Assessing my own zero waste progress - gotta walk the talk! I started this Zero Waste series in 2018 with an audit of my own personal waste. Almost 2 years later, and having written almost 20 articles later about this issue, where am I with my own Zero Waste effort? It’s easy to spout out a list of things to do and tell people that they should do them, but am I walking my own talk? Time to find out! *** STATIONERY Most of my stationery are actually hand-me downs from my mothe

Moving beyond specific categories, here are overarching principles when attempting to go zero waste in any part of your life. I’ve been writing about how to go zero waste for specific categories (see them all here), and if you have been following, you will notice certain themes or principles coming up in each and every one of them. (If you’re not sure why we need to obsess about waste in the first place, just know that our trash is overwhelmingly large and is EVERYWHERE, and

How much building a house (and an eventual farm-slash-orchard) is costing the wallet. As per last year, I am conducting an end-year review of the finances for the Meraki Tiny House project, and updating the post to capture the ongoing work and accrued expenses. It’s been 2 years since the house was built, and within this year alone, there were several major developments that you will see reflected in the costing: the slope underneath the house was reworked into a working area

Eliminating, substituting, and/or reducing the waste from our home improvement and DIY projects. I have been continuously, if sporadically, working on the self-sustaining tiny home that we built two years ago, and am swaddled with all sorts of home improvement bits and bobs, from paints to cabinet doors to nails and screws scattered all over the place. The house that gets bombarded with my home improvement schemes Looking at all the mess, I find it difficult to imagine a zero

Eliminating, substituting, and/or reducing the waste from our around-the-world gallivanting Once upon a time, someone once asked me: “If you had to choose between Prince Charming and travel, which would you go for?”, and a much younger me had answered without a shadow of a doubt: “Duh, travel of course.” You see, I enjoy travel in roughly the same way Malaysians enjoy food. This cat must be Malaysian! One foreign colleague who visited Malaysia had this for an observation: “Yo

Installing an off-grid rainwater catchment system to water the tiny house with. Now that the rainy season has begun, at least in my part of the world, it seems to be a good time to introduce the water system I have going on at the Meraki Tiny House. The house is located up on the hill, with no access to the public utility grid at this point in time, which means I cannot plug into the electricity grid or the public water ways that my neighbours down below are on. Which is just

Eliminating, substituting and/or reducing our waste from one too many obsessive, compulsive and impulsive clothing shopping sprees. Source I used to be a fan of cheap clothes. The cheaper the clothes, the more I could buy, and the less I cared when I threw them away when they turned out to be a horrible fit. After all, I could easily buy more next month without feeling too much of a dent in my wallet. My ignorant bliss was interrupted when I found out more about the horrible

Eliminating, substituting and/or reducing the waste from handling our dirty linens. We have come a long way from the days when our great grandmothers had to carry dirty clothes to the river and scrub each one on a washing board. Now, all I need to do is dump everything into the washer, push some buttons and leave for an hour before returning to fresh-smelling, clean clothes - which is nice, and definitely waaaaay easier. What's not so nice is the (literal) scum that comes out

Eliminating, substituting and reducing the waste from keeping our homes and surroundings sparkling clean (or just clean enough!) Cleaning, for one reason or another, has become far more complicated that it really is. We’ve been convinced that different parts of the house require different products, hence the need to buy a floor cleaner which is different from the wall cleaner which is different from the glass cleaner which is different from…etc All shapes and sizes (and price

Eliminating, substituting and reducing the waste from our daily hygiene, body-care and beauty-enhancing activities. While walking through the supermarket aisles, one can actually get overwhelmed seeing the confusing array of shower and beauty products, all promising to make your hair shiny, your skin smooth, and your armpits fragrant. There are products specifically for the oily hair or skin, which is different from the one for dry hair or skin, which is also different from t

How much building a house (and an eventual farm-slash-orchard) is costing the wallet. Since I first published the costing for this project earlier in January, there have been ongoing work and expenses accrued as I attempt to put this place together. The end of the year seems like a good time to review and update, so here we go. Note: Items with a noticeable difference are marked in blue, and updated remarks are marked as such. Given the project is ongoing, the costs below are

Eliminating, substituting and reducing the waste from our twice-daily (or more) dental hygiene routine. A few items that consistently appeared in my trash can was the waste from cleaning my teeth, which, because it’s done twice or more a day, can generate a surprisingly amount of trash without me even realising it. Luckily, there are a number of options out there to alleviate this. *** Toothpaste Eliminate & Substitute: DIY Toothpaste For the enterprising DIY enthusiast, maki

Eliminating, substituting and reducing the waste from our monthly, female-only, menstrual ordeals. Source [This topic concerns only the prettier half of the human population who have survived puberty, but the men can read and enjoy the pictures too, if they want.] My first ever attempt at waste elimination was to tackle the type of waste that appears on a predictable monthly cycle: menstrual pads. This was way back in 2008-2009. Despite using disposable menstrual pads for hal

How much building a house (and an eventual farm-slash-orchard) is costing the wallet. If you've been following my Personal Finance series, you will know exactly how I feel about loans and interest rates. So when I decided to build my own home, I was adamant about keeping the costs down so that I could afford to do it without having to borrow money. That meant: 1) I was limited by what little I have managed to save up or earn in less than a decade of working. 2) I had to look

Just a little bit more... The first week of the build was spent getting the basic structure up, while the second week was spent on wrapping all the steel with walls and a roof. We had hoped to be finished with everything in the second week, but that was not meant to be. Some of the volunteers were more than happy to return again for another weekend. However, while there was work that needed to be done, there wasn’t enough of it to warrant another weekend of building. I also d

The plan was to build a house in 3 weeks time. Naturally, nothing went according to plan. This house build has been a long time coming. I had first met with Epic Home to discuss the possibility of doing this little project in early 2016, and more than a year later, I still didn’t have anything to show for it. Much of the delay was caused by the pesky fact that I actually needed a land to put the house on (who would’ve thought?). That took me close to half-a-year to accomplish

Efforts to build a home that meets all of one's requirements and yet produces minimum negative effects to the world around it. Being a longtime environmental geek, it was a no-brainer that I would want to make my first official home as environmentally-friendly and as self-sustaining as possible. After all, it would be dishonest to live in a space that violates the values that I hold dear, especially when the construction of it is fully (or at least mostly) under my control. I

When you're not an architect or a construction worker but you still insist on designing and building your own home. There’s nothing quite as luxurious as having something tailored just for you, be it a custom business suit that fits like a dream, a custom holiday with all your favourite activities, or... a custom house built with your lifestyle in mind! The beauty of building your own home is getting to have complete control over what it will be like. Rather than purchasing a

When others do such a great job that you want to do it too. I am certainly not the first to attempt building a house, or the first to try squeezing my life into a small space. Plenty of others have successfully done either or both of the above, and it is from them that I drew inspiration and nerve from. The first thing that got me seriously considering embarking on this project was a news article I came upon in my newsfeed, about a woman who singlehandedly (with a bit of help

Building a home by yourself offers a gazillion possibilities - a terrace house? A mansion? A freaking palace?? Or the exact opposite: a Tiny Home. Once I abandoned the idea of buying a cookie-cutter house built by a big developer and became enamoured instead with the notion of designing and building my own home, I was able to give myself free reign to think up a structure specifically suited to me and all my quirkiness. Just like land-buying, I had a list of criteria: self-su