My daughter calls me a “prepper,” and I used to be slightly embarrassed to let others know about the way I’ve changed the way I do day-to-day things. But in light of the impending plight of the planet and how we have become accustomed to utilizing plastics for convenience, I want to share with you, in this and future blogs, some easy things I have done to reduce my impact on ­­our civilization.

I wake up in the morning and shampoo my hair with homemade shampoo bars and conditioner bars. I made about 200 bars for the holidays to give to family and friends, and I have about a 5-year supply that I store in a large glass container. After trying my first shampoo bar from Lush [link to it], I loved the concept. I went online to get shampoo bar recipes, and rallied my family to do 15 experiments to find the best recipe. My goal: stop buying plastic bottles.