Less Waste // What we're trying

House cleaning has been going in cycles. But the simple tricks are definitely helping. Still, it seems like no matter what we do, we get one area clean . . . move to the next . . . and then it just starts all over. Obviously this is what happens, but why is it so darned frustrating? I've turned my nesting to things that we need to check off the list before baby comes, like cleaning car seats and getting our van setup for three kids versus two. I also made a quadruple batch of naan bread for our freezer yesterday afternoon.

But today I wanted to share a quick post because some of you have requested it. For my birthday this year, I decided to get more serious about lowering our waste. I bought a few things that have actually helped quite a bit! And I get lots of questions about what they are, where I got them, and if they're working, so I figured I'd just give you the low-down here.

Silpat Mat

We do a lot of baking in our house, and -- as a result -- I go through a lot of parchment paper. I had used a Silpat Mat years ago but then ruined it doing so very high heat baking (bagels on 550+ degrees). One of my friends posted a picture of hers and I decided to give it another try. It's a silicone baking mat that you can use up to 480 degrees F. I use it every single day! So, as long as you don't bake really high temps (consider getting a pizza stone for that), I'd highly recommend this mat.

Cloth Bags

I have expanded our fleet of cloth zippered bags for snacks and lunches. So much better than using countless Zip-Lock bags that are used for five seconds for Cheerio's or pretzels and then tossed in the trash. They're cute, too. C'mon, you know they are. Mine are from Planet Wise and BumKins. I tend to get the sandwich size bags, but I may get some of the small snack baggies too.

I also see that Planet Wise now makes clear baggies, and I love that idea for more everyday things in my fridge.

Which leads to . . .

Silicone Bags

Then I needed reusable bags for all the refrigerated stuff -- leftover chickpeas, opened cheeses, stray avocados, etc. -- and I've always had such a hard time figuring out what to do. I did the whole beeswax wrap thing for a while and it worked OK. But I never totally got on board. Then I found these Silicone Bags . . . and they are MAGIC. They're the product I'm most enthusiastic about because they work really well and things don't spill. They're also very thick and you can use them for freezing, steaming, cooking, and even Sous Vide (which I don't have). But still, cool.

Also -- Amazon has many similar bags for sale, but the ones I got (and linked to) seem to have the best reviews. I have read it matters which ones you get. I have used mine daily for over a month and have absolutely no tearing or other issues.

Bowl Covers

Lots of baking, again, leads to lots of plastic wrap usage. I was using tea towels as well, but decided to up my game and get some proper bowl covers. I got two different types of sets. One that's breathable -- Earth Bunny 100% cotton -- and one that's more like wet bag material -- Wegreeco. Of the two, I actually use the Wegreeco (less expensive) more because it's air-tight in the fridge and helps create a nice moist rising environment for breads. But the fabric ones let air through and are good for popping over baked goods like muffins. Stephen also uses the largest one to put over his kombucha brew.

Each set came with a large, medium, and small. And they are all currently in use! I toss the Earth Bunny in with the wash and rise the Wegreeco out in the sink and let air-dry.

Lunch Box

Every year I cheap out on lunch boxes. And every year I am frustrated because I find myself packing the same old thing over and over again for lack of proper storage options. I decided to indulge in a YumBox Bento Box  for Ada after seeing a snack-sized box in person at an L.L. Bean outlet this summer. I actually bought the snack box on the spot because it was so well made and really seems to be a tight seal. Ada's has five compartments and the specific design I got for her labels different food groups so that she can get involved with packing her own lunch.

She's really excited about this box, and I will report back on how it works from week to week. I read countless bento box reviews and this one consistently gets the highest ratings from parents. I may even want to get a second one, but they are $30, so I'll wait and see if just one will work for now.

Silicone Straws

The most awesome thing of all? The straws we're using now. I had used metal straws was liked them OK . . . and kind of cringed at the thought of glass straws. But I happened to find Silikids silicone straws at Target on clearance once day. Brilliant. They've been a total game-changer. They come in different sizes so they fit all our cups. I immediately went and bought another set on Amazon. I also got a few of their silicone cup toppers because all my Boon cup toppers have torn. These ones seem like they'll last a lot longer. I just rinse them out ASAP and let them dry standing up in our grass drying mat.

I'll be back soon with some thoughts on sending Eloise to "school" this fall and more nesting notes. It's getting crazy over here. In a good way.

