DIY
DIY soda with kefir
There are over 100 grams of sugar in a litre of coca-cola. If you pour out 100 grams of sugar next to a 1 litre container, you’ll be surprised.
If you’re worried about the diesel used to transport water and sugar to you, if you’re worried about the plastic of the bottles lingering in the environment for the next 800 years, you might try DIY soda.
Water kefir is a symbiosis of bacteria and yeast that ferments sugar into a beverage that is surprisingly similar to lemon-lime sodas like Sprite. Eighty grams of sugar are required for each litre of water, but the kefir eats the sugar as its principle food source. If you wait long enough, the drink is hardly sweet at all. Add dried fruit to influence the flavour. It takes 24 hours to be ready to drink, 30 hours if you dislike it sweet.
People drink kefir water for the probiotic benefit, but you might think of it merely as an environmentally-friendly and low cost alternative to soda pop.
You have to get grains from someone, but they are not hard to come by. The colony grows over time, so everyone who uses them eventually has too much.
Safety razors
If you are bothered by throwing away triple-edge razors and their plastic handles, you might have considered getting a razor handle that takes replacement heads. However, you would have soon discovered that the replacement heads are barely cheaper at 1€ to 3€ each — plus, there is the matter of vendor lock-in.
Fortunately, single blade razors, like the kind on Bug Bunny cartoons, are still sold. They are called safety razors — a name which must have been the result of a very giddy office party at Gillette’s marketing department in 1901.
There is only one kind of safety razor blade; it fits all handles. You can get a handle and starter blades for 11€. A pack of 100 blades is about 10 €. Compare 10¢ to 3€.
Safety razors work as well as the triple-blade razors, so you might wonder why the triple blade razors were invented. That question shall be answered the first time you try using a safety razor — they are anything but safe. However, if you can get your zen — and maintain it for three minutes — you can get through a session unharmed. It’s actually more of a zen razor than a safety razor. I hope Gillette sends me a cheque for that soon.
Point Heating
In the summer, you might use a fan to apply cooling where you are instead of cooling the whole flat. Point heating is the mirror concept. Leave the flat cool and keep a heat source where you are.