Plugging the Dam

Sometimes the fight against wastefulness feels like it just isn't enough.  In gathering my thoughts to write this post I was thinking of the little dutch boy with his finger in the dam.  Not actually knowing the story in full, I decided to Google it and this is the link I found. 


And this is the quote that jumped out of the page at me: "This story is told to children to teach them that if they act quickly and in time, even they with their limited strength and resources can avert disasters."

And so it is.


I previously shared some of my back story and the why of living "green."  Today I want to share some of the how.  I am a huge fan of taking baby steps and not beating myself up if I don't do it all "perfectly," whatever that means.  Any positive change is, well, positive change.


Six years ago, I decided to use cloth diapers. (Yes, there was research conducted that "proved" cloth isn't any better than cloth diapers.  The study was paid for by Pampers.)  I used them most of the time and had disposables as back up.  When I went back to work due to a family crisis, I put my daughter back in disposables because cloth diapering was way at the bottom of my list of priorities.


Six years ago, I also made a list of paper products that we could replace with cloth or reusable items.  (Paper towels, napkins, Kleenex, etc.)  The paper towel switch to rags was really easy (just grab a cloth towel instead), but I only finalized this transition in the last couple of years.


A couple of years ago we started gardening and hence began a compost pile.


We love to cook, and making food from scratch cuts way down on packaging waste.


Last summer I bought the kids and myself insulated stainless steel water bottles--so worth the money, that water stays COLD.


Last school year we switched from plastic baggies to sandwich wraps and snack bags that I bought from a local woman I found on Etsy. We are going to buy little stainless steel containers for wet items like cut-up fruit for this next school year.

The beginning of this year we decided to become a little more focused on cutting down waste and focused on fixing one item each month which led to:


Getting a system in place for remembering grocery bags
Reusable mesh produce bags
Reusable cloth bags for bulk items
Reusing spaghetti jars, etc for bulk peanut butter and for storing food (This one I am the most proud of because I spent weeks trying to figure out what to buy to store peanut butter in and then it suddenly occurred to me that I had this FREE option.)
Replacing freezer bags with towels and a pillow case for baked bread and reusable containers for other items
Being careful of how much waste we spent moving and spend working on our new house
Making our own cleaning products

We are still a work in progress.  Each month we continue to focus on one thing that we can change to reduce the amount of waste generate in our household.


I am that little dutch boy.  As are you.


Here are some websites that you may find helpful in your journey:


lifewithoutplastic.com
zerowastehome.blogspot.com
www.nurturedfamily.com
house cleaning recipes from mothering.com
www.bluelotusgoods.com