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As we welcome 2021, I thought this would be the perfect time for me to start my blog! Every year over the Christmas break, I like to plan the next year and the developments and improvements that I can make to my little business. This year was full of plans and dreams for a full re-stock during January, upping our advertising and marketing a little and generally making our soap production a bit more time-effective. Little did I know, that Mr Johnson would have other ideas! My first week back after Christmas has turned into a juggling act between trying to keep up with all your lovely orders and the dreaded return of home-schooling! Anyway, with day 2 of home-schooling round 2 completed, and everyone still alive and still enjoying each other's company at Mudd Shack HQ, I'm counting that as a win! January is normally a time of year, when people make New Years Resolutions. Promises to better themselves in the year to come. But this got me thinking... our new years resolutions are normally centred around ourselves. Loosing weight, drinking more water, doing more exercise... But what about a new year's resolution that goes further than that? What about a resolve to help the planet? This year, our household resolution has been to further reduce the amount of single-use plastic. We already use the milkman, shop in charity shops or buy second hand wherever possible, and obviously have an abundance of plastic-free toiletries in the bathroom, as well as using the household liquids that we offer on our refill delivery service. But our next step is to cut down on the plastic in our weekly shop, mainly surrounding our food. So we have made a promise to shop locally wherever possible. At some point this week, between the endless Google Meets that my daughter has to attend, we will wander down to our local butchers with old tupperware pots in hand to house our sausages and bacon for the weekend fry-up. We'll then head round to the bakers with our bread bag, and finally we'll fire up our faithful old Dorris (our 1970 Morris Traveller) and head just off to island to the fruit & veg shop, taking our produce bags on our travels. With all this talk of both New Year's Resolutions and children's education at the moment, it dawned on me that surely one of the best things we can teach our children is how to look after our planet. And how to save our planet before it's too late. With this in mind, and with my 8 year old daughter's help, we made up an Eco Starter Kit. It contains some really easy plastic-free swaps, at a bargain price. - Beeswax Wrap - one of my favourite swaps, particularly good for all those last little bits of left over Christmas cheese. Just use in place of cling-film. 25cm square and made using local beeswax with a beautiful bee pattern. - Metal Straws - with straws (finally) being banned in the UK, metal straws are the perfect replacement. You'll need one for all those take-away drinks we'll be buying now!
- Reusable face wipes - okay, so you may not need these that much at the moment if you're working from home! But when you do venture out into the world again (or more-likely have a zoom meeting) and want to wear make up, these towelling backed wipes are the perfect way to remove it at the end of the day. Fun fact - My Mum is a seamstress, and makes these for me from off-cuts of fabric she has left over at work. Recycling at it's finest! - Soap Bag - sometimes called soap savers or soap pouches, these bags are a game changer. We have one in our shower which I fill with all our off-cuts of soap. Just get the bag wet under the shower, rub to create lather and away you go. Bye bye shower gel! Also great for those last little bits of soap that are just too small.
- Bamboo Soap Dish - the perfect companion to our final item, keeping your soap as dry as possible, giving it a longer life span. The tray also pops out for easy cleaning! - Beeswax Soap Bar - yes, I saved the best 'till last. The crowning jewel of our Eco Starter Kit is one of our 100g bars of beeswax soap. I won't bore you with the benefits of our soap in this post (Have no fear - I'll do that at another time!), but our creamy moisturising bars of soap are a real treat to use. Especially in these times of excessive handwashing and sanitising.
Whatever your New Years resolutions are. Whether you stick to them for a day, a week, or only an hour. I wish you a happy 2021. It's got to be better.... right?! Claire xx Mersea Mudd Shack PS I also made a New Year's resolution to lose the stone I put on during last lockdown... But with the onset of home-schooling I never even started that one! Oops!!
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