On Tuesday I wrote about 4 books that had changed what I thought about being green (actual title of that post). But reading a book doesn't do much unless there is change. Reading a book about minimalism doesn't make me a minimalist, getting rid of stuff and buying less does. Same with this, it's all well and good to think differently but unless I am taking real steps to change our habits, reading doesn't mean much. (And I say that as a person who puts GREAT STOCK into reading. Reading to change things you think can also be important but in the case of this type of book, I needed to make some changes outside my brain.)
These aren't easy steps to make overnight and we certainly have a lot of things we could still improve upon but these are some changes we have made, are making, or plan to be making soon.
1) Cloth Napkins
We did this one years ago but it is still relevant and I've heard it mentioned many times lately. I bought a set of cloth napkins from Target a long time ago, maybe 9ish years with somewhat of the intent of turning them into throw pillows (an idea I'm pretty sure I got from Young House Love and I DID with a different set of cloth napkins, throw pillows that are still around our house although they've been restuffed and recovered since). I have a biscuit nearly daily and I always pull one out of the freezer before my workout and wrap it in a napkin on top of the fridge. By the time I pull it down hours later it is no longer frozen. I eat my biscuit, shake out the crumbs, and put the napkin away for tomorrow.
We do have a stash of paper napkins that we've accumulated from the occasional fast food stops and I'll pull those out when we have a party sometimes, if napkins seem needed but otherwise we just use our cloth ones, wash them (or not, in the case of my biscuits) and reuse.
2) Rags instead of Paper Towels
We use paper towels at the lake but haven't used them at home for anything beside grease in maybe a decade. We have a healthy supply of rags in the kitchen, largely worn out socks and hand/dish towels that have gotten too thin. Use them, wash separately from the rest of the laundry, and reuse.
3) Reusable Water Bottles
We all have at least one reusable water bottle (or, in the case of Luke and I, 3 each). I despise bottled water except in cases where it is actually needed (natural disasters, contaminated water supply, etc.). My water bottle goes nearly every where with me (even stays in the car during Mass, we had a weekday Mass last fall where I had a tickle in my throat I couldn't get rid of so I ran out to my car and got some water to settle it down, especially crucial since drinking fountains are still taped off every where I've seen). I have absolutely no problems drinking our tap water (we also have a filtered pitcher in our fridge) and it's saved us money and a ton of waste.
4) Composting
We've been composting to varying degrees of success for over 10 years. We throw in all fruit/veggie scraps (besides peach pits, I dug though 10 years of compost and those still hadn't decomposed), bread scraps when those exist, weeds and such from the yard, dryer lint when I remember to take it out from the basement, coffee grounds, and my used tea bags. I've changed my mind on our system a lot in the past 6 months and I still don't exactly know what we're doing with it going forward but I HAVE turned our compost completely over twice in the past 6 months which is 2 more times than I had done it in the previous 10 years.
5) Stop buying string cheese
Cheese is a staple in Sam's diet
and him and I used to each have a string cheese for our morning snack.
Well that's a lot of wasted plastic and it was more expensive per ounce
than the cheese blocks. For now I've been buying an extra half pound
block of cheddar and slicing it up for snacking purposes. This still
has the waste of the block's wrapping but is much less than all the
individually wrapped string cheeses. I need to be buying my cheese in
bigger than half pound blocks so there is even less plastic but that
would also involve going somewhere besides Aldi so I have to figure that
out.
I started a new project on Instagram where every Tuesday I highlight a local business I've used and enjoyed. This is obviously most relevant if you live in the same area as me but if not, I hope to at least inspire people to do more shopping local wherever they are. That's not to say we never ship stuff, I am about to place a Target order with some shipped items (although I do drive-up pick-up for everything that I can even though THAT has netted me a TON of plastic bags from that so it's not perfect either) and we have some Amazon orders we are waiting on. Very nearly all the books I buy come from either The Bookshelf (an indie in Georgia) or Thriftbooks (affiliate link there, we both get points if you buy something) so those are all shipped too. BUT, we are really working to shop local more which means less shipping materials and all that transportation to get things to us. Baby steps.
Those are changes we've made years ago that are very easy for anyone to incorporate. Now moving onto things I plan to do soon!
7) Bamboo Toothbrushes
I like these because you can break off the bristles and compost the handle so just the bristles and the tiny bit holding them get thrown away. I just (literally just, writing this post motivated me to finally complete the order) ordered these exact ones from Etsy so we'll see how they work!
8) Stop buying individual yogurts
Matt and the boys are pretty regular yogurt eaters. I have one the one morning a week I work. But that's a lot of wasted plastic that really isn't recyclable so I am trying to move us all to a bigger tub of yogurt that we then flavor ourselves. I am getting resistance on this and it's still plastic that maybe isn't recyclable. I once made yogurt pretty regularly but nobody liked it besides me. Maybe I need to try a new recipe or in the Instant Pot. For now, we're going to the bigger tub.
9) Detergent sheets
I believe I heard about these on the Minimalist Mom podcast. I know I was listening at work because I immediately paused the podcast, did a google search, and e-mailed myself the link to these from my work e-mail. I haven't bought them yet because I had just bought more our of powder detergent but I plan to when we need more. The idea is the detergent is a sheet that disintegrates in the washer and then all you are left with are the box that is fully recyclable. I buy our powder in a waxy-coated cardboard box which doesn't seem very recyclable so these seem like a better option for nearly the same price as I had been paying.
10) Shampoo Bars
My niece-in-law has been talking to me about these for awhile and I finally decided I need to give them a try once all the shampoo & conditioner I have on hand finally runs out (I might have a lot). I've been very resistant because I feel like I FINALLY have figured out what products work with my hair and I hate to screw that up BUT...what I use isn't even in the recyclable plastic bottles so it's really not great and a lot of people have raved about the shampoo bars so I at least have to try them.
These are the steps we've been making or plan to make soon. A lot of people making changes that feel small can make a big difference but I can also make a difference just by making changes around our household. And once we've adjusted to these we'll change a few more things! A little bit at a time!
I'd love to hear if you've been making any swaps like this, I'll be looking for my next set of steps!
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