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Homesteading // Zero Waste Family

I got very much off track from my original posting plan for this week. I hope you don't mind if I skip around a bit. I get compelled to go in different directions depending on what's pulling me most in my everyday life. Right now, it's simplification and minimalization. I am pretending that's a word. And actually, these have been homesteading goals of mine for several years. Executing them with kids, though, proves difficult in my book.

I'm sure you've noticed that I've flirted with zero waste in the past. It's a goal of mine that I keep highly regarded in my head. And when it comes to actually doing it, I make good efforts. But it falls flat because life is hectic and -- let's face it -- cutting down on garbage and other waste is really difficult.

Strides we've made:

• Bringing our own bags for grocery and other shopping. Including produce bags. (Here are more ways we've tried eliminating plastics.)
• Buying produce from a CSA where we fill a huge bag with the foods versus getting them packaged in the store.
• Using DIY "plastic" wrap to cover goods in the refrigerator.
• Trying to buy foods in bulk when possible. But I'll get to that in a moment.
• Cloth diapering -- at least some of the time. Again, I'll get to that.
• Using or fixing the things we have versus always going out and buying new.
• Carrying our own water bottles (always) and coffee mugs (when we remember).
• Using a cloth towel system versus paper towels.
• Making many of our own cleaners, like laundry detergent, dish washing detergent, and all-purpose spray.

Even with sticking to most of these changes most of the time, we still have way more recycling and garbage than I'd like to admit. I am happy that we have made the efforts and at least lessened our impact. That's a start. So, in 2017 . . . I'm looking to keep this conversation going. I'm looking to do better. And I've love hearing from you.


Here are the three areas we struggle with the most.

• Buying all or even most of our foods in bulk isn't possible. I did visit some local mom + pops, and the prices were too high. The ingredients are high-quality, that's for sure. I have to stick within our budget AND try to lessen waste. And sometimes these things are at odds. Aldi, for example, has such great deals on food. But it seems like everything is packaged up in boxes upon boxes. When I come home, I always feel like our recycling bin is bursting.
• Cloth diapering is a love/hate thing over here. I wrote about it yesterday on Instagram. We actually had stopped doing cloth in Eloise's third month because life got crazy. I am attempting to start back up, but I have trouble committing because she doesn't seem as comfortable in the diapers. I also cannot seem to get the best wash process down with our extremely hard water. That said, diapers are SUCH an awful thing to keep tossing in the trash if I have cloth diapers just sitting in drawers. I hope to do an update after this month's trial goes.
• Being out and about just seems to invite waste, like coffee cups, takeout containers, and etc. I am thinking some of this stuff will naturally lean out once we're making most of our own meals again and not spending as much on entertainment money. (Yup! This is the month we are finally starting to make sense of our debt!)

I've decided that my best bet is to set one goal each month to see if we can smash it. This month, I'd like to work on meal planning in such a way that we aren't using as many foods in packages (pasta, cooked beans, frozen veggies, etc.). This includes baby food, which I have definitely gotten lazy about. I've been buying tubs of it versus just mashing my own. It's so easy and would save a lot of money.

Anyway, accomplishing this goal obviously won't eliminate all our waste, but my goal is to see if we can go a whole week before filling the garbage and recycling bins.

I'll give an update in March along with my next goal!

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Our House Cleaning Routine

Skipping ahead of myself again to share something I've been meaning to write up for quite some time. Our cleaning routine! And the reason I've wanted to write about it but haven't is because we weren't in a good groove . . . and I thought posting would help push us in the right direction. Well, now that we've cleaned and cleared out in our minimalist efforts, everything is falling much better into place.

Here's how we approach cleaning our spaces, how often we clean what, and what things we tend to leave for longer periods of time. Note: I'm not slating this as some "best practices" kind of post. Just merely sharing what we do. I'd love to hear how you approach cleaning in your everyday life!

Everyday

#1: The kitchen tends to be the busiest spot in our home. I typically cook most of our meals and snacks from scratch to help save money in the budget for other areas. As a result, I use my food processor, blender, stand mixer, slow cooker, and multiple pots and pans almost daily. Holy dishes! Cleaning the kitchen consists of getting the dishes through the washer and putting them away. Cleaning any kitchen tools we've used. Wiping up crumbs and grime from counter tops. Sweeping any big messes off the floor. This isn't a deep clean, it's simply to keep things running smoothly.

