On the third day...

... I cleaned the house and went to a barbeque. And posted a video about plastic in the ocean that no one will have watched for more than two minutes because it is depressing and awful.

All cleaning products come in plastic bottles. All of them. Every single one. Apart from bicarbonate of soda. So that is what I cleaned my house with today. It's actually pretty effective. Two years ago, I painted some furniture in the dining room and managed to splash a lot of blue paint on the chairs. Until now, nothing has been able to remove the paint, but I am happy to report that the bicarbonate of soda was just the ticket.

I was a little dubious, however, about (a) the ability of the product usually used to make scones to kill the germs in my bathroom or (b) the goodness of a scone if it is, in fact, made with a product that can kill germs in the bathroom.

Assuming that (a) was the scenario to be most concerned about, I also threw some boiling water and white vinegar round the house. It's pretty clean and no one has died, so I guess it works. So there it is. A plastic-free house cleanse. If you would like to make your own cleaning products out of bicarbonate of soda and vinegar, you can find them here.

This afternoon, our Go Local farm had a summer barbeque. This is the farm where we buy our veg. It comes in a cardboard box and if you're a bit skint, you can pick veg one afternoon a week and get paid in veg. Everything about this place is good.

Anyway, it was raining, but we put on our wellies (wellies are ok, being reusable) and sat around in a shed eating sausages and halloumi and vegetable skewers, and listening to people who were talking about developing green technologies in Northumberland and uttering phrases like, 'Think global, act local' and the kids went off to find tomatoes. Then there was an auction of potted flowers (max bid £3.75) and jugs of local cider (£4.50) and it felt a lot like being in the Archers.

But I forgot to take my water bottle with me and every drinking vessel was plastic. So I went thirsty. And that was a bit rubbish.

So day three has been sort-of hard, but only because I forgot my reusable drinking vessel. If I had remembered it, it would have been absolutely fine. And that, friends, is the future. Or at least, it needs to be the future. It will be the future if Waitrose and Tesco respond to my letters properly. Remember the reusable and everything will be fine.