We've been slowly phasing out the items we use in our house for many years and replacing them with either less items or more sustainable items. We started our more minimal journey in 2018, but it wasn't until 2020, when we moved into our new house that we really started pushing for more sustainability, too. Not just for the earth, but for our bank accounts, as well. We are a household of five adults, and we go through everything like, well, like water. Which is where we'll start.
Water Bottles
Up until late 2020, we consumed bottled water. It's crazy how much waste that produces and it's also crazy how much it costs, when most of it tastes like tap water anyways. So, I bought everyone in the house all Bubba brand insulated water bottles and got a Brita water pitcher. Eventually, everyone, but me, realized that our well water tastes fine without filtering it, so now they all just drink from the tap. I still use my Brita, but since I am the only one, I don't have to change the filters as often. Now, we don't have to save our water bottles from the week before to put out for recycling, as our recycling bin is virtually empty every other week.
Soda Cans and Bottles
The kids replaced buying diet soda in 12pks or 2 liters with Bubba bottles that they have dedicated for soda only. Now they drink less soda and it's only $1 every time they get some instead of however much it was costing us before (a lot!).
Makeup
I recently took the two bags of makeup I've been carrying around with me since before 2018 and chucked them both in the garbage. How many of us ladies are guilty of keeping makeup too long? Plus, I stopped wearing foundation years ago, so why I was even holding onto it? Now I have three items I put on my face: sunscreen/moisturizer combo, bronzer, and dark brown eyeshadow that I use on my brows. That's it. I quit using foundation after 30+ years of pretty bad acne, and just like that, my acne went away. Like magic! These products I use now do not break me out, so it's great! And super simple and super easy, and...super cheap!
Towels and Clothes
Does it feel like you have a never-ending love affair with your washing machine? If so, maybe think about downsizing your clothing and towel collection. We have one towel per person in this house, plus a floor towel. That's it. As for clothing, I only have what I wear, and the rest either gets donated or put in a box in the basement (especially seasonal clothes). But the trick for clothes storage is only one box for all of us, not one box each. So, our extra clothes we'll wear later go into the box and if we forget we own those things and don't go looking for them within six months, we donate them. I like my capsule wardrobe, even though I do not abide by some arbitrary number made up by someone on Instagram or Pinterest. I keep the amount that works for me and what doesn't goes in the box. And usually, then out the door.
I do not have mail clutter in my house anymore (except for paid bills, sometimes I get crazy and leave the paid ones with the unpaid ones and I get all confused and have to see if I paid them...I have ADHD, so I can't expect my brain to be perfect LOL), because I process my mail immediately. I get the mail, and if I am recycling, I stand over the recycling bin and immediately throw in all the junk mail or stuff we don't need (or I bring it inside to burn in my burn bag). The mail I need to keep goes in my room and gets put in the "pay" basket that's by my bed. I don't have a fancy way to pay bills, as I usually just wing it, but eventually I will have a better system. Right now, I am just concentrating on keeping our mail clutter to a minimum.
Household Decor
No longer do I mindlessly shop for knick-knacks or crap to put on my wall. That was a habit my mother instilled in me, something she'd still be doing if I let her. Now, we only buy what makes sense for what decor we're using, and that's very seldom. Right now, our living room is themed with our favorite movies, which includes original movie posters and other things related. Mindless shopping for decor can be a bad habit and with my mother, verged on addiction. The trick is to pick something you like, and only buy things related to those items. Yes. those items may cost more (like our movie posters), but we're saving money because we're not constantly buying little stuff here and there and everywhere.
Plastic Bags
Now, if only my ADHD would make me remember to bring my bags in with me to the store! But we've replaced getting plastic bags with a myriad of reusable shopping bags. Many are Aldi bags, some are Dollar Tree, and I have these great ones called Bag Podz, that are stored in a single zippered bag. I love them so much! I usually remember them, but sometimes I don't. But I will say that we do need some plastic bags in our house, as we have pets and sometimes terrible things happen, and we need those bags for cleanups. Not a lot of them, just once in a while. So, my ADHD saves us in that way LOL
My Purse
Oh goodness, are you like me and get a sore shoulder from having such a heavy purse? When in 2020 the pandemic hit, I got super paranoid and bought myself a purse that is easy to clean and one I could wear cross-body so I never had to put it in a cart. This led to me getting a purse that is vertical, has three zippers: one for my wallet (and wallet only! for real...nothing else will fit in there!), one for my phone (again, only big enough for my phone), and one for my keys, nail clippers, tweezers, and some chapstick. There is literally ZERO room for anything else. This keeps my purse tidy and organized AND keeps my shoulders from hurting, because I can't stuff it full of crap. I really love it!
