I debated with myself whether this was a post I was qualified to really share. I feel like when it comes to living a less-waste lifestyle, there are sooo many areas I could be doing better with. And if you’re not an expert, should you even be sharing it??? Yes. Because sometimes I feel a little intimidated by experts. Like they are so far above and beyond what I can do to get to that level, that I want to give up before even trying because I’ll never be that good. So I thought maybe hearing about some simple steps a non-expert was trying might seem a little more relatable and something to encourage you to start with. Little changes can end up making a big difference! Plus April is Earth Month, so it’s the perfect time to be chatting about this stuff!
My kids have been a major motivation for me making changes in our lifestyle…using cleaner products around our home and hopefully making my home and our environment a little better and safer for my kiddos. So here’s a few simple things I’ve started with to try and live with a little less waste:
Use metal straws.
If you pay attention to the news, this has been more of a hot topic lately as some restaurants are trying to do away with plastic straws. Plastics do not biodegrade, they just break down into smaller pieces of micro plastic and make their way into our ground water and our food supply. Research is showing that plastic-associated chemicals are having serious health impacts on our bodies. My kiddos love using straws, so I decided to buy some reusable metal straws so they could still have all their fun sipping and we would be using and throwing out a little less plastic. I bought
Use reusable shopping bags.
This one is almost like a duhhh, why is this included, reusable shopping bags have been pushed forever, do we still need to be saying this?! But yes, I need to, because I still struggle with this at some stores. I love my
Recycle.
This one might also seem like a no-brainer to some since recycling is so encouraged in some areas and states (like ours). But I also know that in some states recycling is barely done. Yikes! If you can’t just take it out to your curb or to your local transfer station (what we do), take a little bit of time and figure out where you can recycle in your area. You can check out
Use wool dryer balls.
I actually didn’t use any kind of dryer sheets, dryer balls, or fabric softener for quite a while after I quit dryer sheets. While I loved the smell of dryer sheets, they just didn’t seem absolutely necessary and I didn’t need anyone to point out how wasteful they were as I watched the small garbage bag in the laundry room fill up so quickly. So I gave them up and wasn’t using anything (and our laundry survived!) until I heard about dryer balls helping reduce dry time. So I decided to try them out and have loved them ever since. Then came the news about the chemicals used in dryer sheets and fabric softeners and the research showing the negative health impacts these could be having on our bodies and I was even more glad I had ditched dryer sheets. And you can add essential oils to your dryer balls and still have amazing smelling laundry! I bought these
Use baking mats.
I actually first bought one of these for baking reasons only, not for the environment. I had heard how great they are for baking and wanted in on that. I didn’t use it all the time, but did find it handy for certain recipes (like
Use activated charcoal sticks for a water filter.
Charcoal sticks remove chlorine and other chemicals from water and release natural minerals back into the water. Sticks last 3-6 months, and once they’ve reached the end of their lifespan (ie: saturated with toxins), there’s no plastic to discard or recycle, you can compost it or put it in your fridge to absorb odors. So you get filtered water with no plastic! We’ve been using these
Switch to reusable snack and lunch bags.
There are sooo many different choices out there for this and I’ve used a variety of different things…once you have kids, you definitely use a lot of baggies. I’m still working on trying to do better with this, using more reusable containers and baggies and less plastic. I think as far as clean-up goes, I find the bento-style boxes the easiest to clean. We were gifted a
So those are the really simple, easy-to-do things that I’ve been working on. I want to keep doing better with these and adding more things in. Do you have any thing you do to cut down on waste?? I’m looking for more easy ideas, so share ’em if you’ve got ’em!
-Manda
Print in top photo is from
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