#2: Tidying up clutter. I run through the main areas of the house regularly throughout the day and attempt to keep whatever near its "right place." Ada's toys are the things that migrate around mostly. We have a few baskets in the living room to put blocks and a few other quiet toys in. Stuffed animals are her favorite, so I find them everywhere. It's not a big deal if they're around, but there's something so soothing about walking around the house at night and it's all clear for the next day.

Also: We've been getting Ada in on the task because we've put a metal bucket at the bottom of the stairs. In the evenings, we ask her to get anything that belongs in her room and put it in the bucket so we can put it back before bedtime.

#3: Paperwork. This is something new we've attempting to tackle every single day. We noticed that so much of the crap we've been stashing for far too long was junk mail and other documents that could be cleared out almost immediately. I don't know what our hangup was. Now I try to recycle junk mail and take care of other random papers coming into the house the day we receive them. It's a work in progress.

Every Other Day

#1: We vacuum the floor on the main level of the house just about every other day. A lot of this ends up being mess from eating in the dining room, cooking in the kitchen, or general crumbs and dirt from the outdoors.

#2: Laundry. I'd like to get on a better, less frequent schedule with washing laundry. Part of this battle has been paring down our wardrobes. Part of it has been being more patient if favorite clothes are soiled. I think we could be better at waiting longer between loads, but it seems like we're doing at least a few every other day. I wrote a whole article about how we should wash our clothes less often for Wisebread a few years ago, it's an interesting read!

#3: Recycling. We have a huge bin for recycling in our kitchen and we try to empty it into the garage bin about every other day. But here's the problem -- I don't know WHY we seem to have so many boxes, plastics, and other things going through the house. This should be a once a week thing in my opinion. I'm really trying to examine why we have so much packaging. BTW: Check out this great article about Surviving a Week of Zero-Waste Shopping. We have a lot of work we could do in this area. Oh, goals!

Once a Week

#1: Bathrooms. I feel like our bathrooms get so dirty so fast! We tend to give them a total clean once a week, consisting of cleaning the toilet, wiping down the sink (toothpaste + 4-year-old = ugh!), spritzing the mirrors, and clearing out any empty containers.

#2: We vacuum the basement carpet once a week. If it needs to be cleaned more often, we can't ever tell because it's all different shades of brown and masks things well. I would like to get a shampooer to give the thing a good wash a few times a year. Anyone rent or buy one and have experiences to share?

#3: We wash our paperless towel system once a week -- sometimes more if we've been using a lot of them.

#4: Bedrooms. I'll just tell you I don't make our bed every day. I probably make it once a week. I used to make it mostly daily, but since being pregnant, I crawl in and out on occasion -- so I figure, what's the point? Ada's bed is the same way because she's still napping. And as good as we are with washing our clothing, we are slow to put it away. This is something I'd like to work on because having calm, clean sleep spaces is important. They're not horrible, but I hate seeing laundry piles.

#5: Change sheets. I say weekly because that's what we usually do. But if I'm being totally honest, there are times when maybe two weeks go and we don't change the sheets. Still, I try to keep this a weekly thing. If I can remember to do it before bedtime, I'm golden. If I continue to stay up too late, it doesn't get done in a timely manner. Is that gross? Probably.

#6: Trash. I am surprised this doesn't go out more frequently. Somehow, we haven't had a ton of actual trash. It's more about the recycling. Of course, if something smells or is full, we take it out right away. But usually we do the bathroom bins once a week on trash night. The kitchen has been mostly once a week since we started composting. There are always exceptions to the rule, but -- yeah.

Less Often

#1: So, we don't really vacuum upstairs all that often. It's a mix of being too lazy to take the vacuum up the stairs and the fact that we don't wear shoes or eat much up there, so there's less mess to contend with. I'd say we end up doing it every other week or every three weeks (is that awful? it's been working well for us!).

#2: I have this thing about cleaning our windows. I mean, most people I talk to don't worry about it but once a season. I really like to give ours a good scrub once a month or so. I think having plantation shutters also exposes more dust that needs to be cleaned. So, I use some homemade cleaners and spritz everything about once a month.

#3: Dusting. I feel kind of weird admitting that I don't like to dust, so I don't do it often. I mean, dust accumulates, but it never seems terribly overpowering to me. If if notice a lot of dust, I'll of course wipe it up. Otherwise, I'd say I don't dust more than once a month. I think that's one benefit of having less furniture, too!

