Zero Waste Baby Steps

There are two approaches to making changes in your life- a huge jumping off the cliff, all at once, no looking back approach and baby steps. When I got into minimalism and found The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, I definitely took the first approach. Bye bye clutter! But that's not the only way to do things.

Along my minimalism journey, I discovered Zero Waste. It's really another sort of minimalism but this time you minimize your waste. Sending less stuff to the landfill? Sign me up! But life is pretty crazy right now and I'm still in the throws of a minimalist growth spurt so I knew I wasn't going to stop using my trash can overnight.

I figured that there had to be some super easy things I could do to start my zero waste journey. I decided to focus on taking baby steps, one at a time, until they became habit and I could focus on the next step.

With minimalism, I was crazy passionate but with zero waste, I knew it was something I should do, that I could improve on. So I started doing research and looking for easy things. I gave myself full permission to skip over anything that seemed hard (compositing inside my apartment, crafting supplies, home made deodorant, etc). There were too many easy things to do that it made no sense to get caught up on the hard things and derail all of my progress.

So here are a few of my easy baby steps:

1. Start using reusable grocery bags and produce bags.

2. Meal plan to reduce food waste.

3. Swap out some of your prepackaged snacks for unpackaged fruits and veggies. Bonus, it's healthier too!

4. Use reusable napkins and rags instead of disposable napkins and paper towels.

5. Educate yourself on what can and can't be recycled in your area. When you do purchase packaged items, choose more recyclable packaging such as glass, aluminum and paper.

I encourage you to try one of these options this week or do some research and discover your own zero waste baby step. Everyone can do something!