I've also been interested in trying to bring minimalism into other parts of my life as well. My desk at work was actually the first place I used to explore minimalism. After I took the majority of things off of my desk I immediately found I was more productive and since my desk was less cluttered, so was my mind. I no longer was losing track of tasks because they were buried under all the other things I needed to do.
I'm slowly but surely trying to bring this into our home as well. I'm working on getting rid of some things and am starting to see the beauty in opened and uncluttered spaces.
All of the things I've gotten rid of have been donated and are finding new lives somewhere else but one place I produce a lot of "unsaveable" waste is in our kitchen. We've been working really hard to bring our grocery bill down by ordering food online so we can track exactly what we're spending before we get to the checkout, but we still do manage to create food waste by taking meat out of the freezer to thaw and waiting too long to cook it, or letting fruits and vegetable go bad. We try to juice fruits and veggies past their prime or composte anything we can but this is definitely one area we could improve.
The kitchen waste that bothers me the most though, is our garbage. I didn't grow up in a house that recycled. It just wasn't something my family did. Now that I live on my own we recycle everything we can and return all our empties to the beer store every few months. Now it just feels wrong of me to throw something in the garbage that can be recycled. We definitely still have a lot of improving to do though. Sometimes I get to lazy or forget to bring our reusable grocery bags and we have to use plastic. I donate these plastic bags to the homeless shelter where I work (they're great for giving things out in and are helpful when someone cannot carry all their food or clothing donations) but I still could do better with my waste.
One of the big things for me are produce bags. I HATE using produce bags at the store. I immediately throw them out when I get home but I heard a horror story from a friend about a cashier complaining about their produce not being bagged. I'm also a once-a-day Tim Horton's drinker who never brings a re-usable cup, and tend to eat takeout from time to time which comes complete with a styrofoam container, plastic utensils and a plastic baggy.
All this is to say: I could do better. I was really sparked by this blog post: click here. I loved some of the ideas and started researching what the cost of some re-usable goods would be.
I searched amazon and it's suprisingly cheap to get some re-usable goods. I spent about $50 and here's what I got:
My plan is to use these items as much as I can going forward and work on truly cutting down the waste I produce. I'm also gonna start carrying my water bottle and reusable coffee mug around with my more as well. It will be good for the environment and good for Jordan, who I always ask to take out the recycling :)
If you have any plastic free tips or want to join me for solidarity let me know!
From the desk of:
Taylor Brown
From the desk of:
Taylor Brown
Evolving Minimalist
