Zero Waste Home…is it possible?

 

My great friend Cynthia gifted me this book that I had been hoping to read. It’s called Zero Waste Home.  I was so thankful and excited to read this book. Now if you know me I work a lot and do not take nearly enough time to read…something I used to do. So, 3 months later I finally finished the book. It wasn’t that it wasn’t interesting. It’s just hard for me to sit and not work. I’m going to go into a few principles here that I’m trying to adopt from this book. Won’t you join me?

The main thing I got out of this book is to pare down what you think you “have to have” to live. For instance, she thinks 7 shirts, 4 pants, 4 shorts is a good wardrobe. My kids alone probably have quadruple that. Almost all their clothes are from yard sales and used but still that gives them too much to store and more work for me to have to wash and dry everything all the time. Which in turn causes more usage of water, electricity, etc. Put your time into people and not stuff. 

Cut down on what you bring into the house. Cut it down by not getting the toy that comes with the kids meal or the party favors from taking your child to the birthday party. Don’t take receipts when you have the option to not.

Recycle everything you can.  Buy in bulk as much as possible and shop locally and sustainably. Wrap your presents to others in things that they will use. You can wrap it in towels, kitchen towels, pillow cases, or scarfs that you already own, etc. I would love to have bags ready for Christmas and birthday that we just keep swapping around. If you purchase a nice bag at the store you could add $8 to your gift. For that price, you can wrap it in something someone will use and not throw away. 

I love all her tips and ideas. Some are a little radical for me. But some are definitely doable. I’m going to do better and stop using straws among many other things. I plan to try to put her ideas to work for me. Where we live there’s not a lot of bulk options like where she lives in San Francisco. What’s one thing you can think of that you can do to move towards a zero waste home? 

 

 

Here’s how you can get the book for your own kindle. Disclosure: if you buy this I may get a nickel to keep this site running. 🙂