Room by Room Guide: Bathroom Basics

This blog series is about our ongoing attempt to confront climate change, as expressed through the everyday objects, goods, supplies, and sundry used in our home here in Upstate New York.

If you’re looking for the Bathroom, you found it! Hurrah!

This is the Bathroom Basics part of the Room by Room Guide, a guide to the essential equipment, tools and consumables used in our house. This Bathroom Basics post mainly covers essential equipment and critical consumables that we either use now, or have used in the past. We talk about the importance of using soap in our post What is Soap and why do we still need it? and we talk about the importance of using soap and water for handwashing in our post Wait, what? So how do I wash my hands?

There’s another post in the Room by Room Guide called Bathroom Details which provides a more detailed list of consumables and tools we regularly (or even sporadically) use there. In our bathroom, we very rarely add new tools, whereas we plan to restock our consumables on a monthly basis. Since consumables spend so little time with us, it’s especially important to make sure that they are non-toxic, plastic-free and able to safely return to the earth - cause they are going there right away. Often what we choose is unscented too. Check out our post Is it still Unscented if you have Anosmia? if you’re curious why.

If you need a primer on why to avoid plastic, go here. For us, plastic is a hard nope.

The path to sustainability is through using less in general, which can sometimes feel like a challenge, and sometimes feel like a simplification. For us, using less in the bathroom has felt more like a simplification. Identifying what was most critical, and ultimately opting for fewer tools and reducing the variety of consumables in the bathroom has mainly been helpful. Our personal routines are simpler and more straightforward, it’s easier to see what’s available in the cupboards, and it’s a piece of cake to identify what we might need to replenish soon.

On the other hand, in this house it was honestly more of a challenge than we expected to get our bathroom’s essential equipment and critical consumables water working. First, our mainline sewer was blocked. I talk about that on our post Look! I Finally Got my Sh*t Together! Then, there was the boil water notice that came while I was super sick with RSV (in a snowstorm, two days before Christmas!) That story is at our post Wait, what? So how do I wash my hands? Then I learned not only does Rochester have heavy metal toxins in the soil, they may be in the water too. This has all underscored that if you wanna poop and wash your hands and avoid getting sick from it, well maintained essential equipment and access to critical consumables, like clean water and a phone number for an excellent plumber, is a lot more pressing than what kind of label the soap has.

But the soap is interesting too, right? At least, I think so.

Not only that, but it’s really useful! We talk about the importance of using soap in our post What is Soap and why do we still need it? and we talk about the importance of using soap and water for handwashing in our post Wait, what? So how do I wash my hands?

Remember, after we take a pass on petrochemicals & plastics, what’s left is basically either mineral or agriculture. Before the invention of plastic, 100% of the materials and everyday objects in homes were either made out of inorganic materials (like metal or glass), or they were “organic” materials, ones that come from plants, animals, and other living things that we humans cultivate because of their usefulness to us, or they were crafted from some combination of these two. Using traditional methods, then, can be a guiding concept in the hunt for human-safe goods that also able to safely return to the earth.

Traditionally crafted soap is a great example of this. Soap is created via saponification, a chemical process that occurs when an organic fat, such as from a plant or an animal, combined with an inorganic compound that is a caustic base.

In traditional soap making, fats used for soap might include plant oils, like olive oil, or animal fats like tallow. The two main bases used are sodium hydroxide (sometimes called lye) for solid soaps, like bars, and potassium hydroxide (sometimes called caustic potash) for liquid soaps. Both sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide are strong chemicals that can be dangerous - notably, specifically because they turn fats into soap! (For example, if you get some sodium hydroxide on your skin, it will start turning your skin’s oils into soap! Yikes!). Fortunately, when a skilled soapmaker carefully combines these ‘dangerous’ chemicals with a fat (like olive oil or tallow) via the traditional soaping making process, by the end saponification chemical reaction process the base and the fats have been chemically transformed into soap and glycerol.

Critical Consumables

Technically speaking, the most critical consumable used in the Bathroom is water. Mní Wičóni! For more water talk check our our post What About Water?

Right now we supposedly get a monthly water bill from the City of Rochester. The City provides some reports on water quailty, theoretically offers free tap water testing, and leaves it to you to see if your home might have lead pipes. Yay!

Toilet paper: We get tp from Reel Paper, and also tried Lor Tush. Both are Black owned businesses, that distribute tp made from bamboo and packed in paper. Having a tp subscription solved so much life stress! (I’d even recommend having two!)

Soap: We have written more extensively about soap in our post What is Soap and why do we still need it? In short, to keep things clean we stick with tradition: soap made via saponificaiton. Generally speaking we use mainly bar soap in the bathroom, and liquid soap in the Kitchen. As both a preference and as as simplification, we opt for plain unscented household products, including soap.

Bar soap: here in Rochester NY we are currently using Plain Goatsmilk Soap from KB White Farms, a locally owned farm and small manufacturer of personal care products. Generally speaking, we pre-order them for pick up in person at the Rochester Public Market. Packaging levels have been variable, but in theory we could provide our own container. (I don’t mind that the soap isn’t vegan. See our post Why I’m Not Vegan)

We also love the Hachola ‘Naked’ Bar from Haípažaža Pȟežúta, an indigenous owned business sharing their Lakota and Dakota traditional plant knowledge through body care products. They also ship super quick, and provide a gift bar in each order.

There are countless other little small local manufacturers of bar soap for every aesthetic or perceived need. Some that I follow closely are: Huetzca Health, Roots and Sky, Nature’s Trace Co., Wild Botanicals, {blade + bloom}, The Soap Distillery, hunnybunny Boutique, Standing Spruce Farm, Yukon Soaps, and Sḵwálwen Botanicals. There’s bound to be someone making soap near you too.

Liquid Soap: Compared to bar soap, liquid soap is more challenging to manufacturer and more challenging to transport. As a reminder, liquid soap is chemically different from solid soap - and not just because “it contains water”. When I look to get liquid soap I check the ingredients for the inorganic compound Potassium Hydroxide, that is the essential ingredient that distinguishes liquid soap from solid soap, or from ‘soaplike stuff’ that isn’t actually soap at all.

Here in Rochester we use liquid soap from Weslee Rose, a AAPI woman owned business and a local small manufacturer “dedicated to providing eco friendly solutions for life's everyday needs.” I believe we get the Liquid Castile Soap, but maybe it would be cleverer get the Liquid Hand Soap? The soap comes in glass bottles, and, since their warehouse is nearby, sometimes they hand deliver items to us instead of shipping them. Perks of a short supply chain! For more on supply chains check out our post ‘Sup with Supply Chains? (If you want to know more about what it’s like to get liquids in glass try reading our post Glass on the Go.)

In our previous home we puchased a now-retired liquid soap from Hunnybunny Boutique. If I were to buy one now I would probably get the PURE Refill Pouch. You don’t need to fuss about a fancy dispenser for the soap, start by reusing one you have. In our bathroom we have reused an empty glass Sooothsayer Hot Sauce bottle and fitted it with a pump top for liquid soap. In the kitchen we have a handmade ceramic vessel from Diana Adams of SampleHAUS, although I don’t currently see the soap pump included in the SampleHAUS bathroom accesory set available at West Elm.

Another respectable and widely available option is Dr. Bronners Soap (I would probably get Baby Unscented myself), though off the shelf it comes in plastic. Here in Rochester, Abundance Co-op does have a bulk section for liquids, which includes soap from Dr Bronners, as well as Griffin Remedy and Vermont Soap.