Is this current interest in thrift and frugality just a fashion?

A response to a reduced household income? Nostalgia?  Or is it touching a deeper anxiety about us losing our self-reliance and becoming more and more dependent on so-called 'convenience' products?  For example, I only recently found out about detergent residues.  Evidently the whiteners and optical brighteners in most washing detergents are not rinsed out but stay on the clothes/nappies/wraps.  They are then supposed to make your whites look whiter and your coloured clothes look brighter.

However, I am told that actually what happens is these residues build up and start to absorb dirt and bad odours turning whites grey and making the washing smelly.  We put in more and more detergent to get the clothes clean but actually a heavier detergent residue build-ups up on the surface of the clothes that makes the problem worse - and can cause eczema.  (The solution is to do a wash every so often with no detergent at all and that gets rid of excess detergent residue.  If this doesn't solve the problem you should add some bicarbonate of soda and white vinegar and that should get rid of it!)

Similarly conventional household cleaning products tell us 'no need to rinse off' but then leave a sticky layer on the surface.  Our floors and surfaces look wonderfully clean  immediately after we've cleaned - but not for long - the sticky surface picks up the dirt and we have to clean more frequently.  This only became clear to me when I started to use micro-fibre cloths for cleaning.   I can't help wondering if someone isn't taking us for a ride.

Which brings me to  stay-dry nappies that mean our children often end up night-training later and later, making parents sleep deprived, thus making our lives even  more chaotic than they inevitably are when you have children. In this case the solution is to use cotton nappies at night so  your child has the stimulation necessary to help him/her night train.

Do you have other examples of 'convenience' products that hurt our wallet and our quality of life?

Do we need an eco NCT?

The National Childbirth Trust (NCT) does an amazing job bringing expectant parents together and fostering new friendships.  It reaches us at a crucial stage of our lives.  The birth of a new child makes most of us look at our lives in a new way.  We think about the world that our children will live in and our grandchildren too.

But we are also very vulnerable, fearful, not knowing what the future holds and how we will cope.  Big business knows this too.  That is why, as expectant parents we are bombarded by advertising.

The NCT is a charity and we trust it.  Many new parents volunteer for the NCT, helping to run 'Nearly New Sales' to raise money for the charity.  It is hugely influential.  So is it right that the NCT is sponsored by the producers of Pampers and Comfort?

And does the NCT do enough to inform parents about green and healthy lifestyles and the risks of exposure to some mainstream products?   According to the Ecologist Comfort is a cocktail of dangerous chemicals that can lead to asthma, eczema and glue ear in babies. Does this kind of sponsorship compromise the values of the NCT and its members? And if so, how does the NCT need to change?

Other posts that may be of interest The True Cost of Disposables