Since moving, Justin and I have had to rethink our methods of waste removal. The area we now live in encourages recycling by ... discouraging trash. Go figure. In other places it has been so much easier to simply chuck whatever we had into the garbage and not think twice. It's been nice (and feels so much better) to begin to seriously reduce, reuse, and recycle what we already have as Justin and I begin to combine our things.
When we first started moving, I informed Justin that I wanted to reduce what we owned to the very "basics". I have other friends that have reduced what they own to what they can take with them if they were to just get up and leave one day. Even the little girl I watch only has what she needs; she continuously goes through her stuff to find things to donate to others that she has grown out of. What an awesome idea! A child donating to another in need! :)
Some things we have done in order to reduce what we use include:
1. Using kitchen towels instead of paper towels. I have to admit this is more difficult for me than Justin since I can't stand touching food (specifically eaten food). The minute the towel gets a speck of dirt on it, I want to throw it in the wash.
2. We are in the process of selling some of our books online using Bookscouter.com. It's a good way to make a few extra bucks. It's also nice knowing you have more room for books you actually want to read rather than allowing the books you were given or dislike to take up room on a shelf collecting dust.
3. Justin has begun taking his lunches to work in glass tupperware we bought over the weekend rather than using the cheap plastic grocery-store kind.
4. FOOD! I looked at the expiration date for every can of food Justin owned when we moved. I informed Justin that I did not want to take one speck of old food with us. We are trying to buy only what we know we will eat, and we are constantly going through the fridge to get rid of older food.
5. Justin and I are both going through our clothing. Obviously I do not wear 3 closets full of clothing. With only one small closet between the two of us, something had to be done. We are looking forward to taking some of our older clothing to a store like Plato's Closet to sell what is buy-worthy. The things that aren't will be donated.
We still have a lot that needs to be moved and gone through, but we are excited about reducing our "carbon footprint" in the world. It has been so surprising and eye-opening to see how many things can be recycled. I told Justin that I may need to print the list of things that can be recycled, so that I don't end up throwing away something that we could save money on by recycling. Luckily, the city will provide all of the recycling containers we could possibly ever need! Over the course of two weeks we have managed to fill the recycling container twice! Go us!
We are looking to build a compost pile to get rid of food. Hopefully once we get finished moving and build the compost pile we can reduce the amount of garbage we have even more! I'd love to get down to one bag a week of garbage!
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