Becoming Balanced

Becoming Zero is more about Becoming Balanced for me right now. Realistically I know that with my lifestyle and schedule it will be pretty darn stressful to become 100% zero waste. The whole reason this convenient, single use product society exists is because it is indeed convenient! Once women started getting out of the home and working full time is when all of these single use products started popping up... and it's no wonder.

I work full time. I don't have time to keep the house livable, feed my family, AND make everything from scratch. But I'm trying my best to do my part.

Choosing what I buy in the store is the first way to reduce my waste. I try to avoid plastic whenever possible. I'm learning more and more about how horrible plastic is for our environment, so I'd really rather not support that business. Once you are aware of plastic you realize that most things packaged are packaged in plastic, which is a real bummer. I've basically found an alternative to everything that I want in life... except cheese. So I still buy cheese in plastic.

I've found stores that cater to bulk shopping. This makes it super easy to reduce waste. I just bring my reusable containers (jars or cloth bags), get the tare weights before I shop, and fill them up! Many of these stores have snack foods in bulk too, which keeps my husband happy.

These bulk stores also have bulk soaps and detergents. I know you can make your own, but this week has been especially busy so I just decided to buy in bulk. And it was still super cheap!

I am trying harder to plan ahead. This seems to be the best way to reduce my waste. This reduces the temptation to "just stop and pick something up for dinner on the way home". I also try to plan ahead to use our bread machine to bake bread or take an afternoon and make broth from old chicken bones... things like that. Those things are normally packaged (with lots of added salt and other ingredients) but spending some time on a day off (or even using a slow cooker over night) will give 12+ ounces of broth that you can put in your freezer for another day.

I have switched to a shampoo bar and honestly, I couldn't tell a difference. I'm not super fussy about my hair, but it's clean and I'm not creating plastic so I'm happy. I'm currently in the middle of a giant bottle of conditioner and body wash, but when those are finished I will switch to the unpackaged versions and I'm sure it will be just fine.



I know these are all very small steps, but these are things I have done without hardly altering my way of life. I have ideas on ways to take the next steps, but for now these things make me feel good without it taking over my life and being stressful.