"thanksgiving 2010, while visiting my aunt, i picked up a magazine and began to thumb through it. my eye caught a glimpse of the type of decor i love, minimal, clean and modern. i choose to read the article and my first thought was these people are crazy! i handed the article over to my husband whom also loves that type of decor and his thought was the same, beautiful home and crazy lifestyle. on our drive home we started talking about how we should start to get rid of all our junk, that slowly turned into trying out as best as we could at living this lifestyle. we knew all of it wasn’t for us but we tried to began to change. we were a “leave the lights on in all the house, let the water run forever, never recycled type of family.” soon we were making our own dishwashing and laundry soap, bringing all our containers, veggie bags and grocery bags to the grocery store.i was in process of learning how to sew before finding this article and now really have a passion for up-cycling or refashioning clothing. this is someone who would never set foot in a goodwill (i couldn’t handle the smell).
i find myself actually thinking about things before i throw them away. can i reuse it? should i of even purchased it in the first place? did i really need a bag inside my bag? can someone else use this?
i was so excited for living this way that i thought i should start blogging about it. by the time i got a blog together my zero waste lifestyle was more like a little less waste lifestyle. i decided not to blog about it because i felt like we failed.
my husband was not going for the handmade laundry soap and many times we would forget our bags when we headed to the grocery store.
even though my kitchen does have a few plastic bags in it, i realized we really haven’t failed. my mind set has completely changed. we are not a “leave the lights on, let the water run forever, never recycle type of family.” i think about refusing and sometimes i do. i think about reusing and sometimes i do. i think about recycling and sometimes i do. sometimes is better than never.
we have no desire to live in a big house. we have been fine with one car and hope to get my husband a nice bike. keeping our house clean has been so much easier. my desire to have a clean minimal home has happened. our kids don’t need anymore toys than what fits in their toy box, we too just want to share experiences with them more so than things. i can’t believe it but i actually don’t feel like i need a closet packed full of clothes. i don’t hold on to all my girls art work and church crafts, we take pictures of it.
we really have changed! thank you for your inspiration! if we can change anyone on can!"
I'm loving the guest posts - it's great to hear a chorus of voices around the same message. Ditto for our house. Every time I feel like I'm failing, I look at how far we've come in the past year. Now to clean out the mountains of toys we all hate to put away and on to write the "zero waste holiday" email to the family. Thanks to Bea an Becca!
ReplyDeleteGood job Becca, I share your sentiments. As I continue to declutter my home and life, I feel my spirits lifting, I feel like I can breathe a littler better. Thanks to Bea as well. :)
ReplyDeleteI too am loving these guest posts. What a lovely way to experience all phases of the Zero Waste Lifestyle and not feel like a Zero Waste failure!
ReplyDelete"my mind set has completely changed. we are not a “leave the lights on, let the water run forever, never recycle type of family."
ReplyDeleteLovely and inspiring! Is there such a thing as a zero waste failure? Once the journey has begun there is no going back.....
Bea, I would love if you wrote some about your minimalist all white decorating. I love that look and it is hard to find simple modern white furniture.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your story Becca! I truly feel that your story is important to spread far and wide. When more families see that it is not an all or nothing commitment to be minimalist, Eco-friendly or green, they will be much more encouraged and less intimidated to take baby steps towards this amazing lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteMuch love and light,
Tali
Just venturing a guess--Becca, do you live in Utah?
ReplyDeleteas i look around our small community, i often doubt progress (or regress, in this case) will ever encroach upon the wasteful habits that advertising and relative affluence have caused in rural areas.
ReplyDeleteone gesture or word at a time, i have helped friends to become aware of the effects of clutter on their home life, business practices and the last item which i find a useful tool--the effect on their finances..
each toy, entertainment gadget and item of clothing or cooking implement can be the straw that broke the housewife's back..or the family's sanity...each item donated or sold can be a relief..one thing at a time to household freedom!
Something I'm especially enjoying about these guest posts is that someone like Becca, who admittedly is still aiming for a less-waste lifestyle vs. a true and strict attempt at zero waste, is still welcome to participate and voice her experience. I love it! Such an inspiration.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I think we all need to be patient with ourselves and realize that it does take time to reach our ultimate goals. As long as we are heading in the right direction and are patient with ourselves, we can do it.
ReplyDeleteHaving lived in the country a good part of my life, I have done many of the green living habits for years without realizing I was helping the enviroment. I love having a garden and cannning, love the smell of fresh laundry hung on the line, making alot of the foods from scratch since you don't drive 10 miles just to get a bottle of salad dressing if you run out of it and so on, but what I have learned from this blog and many others on green living is to just stop buying so much stuff that we just don't need and filling our landfills up with it. Watching the people on TV rushing into the stores on Black Friday was disgusting! Before I started mindfully reducing waste, I would watch the people shopping on Black Friday and think, wow, I sure wouldn't want to be in those crowds, but now I think, wow I so wish they read these green living blogs and realize what they are doing to their children future enviroment! I agree so much with what all of you have said, once you start the process and awareness of reducing your waste, you don't want to go back!
