I love Sunday's!

I love Sunday's!  Especially ones like today! Slept in with a snuggly baby and husband, went for a walk to the beach (5 miles!), and made a delicious dinner with my friend Kelsey. A zero-waste dinner!

Liam and Daddy enjoying the outdoors

Grocery Shopping Zero-Waste

Zero-Waste grocery shopping takes a little planning. I know things will be easier once I have a routine. Right now it's a lot of research and calling ahead to make sure places are okay with me bringing my own containers.

I called ahead to a local butcher who was fine with putting meat into my containers (thank you Peterson's!). I was relieved that the guy behind the container was so nice about it. I was so happy that people were inquisitive about my glass containers. It gave me an opportunity to discuss my zero-waste lifestyle.

Dinner

Here's my shopping list:

Spinach- I ended up getting mixed greens in a plastic container that I will use to make jewelry. I'm really looking forward to buying my greens from the farmers markets come spring. 

Chicken- put into my glass container.

Sandwich meat for my husband's lunches- also put in a glass container. 

*Produce- no bags!

The meal I made this evening consisted of steamed greens with a sesame sauce (made with tahini, maple syrup, and tamari), quinoa, and chicken. Simple. Easy. Delicious!

My version of horenso goma ae

*Unfortunately produce comes with stickers and stickers are technically waste. In the future we plan on growing as many of our own fruits and veggies as possible to avoid this.

The 5 R's.

Do you remember learning the 3 R's in elementary school? Reduce, reuse, recycle. Well, in my house we practice the 5 R's.

Refuse

Anytime possible, refuse anything that creates waste that cannot be recycled,  reused, or composted. Bring your own grocery bags,  avoid plastic containers,  don't use the toiletries at hotels,  ask guest to refrain bringing hostess gifts (tell them that their company is enough!).

Reduce
There may be times that you absolutely can not refuse. So try your best to reduce what you do accept.

Reuse
Use your "trash" in creative ways. Reuse jars for storage containers.

I make jewelry from plastic that comes into my home, or that I find.

 Above: Water bottles and other assorted plastics turned into beads to eventually look like this:

Recycle
If you cannot refuse something, and cannot reuse it, then recycle!

Rot
Compost! I love composting.  Seriously, I get excitement every time I make a trip out to my compost bin (yes, I know I'm strange). It's easy, and there are so many options!

We currently just compost our product scrap, our eggshells,  and our coffee grinds and filters.  However, there are so many types of compost bins that do so much more than that. I will hopefully be getting a meat composting system in the future.

My favorite thing about composting is how beneficial it is to my gardens. The better the garden, the closer we are to being a little more self sustainable, and being self sustained is just one step closer to being #zerowaste!

Ew! Gross!

That's the reaction I get when I tell people we cloth diaper Liam.  I'm not offended mostly because I was once like them.

To be honest, before I had my son I didn't give much thought about the amount of trash I produced. It wasn't that I didn't care, I just didn't think about it.

Then I read somewhere it takes about 500 years for diapers to decompose. What!? That's when I started thinking about how many diapers a child goes through until age 2. Approximately 7500. Yep. Seven thousand five hundred. Now think about how long each one of those sits in a landfill. Then have more than one child.  Well, you get the point.

I decided to learn more about cloth diapering. I joined a cloth diapering Facebook page.  I YouTube'd until I couldn't YouTube anymore. I placed my first order, and I was hooked (Liam hadn't even arrived yet).

Besides being eco-friendly,  cloth diapering will save us thousands. Liam has yet to have a rash (he's 7 months), and they are so cute!

 

My cloth diapered baby

If anyone is interested in cloth diapering, feel free to ask me any questions you may have!

Going zero waste- week one

I cannot believe how much stuff I had that I wasn't using. It made me feel almost sick to my stomach.

Yesterday I tackled my kitchen. I only threw out things that had expired. I've planned the next week or so around what is left. Moving forward I will not buy much else in packaging. We will order some things in bulk. We have been going to the butchers with reusable containers for meat and eating a lot of produce (support your local farmers!). I felt so disappointed when I saw how much I had let go to waste. I know my new lifestyle will make me more conscientious of what we have.

I thought this process would be overwhelming,  but so far it is just the opposite. I already feel healthier, not to mentioned a whole heck of a lot more organized.

In the weeks to follow I will experiment with making my own make up. Wish me luck!

Goodbye clothes!

I look at the pile of crap I held onto for so long. I almost reach for a beautiful dress to put back in my closet, but then remind myself, "Alexis Nicole, you have worn that one time in four years."

I feel so light right now. I look in my empty bureau and nearly empty closet and feel.... happiness. No longer will I feel overwhelmed when getting ready. No longer will my husband hear me proclaim "I have nothing to wear!" simply because I cannot find my way around my huge mess of a closet.

My wardrobe has been whittled down to my favorite classic pieces.  The few things I put on that make me feel confident.

Here's to a simple closet and a soon to be simple life!

Before

After

Let's talk dirty!

Okay, so the title may be a little misleading, but did I get your attention?

One thing we have really focused on to make our home eco-friendly and create less waste is going green with our cleaning supplies. Here's the breakdown:

Green Cleaning must-haves:
*Vinegar- great for just about everything
*Baking soda- for scrubbing
*Tea tree essential oil- disinfectant (great for the bathroom)
*Lavender essential oil- disinfectant, smells great!
*Lemon
*Castille soap
*Steam mop- I absolutely love my steam mop!

Bathroom
     Toilet Bowl Cleaner
          1 cup vinegar
          1/4 cup baking soda
               -mix
               -let it sit for 15 minutes
               -scrub and flush
     Grout cleaner
          1 part water
          1 part baking soda
               -make paste
              -scrub

Kitchen
     Stove top cleaner
         1 part olive oil
         2 parts baking soda


Dusting/glass cleaning/polishing
     Wood polish
          1 tbsp olive oil
          Juice of 1 lemon
          1 tbsp water
               -combine all ingredients
               -shake, pour into cloth, polish
     Glass cleaner/all purpose/floor cleaner
          1 part vinegar
          1 part water
          A few drops EO (for all purpose, not for windows or glass)
               - combine in spray bottle, shake, spray!
   

There are so many recipes online to make your own cleaning products.  These are just a few that I love. Once our dish detergent runs out we will be making our own (post to follow). what eco-friendly cleaning products do you use?

A new year

2015! Here we go!

For a while now I have been working towards living a more eco-friendly lifestyle.  This is the year that I will concentrate on making the big changes!

In a perfect world, I would like my family to be a completely zero waste household.  We may not get there 100%, but you can bet we will get pretty darn close!

Changes we have made so far:

-we use all reusable bags
-soap nuts for laundry (except cloth diapers, more to follow at a later time)
-wool balls for fabric softener
-we make a lot of our toiletries
-most of our food comes un-packaged
- we cloth diaper (I love cloth diapering so much!)

I am slowly making a lot of changes. Currently tackling my wardrobe to turn it into a minimalist wardrobe has proven difficult (so.attached.to.my.shoes.!.).

I would love to hear about your goals for the new year! What are some resolutions you've made?