Socks

Here was my line of thinking....

1) I need socks
2) I want to get LoGOFF socks
3) I probably can't get second hand socks (I have decided that second hand is always LoGOFF, because nothing new is being used up or made specifically for me...and no one is being directly exploited in order to produce the product for me)
4) I bet socks made with fair trade cotton are super expensive
5) Oh...we have all those unmatched socks upstairs

In fact, we had two full laundry baskets of unmatched socks.  So, my mom and I spent a couple of hours playing the "sock game".  It's kind of like memory...."I know I saw the other one like this....wait...was it over in this pile?  Maybe we thought the match was navy blue when it's really black?"

Now, we have two full baskets of matched socks.  Also, my parents' room has only one small basket of unmatched socks left instead of two large baskets.

Being aware of living LoGOFF kept me from unnecessarily buying socks and wasting the natural and human resources necessary to make them.  I don't think of myself as a wasteful person, but I think being intentional about living LoGOFF has made me less wasteful.  Plus, now I have a great variety of socks, some of which are much nicer than socks I would have bought my self.  It's a win, win situation.

Hair Gel

One of the things I like about LoGOFF is that even when I realize I can't get a product that I'm sure is LoGOFF, it makes me think about the source.  But, I tried to buy hair gel and shampoo the other day...and it ended up being a little bit stressful....

Did you know that Proctor and Gamble own most hair gel companies?
Did you know that sometimes when there are two products by the same brand one will say that it is made by Proctor and Gamble or by Unilever, and the other product of that same brand will simply say that it is made in the USA?
Did you know that (at least at my local Shaws) organic shampoo is about 10x the price of regular shampoo with no guarantee of being fair trade?
Did you know that there are apparently NO fair trade certified beauty products in my local Shaws?
Did you know that most shampoo and hair gel is produced in the United States?
Did you know that Garnier is owned by L'Oreal?


These are all things that I learned.  However, what I didn't learn was which type of hair gel or shampoo I "should" buy.  I care a lot that the people who made and packaged my shampoo are able to feed their families, but I don't care as much if my shampoo is organic....and I really don't like to spend $15 on a bottle of shampoo!  So, after all my looking at this and that, I just ended up getting regular, cheap shampoo.....it's probably made by some multinational company that does some good things and some bad things.

One of the issues was that once I was at the store, I couldn't get any information about companies and compare different business practices.  I had looked up a list of most/least socially responsible beauty care companies, but it was often hard to even find which companies made which products.  I think next time I'm buying health/beauty products, I may try to plan ahead a bit more so I can shop online.