable pad (or tampon)... I think the best thing we can do is toss 'em and move on. I know there's brands who claim to be better for the environment but I don't know anything about that.

TL;DR: reuse it somehow or use an alternative that doesn't need to be thrown away

foxymochakitten ,

You don't need to inform them...

foxymochakitten ,

What did you end up going with? C: