What is Living Sustainably?

Posted by Ian Souter on 29th Jan 2022

What is Living Sustainably?

When you ask yourself "how can I live a sustainable lifestyle?" the answers can seem overwhelming. Large, grand ideas of wholesale changes and increases in costs are the usual retort to this question - whether internally or by the messages repeated around us. 

The truth of living sustainably is that you can make very small changes that don't hit your pocketbook and make a huge difference. You can choose to purchase from smaller local manufacturers of everything from food to bath products and reduce your carbon footprint immensely. 

I have been looking at a handful of California farms where I can buy a half of a cow in January for the whole year. It averages out to something between $12-15/pound so it isn't cheap. But when I think about it, that also means that I am paying that price for the tri-tips that I get... every single cut. I also know that it has been raised on normal food, humanely, without damaging the surrounding environment. It's a cost I am going to pick up at some point. I'll get back to you about how it is.

For my home life, I am focusing mostly on trying to reduce plastic usage, recycle as much as possible, including clothes, electronics & batteries. This is also how and why I started looking for bath & shave products that are both made in the USA or are such a special company that the extra mileage tacked onto the goods are worth it because I am buying directly from them.

Ab Fab is now the place in Huntington Beach for USA-made, high quality shave & bath products

We have done all of the research, so you can be sure that you are getting the absolute best products on the market for great prices.

Take Stirling Soap Company, for example. This married couple - who met while serving in the army - make their soap products out of all-natural high quality ingredients created from their very own farm. Their exfoliating bath soap & charcoal face soap are just out of this world. They are also very well-known for their lip balms and shave soap (yes - I mean the old-school brush and bowl shave soap)!

Or Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements: a vegan line of bath & shave products who's scents are incredibly complex and unique. Known particularly for shave soap - because it is one of the only ones in the world that performs as well, or better, than the traditional tallow-based soaps - I am also a huge fan of PAA's shampoo pucks. I find that if I leave it in my hair for a while, it conditions really well. I also end up with ZERO plastic footprint on my shampoo and conditioner usage.

Did you know that there are over 2 Billion plastic razors thrown into landfills every year in the USA alone?

That's a real stat...

And I don't know about you guys, but I HATED buying those refills for $50 a pop. I also changed my blades as infrequently as humanly possible because of this fact and therefore hated shaving, too.

I can't tell you how much my shave routine has gotten more pleasant since I started traditional shaving. 

Pop by the shop if you're interested in learning more, Huntington Beach. We're just south of the 7-11 & Bill' Camera, facing Springdale, just south of Warner.