Food Waste
Who knew that having a compost bin was so easy?? I went to the hardware store, got a big garbage bin for like $10. I got two bungee cords and crossed them on the top (the handles have holes on each side, so they fit easily across the top). Now, I put in food waste, but first, put a bunch of leaves or shredded newspaper (I shred my weekly circulars--not the plastic-coated ones, though), and then put your food waste on top. Then top with more paper (or leaves or shredded cardboard, etc.). In the summer, give it a good roll around the yard every few days, and watch as your food waste turns to almost nothing! It's sooooo easy!
Paper Waste
Every single piece of cardboard, or paper from packaging, or paper from the mail or the doctor's office, or school or work or wherever your paper products are coming from, recycle it, which is what I do. Even tags off of new/used clothing. If your paper contains food waste with oil or fat, burn it. If you live in a city and can't burn, then get onto Nextdoor Neighbor or a similar online space and see if someone in your town will pick up your greasy paper waste for a few bucks and burn it for you (like pizza boxes or paper plates, etc.). It's better than putting it into a landfill where it will never break down. Now, burning isn't great for the environment, but neither is garbage in a landfill. Sometimes you gotta just pick your poison.
Laundry Soap
I used to make my own, then I quit for a few years, and now I am back to making my own again. What can I do with all those containers??? Nothing. If I can't reuse something like that, I don't want to buy it because recycling plastic sucks. But it's better than a landfill. Like I said, pick your poison. Or find an alternative. Which is what I did.
Cat Litter
Good grief, I am still trying to find a solution to all the damn cat litter containers I have. The big square ones with handles work well as storage bins, but the pourable ones with handles, what can I do with them? For real, do you know an answer? Because I've been searching, and I can't find one that works with my lifestyle (don't worry, I will find the answer to this, someday!). So, I switched back to the old type of litter that comes in paper bags, which are non-clumping. Because what else can I do? We have like 500 cats right now. It's cheaper and I can recycle the bags or burn them if I can't.
I did stop buying the pourable kind, though, and switched the clumping kind in bags, but they're plastic to keep the moisture out. Which I can use for growing potatoes (dog food and cat food bags work, too). But after that, they are still garbage. So, now I buy the paper ones. I guess I can go reload up my plastic ones at the pet store with the loose litter. But I have no idea how much that is, and I assume it's crazy pricing. But we'll see. Maybe I can find a better way to sheath my cats in stuff to crap in that's priced well and better for the environment? AND one that works. Any suggestions, please let me know, because I am desperate here!
Paper Towels
I replaced our paper towels with these shop rags from the hardware store. I don't know if they will work okay, but we'll see. I'll come back here and update it afterwards when I find out. But we use an INSANE amount of paper towels in our house. I just can't seem to get my kids to stop using them after they wash their hands. So, they can't use them if I don't buy them! Ha!
Toilet Paper
During the pandemic, we never ran out of TP, but we did get a freaking overflow of our septic because it needed to be cleaned out. So, yeah, it's safe to say, that TP? Is a freaking disaster. And the insanity of people hoarding it in 2020 was nuts! So, now we don't buy TP anymore. Instead, we bought two bidets for our bathrooms and have nice little cloths to wipe our wet tushies and whatevers with after a nice visit to the toilet. And we LOVE THEM! For real, at first, it's a cold shock, but when you wipe and say "Wow, would you look at that, no leftovers...huh. Who would have thought that was possible?" It makes you feel like some kind of butt wizard!
And so far, that's it. Other than my kitchen items, but I've already talked about that in other posts so I didn't want to repeat it.
How have you downsized or become more sustainable? Please let me know below!
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