Imagine a minimal garbage lunch, saving money AND helping our planet.
Follow these steps:
Purchase a recycled lunch bag with containers. NO sandwich bags.
Purchase in bulk and pack quantity needed in containers. Say NO to individually packaged foods.
Recycled old clothes into cloth napkins. Cut into squares.
More importantly, don’t be tempted to re-purchase a lunch box each year. Keep your box clean and it will last a long time. Found ours at Fruitful Yeild.
This post was submitted by Mary Nerge-Elliott.
Spend time with your friends or family by sharing stories that you’ve either made up or heard. You can also have story reading time with your family by taking turns reading the book aloud. Aside from being fun this saves money, allows you to spend quality time with your family, and can be very educational. If you run out of stories you can always get a library card.
This post was submitted by Clayton Green.
Since I do a lot of my own improvement projects and all my own maintenance, I have found that a typical weekend project can take several trips to the hardware or supply store because you forget stuff or run out of materials. Most people I have spoke to agree with this. What my neighbors and I started doing was buying extras of the small things that tend to tie up a project with wasted trips to hardware store (nails, screws, pipe fitting, etc). We save $$ by buying in bulk ‘contractor packs’ and we share the excess. We keep a rough idea of what we’ve got between us and we always discuss our needs before making the trip. And when we do make the inevitable trip, we ask the others what they need to save each other time and gas. I think taking community or neighborhood approaches can be a source for a lot of ideas, as the site touches on with cooking, book clubs, etc. The final results are:
Less trips to store=
more time
less gas
less stress
Buying in bulk=
having leftover materials to share
less cost per item
This post was submitted by Jeremy.
I have four large canvas bags I always keep in the car for grocery or store shopping. It’s amazing how those plastic bags are filling up our landfill and it feels really good to know that the products we are buying at the store, won’t be coming home in 12 small plastic bags.
Also, as consumers we have incredible power in moving retailers toward more green packaging. If you have a choice between store brands, don’t just pick the cheapest or best, you can look for the brand that is packaged more efficiently.
This post was submitted by Tonja Steel.
After the birth of our daughter, my husband and I were horrified at the amount of waste we were creating with diapers. I decided to only take the trash out every other week. This forced us to recycle more than we trashed. I started buying products with little packaging or packaged with recyclable materials. We also use “green” trash bags made of corn products that are biodegradable. We plan to potty train my daughter as soon as possible in order to cut down on waste. Just being concious of the waste your family creates is a first step.
This post was submitted by Casey .
Buy reusable grocery bags and keep some in your car and your house. I’ve found so many uses for them other than groceries. And for those times when you forget or have too many groceries, collect the plastic bags and reuse them. An easy way to make a dispenser is to cut the leg or sleeve off an old piece of clothing. Sew elastic into the opening on one end and a drawstring on the other. Hang it by the drawstring, stuff bags in on top and pull them out from the bottom as you need them.
This post was submitted by Michelle.
Clothes dryers use a lot of energy! What could be simpler than drying on a clothesline?!? At least when the weather is good, and at least for larger and thicker items like sheets & jeans.
For permanent press items, it helps to tumble them on air dry (no heat) for several minutes before hanging out.
For those who object to the stiffer texture of line dried items, you can briefly tumble them on air (no heat) after they’re dry.
This post was submitted by Alan.
All across the US there is a group called “Freecycle”. They are online, and you can usually only join for your local area.
They work by you offering things that are still usable but no longer need or want. This has been great in our area. I’ve given away a printer, reclyner and a treadmill (which we obtained from another freecycle member).
This realy lets you get the whole use out of items, and keeps them out of the landfill. I’ve seen people give away old tires, cardboard boxes, lots of things.
This post was submitted by kevin.
I actually got this idea after reading Amy Tan’s discussion of her trip to China. She described that they didn’t fill the bathtubs very deep. I’ve started doing that, using a wash cloth and a cup to wash with. I use the cup to pour water over myself. But, sometimes I want to really have a good soak and I’ll fill the tub up. It takes less time too, to fill the tub.
This post was submitted by dippi.
We gave up TV (owning a set and all!) over 6 years ago! Our entertainment has changed from all TV to reading, watching DVDs on our computer and hanging out as a family and with friends!
Has been a wonderful time ever since. We play more and do more outdoor activities with out 4 yr old like playgrounds, hiking, picnicing and to top it all he is not exposed to all the commercial selling aimed at kids, the violence in the shows etc etc!!
We also, gave up all other media coming into the house in the form of newspapers, magazines and other paper related products that we controlled. Stopped buying “new” books and now request all and any we need from the library! Also, switched to audiobooks for lifestyle reasons!
This has made our lives healthier emotionally too since we are not bombarded by constant “bad” news and when the news is big enough for us to be concerned …. we hear about it, since it is important enough for people we know and interact with to be discussing!
This season, I did not put on the AC at all. Opened the windows, draped the over sunny windows and used the ceiling fans when it got HOT… I got my husband to install one in all rooms that we use regularly. Life is much cooler now than with the AC and it means a lot more money in my pocket than last year!!!!!!
Overall, “going simple” has made our lives as a family more fulfilling and meaningful.
This post was submitted by Ashita.