ReplyDeleteDitto: I love Becca's story because it illustrates perfectly what Zero Waste is about. ZW is not an absolute science since absolute ZW, today, is not possible (for ex, my family's best effort still result in the amount of a quart size jar / year). As I mentioned before, I believe that it is an attempt at getting there and only patience and persistence will get us close!
ReplyDeleteBecca, I recognize things you describe. It is a ongoing and not easy process. Thank you for sharing your story.
ReplyDeleteBea, thank you for these guest posts.
ReplyDeleteThis lifestyle is addictive. you do one thing, then it lead you to the next best thing and next thing you know you are thinking like a "zero waster":). Your story is very much like many of us. Thank you and congratulations.
ReplyDeleteXimena
i'm so excited and encouraged! thank you for posting our story bea and thank you for all the encouraging comments!
ReplyDeleteand @g no i am not from utah. we actually live in the northwest. we live in an area that might be the easiest area to live this type of lifestyle. i can actually walk across the street, buy bulk organic and i get praised when i bring in my own containers.
I'm really enjoying these guest articles, and love this blog. It's great to see positive change happening. I follow very few blogs, but yours really inspires me, Bea. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThis is wonderful and about where we are at. As for the laundry soup tell your hubby it is NOT suppose to be soap bubbly and is so much better for the environment. Add a little more borax to his extra dirty clothes. My hubby didn't think it worked because it wasn't foamy. We sometimes forget out bags but I have noticed my hubby will run back out to the car and get them. Great story and I so agree, the house is so much easier to keep clean. Now if it would just sell! With the kids gone we need a smaller place. Thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteIt's so easy to become a perfectionist when trying to live a different lifestyle. I still wonder if I can actually call myself a "minimalist," or if I'm actually qualified to write about zero waste, because I'm not perfect at at. And you've arrived at the truth: none of us are perfect, and doing something is better than doing nothing! Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteSirena,
ReplyDeleteI don't think of Bea as having "true and strict attempt at zero waste". I think of her as being farther along in her journey and as someone who has managed to make it work for her. Many people are just beginning this path. They are trying to find their own way and eventually they can get to an almost zero waste point where Bea is. I don't want to say the same point as Bea, as every journey and solution will be different.
That being said, it is nice to hear from people who are in all different stages. It reminds us that others are struggling to find their solutions just like us.
Cali Ali
Love Becca's story. I too read the same magazine article about Bea's family but it got the wheels churning and today I feel like I'm living a whole new lifestyle. How I wish I could live across the street from an organic food store!!
ReplyDeleteSometimes its hard to explain to others why you would embark on a zero waste lifestyle - Annie Leonard has done the hard work for us and explained it beautifully in the "Story of Stuff" - you can download it free off the net...I recommend it as explanatory viewing for those you'd like to get on board (actually I recommend it for all earth-users). Keep up the good work everyone. Claire (Melbourne Australia)
ReplyDeleteI love this post since I too have felt discouraged when I had to move back with my parents in my home country after 4 years working on my undergraduate degree in the States (I was striving for zero waste in the last year and a half).
ReplyDeleteThough there's nowhere here that sells food in bulk and second hand items are terribly hard to find, I realize that zero waste is still a part of me. Like Becca I no longer wish for a closet full of clothes and it's crazy that many women would find it hard to believe.
Love it! I think if people simply moved a couple steps toward making less waste and celebrated and shared their improvements, it would make a bigger impact and millions more would join and over the years get more and more creative and free of waste in their lives millions would join!
ReplyDeleteIt's so easy to see a movie like Food Inc and get overwhelmed and feel guilty everytime eating a piece of meat and throwing in the dish towel, instead of commiting to a small change, not stressing and as time progresses making more and more changes. I speak from personal experience and wish people didn't worry about categories like, "what is Vegan?" And simply try to be kinder to the earth, others and animals and go from there.
What for one person is "evil leather jacket" may be carefully purchased (even from the thrift store) clothing in an attempt to not buy 5 or more plastic jackets over the next 10 years... What to one might be a huge suv maybe a newbie committed to driving less and looking for ways to cut back on waste until he/she doesn't have to wrestle with carseats.
Eating humanely butchered and local farm raised meat is (really difficult to find by the way!) and better than supporting the huge slave factories.
Thanks for sharing this story. She is not perfect, but not sweating it and trying. It inspires me to to see what the next small step is for me!
Great story, Becca! I completely agree, changing your mind set is surely a subtle transformation, but one that provides a long-lasting impact. You describe that strange, "this is crazy, but I want to try it" feeling I also had towards zero waste perfectly. Congrats!
ReplyDelete