Every fall, I try and share five random lessons (mostly practical) that I’ve learned recently in honor of back to school time. And this year, I’m gonna try to make at least some of them not growing- or flower-related, just so I don’t sound too much like a broken record over here 🙂
So without further rambling, here are five things I’ve learned lately:
Note: There are affiliate links to books and products mentioned in this post.
1 – No, it’s not your imagination — your gym clothes/activewear really DOES still reek, even after washing it multiple times. The answer? Special detergent that’s designed specifically for that kind of fabric.
On the farm, we wear a LOT of clothing that would fit under the “activewear” category, including moisture wicking, long-sleeve UV protection sun shirts (these ones, in case you’re interested). I also don’t really like jeans, so I typically wear high performance leggings or joggers, most of which are made of spandex and other synthetic fabrics. If you have a lot of clothing like this, you’ve probably already noticed that it can REALLY start to stink, even after you’ve washed it multiple times.
So I did some research, and it’s basically because the synthetic fabrics basically block all things from permeating them, including typical laundry detergent, which means that the odors just start to get worse and worse over time.
While I had tried some of the typical suggestions (use the “heavy soil” setting on your washing machine, try using vinegar, etc.), none of it really took care of the issue, and it was getting to the point that I just felt like we reeked all the time. Luckily I stumbled across this special laundry detergent that’s formulated specifically for gym clothing and other activewear, and it totally took care of the problem after just ONE wash.
Nowadays, because it is a little expensive, I just use half regular liquid detergent and half a dose of the special detergent. Seriously, I only wish I would have known about this a LOT sooner — it would have saved us a lot of unnecessary stinkiness, ha ha!)
2 – I found an awesome new (affordable!) skincare line I’m REALLY excited about.
Although I don’t want to spend a fortune on skincare, I DO want to take care of my skin and make it look as good as possible. I’ve been hearing a ton of buzz about hyaluronic acid being one of the most effective anti-aging agents, but I didn’t want something that also had a lot of cheap fillers in it.
Enter The Ordinary, which is an affordable skincare line that basically just offers things in extremely simple forms (i.e., not filled with a bunch of other junk just to take up volume and mark up the price). I’d been looking for a new skincare line anyway to replace Mary Kay (since my MK rep basically stopped following through on filling orders and I haven’t been able to find another local rep), when I found this line recently, and it was EXACTLY what I was looking for.
I’ve tried their squalane cleanser, their moisturizer, their hyaluronic treatment, and their retinol treatment, and so far, I’m really impressed! I like a bit of a rebel company, and The Ordinary has sought to do just that in the beauty industry by just offering the basic ingredients in very simple packaging with no fragrance or fillers so that they can keep prices low. Pretty awesome!
3 – Reading the book Eat to Live has basically made me re-think everything about nutrition, especially diets that are “trending.”
Usually, books on nutrition and diet are SO not my thing, but this one was recommended to me for my autoimmune disease, and I decided to give it a try. I hadn’t even planned on reading it — I just was going to skim it, especially because the book is marketed as a weight loss tool, which isn’t why I picked it up — but then I ended up sitting down and devouring the whole thing (although I will say, the tone of it bugged me quite a bit. But the science hooked me!).
This book turned SO much “traditional advice” on nutrition completely on its head for me, like how we think that “high protein” diets are automatically better or good, and how we mistakenly think that we need to drink a lot of milk and other dairy products to get enough calcium to battle osteoporosis. I guess I didn’t quite realize the extent to which a lot of this mainstream nutrition data is actually paid for by meat and dairy companies.
Anyway, the book was totally eye opening for me, and when I found myself actually using ChatGPT to verify certain information in it (which all checked out with hundreds of medical studies), I started to make some serious changes to my diet.
I actually plan on doing a whole separate post about how my eating habits have changed lately, but in summation, I’ve basically cut out gluten, sugar, and dairy, and I’m limiting how much meat I eat, as well as any kind of processed food. But rather than focusing my energy on what I’m NOT eating, I’m focusing much more on what I’m trying to eat a LOT of, which is fruits and vegetables in all forms (with no limitations). I’m excited to share my experience with you hopefully sometime in the next month or so.
4 – Speaking of ChatGPT, I’ve started to scratch the surface on what a powerful business tool it can be!
As someone who creates a lot of content for my business (I post to our flower farm’s social media accounts almost daily in one form or another, I blog here and over on my flower farming blog, and I put out a free weekly newsletter every Sunday for our farm that has growing tips and all things flower-related in it), I can attest to the fact that sometimes, you start to feel like you’re running out of ideas on what to post or on how to present it so you’re not just saying the same things over and over.
I’d heard about some other people in my industry using ChatGPT to start generating idea lists of what to post about, and it’s actually been a really useful tool for me, too. If you’re new to working with AI, you basically need to keep feeding it more information and more specifics until it starts to hone in on what is most useful for you, but I’ve gotten some really good ideas this way that have made me feel reinvigorated in my business’s marketing and social media plan.
Types of queries I put in to start the algorithm going: “Generate a list of social media post ideas that advertise for a u-pick at sunset on a flower farm” or “Generate 50 social media post ideas about growing, selecting, and arranging tulips and other spring flowers.”
It really is an amazing business tool!
P. S. I haven’t tried the paid version yet, but I’d be curious if any of you have. Is it worth it?
5 – When you do a task repeatedly multiple times a day, it pays to find a tool that will make the job easier.
That’s why I recently replaced all our harvest snips with this model because these hand pruners are lightweight, spring open automatically (without easily gunking up), and the pointed tip makes it easy to cut the stems where I want them.
If you garden at all, trust me — these are worth getting (and they’re not even expensive!).
I’ve been applying this financial philosophy to a lot of things in my life over the past few years, actually — if it’s something that’s in use on a daily or almost daily basis, it’s almost surely worth investing in one you LOVE (think: dishwasher, mattress, sheets, washing machine, etc.). I even just upgraded all our dishes for the first time ever since getting married with this gorgeous (and chip-resistant!) white set, and it made me wonder why we’d put up with the old set for so long, when literally nearly every piece had multiple chips and dings in it (and which was so prone to chipping that we got our first ding on it the very first time we pulled them out to use). We’ve already dropped plates or bowls a few times from the new set, and they actually have not only not even broken, but they didn’t show any damage at all. Impressive!!
What things have you been learning lately? Any fabulous new products worth sharing?