#4: OK, so I do a surface cleaning of the kitchen every day and it keeps things sane for a while. I do a deep clean probably every three weeks to a month. Like wiping out and clearing out the refrigerator. Cleaning the (outside) of the stove. Digging into the pantries to see what's expired. That kind of stuff. In an ideal world, I'd do this weekly or every other week.

#5: Wiping down furniture. I clean off the dining set about once a month unless I see something on it from an afternoon art project. We also recently washed and conditioned our leather couch after about a year of letting it go. We should probably vacuum under couch cushions more regularly. And one area I'm always embarrassed about? Underneath our bed. I don't know how so many clothes, toys, dust bunnies, etc. end up there . . . but they do, in droves.

#6: Closets. As we've gotten rid of more, we've needed to clean our closets far less often. Only a few sets of sheets helps with the linen closet. Fewer clothes means less mess in our bedroom closets. The worst closet in the house, though, is in the craft room. When I say we're mostly done with our leaning out, it's because the office/craft room is still a mishmash of things. We're working on it, and I hope to do a before/after really soon!

So, that's our general cleaning schedule. I have probably forgotten something major and you've all wondering WHY I don't clean whatever it is . . . but I assure you, there's nothing smelly or too terribly disgusting lurking inside these walls.

Happy Friday, friends!

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Homesteading // Less Waste, pt. 1

This is a topic I’ve wanted to cover for a while. I touch on it from time to time, but have never dedicated an entire post to waste. You see, in all our budget and homesteading efforts, we still have a hefty trash bag at the end of each week. Lots of recycling, too. And, like many families, we go through good and bad cycles with trying to lessen our environmental impact.

Stephen is actually the driver behind this household goal for the new year. We’ve been watching Morgan Spurlock’s Inside Man on Netflix and finally got to the episode on where our garbage goes. We’ve seen all sorts of other features on this topic, and going to college in an uber eco-conscious town had us composting, recycling, and making package-free choices from young adulthood.

Then we moved seven years ago and got somewhat lazy.

Where we live, the opportunities to buy things in bulk are there . . . they’re just not terribly convenient. Composting is something we tend to do a much better job with during the summer months. And there’s a whole lot of other stuff to take into consideration.

I thought I’d share what we do in the following areas (just the first five -- the easiest to tackle, in my opinion), as well as where we can use some improvement. It’s our goal to expend the extra energy it takes to make strides toward being a less wasteful home. I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas about how to lean out waste in these categories too!

Saying NO to Plastic Bags

This is a natural -- and it’s likely something most people are doing already. We have a good stock of our own reusable grocery bags and bins. My favorite is our collapsable market style basket that is sturdy enough to handle a full load of even the heaviest groceries. I also keep a compact reusable bag inside my purse at all times for those random shopping trips.

Action: Purchase (or create) and stock of some produce bags (I like these washable ones and these mesh ones) for taking along on shopping trips. Not a lot of the produce is available in bulk (like greens, carrots, for example), so we’ll do what we can. Also very excited to do a CSA this year. We ended up skipping out last year because we just weren’t around much during the summer.

Buying in Bulk

Bring your own containers to the store, figure out the tare, and fill them up with food. Here’s where things have gotten a little hard for us. My budget tells me that shopping at Aldi is king for saving cash. In theory, buying in bulk is cheaper, but at the stores in our area -- not entirely so. We’re trying to determine and cost-compare certain things (flour, peanut butter, grains, beans, oats, soap, honey + syrup, coffee, tea, etc.) to see what we could start buying in bulk.

Action: This weekend we’re heading to an out-of-the-way natural foods store to check out prices. The one closest to us gives me some sticker shock. I’ll report back soon.

Banishing Paper Towels

We’re doing pretty well on this one. We bought tons of basic flour sack towels that we keep in a bin inside the kitchen. If there’s a mess or something to wipe up, we grab a towel. Same for most cleaning tasks. We had old rags and washcloths to do the dirty work. Then we wash them twice a week. The stash is going strong, and I’d love to write up exactly how this system works in another post (how we store, how we wash, etc.).

Action: I’ll admit we do still buy natural disinfecting wipes for the dirtiest of messes. I know it’s pretty easy to make these by mixing together your own cleaning solution and soaking rags in it. So, that’s an area for improvement.

Skipping Plastic Wrap, etc.

I wrote about my Reusable Food Wrap a while back. It lasted a few months, but I got distracted and didn’t make more. The stuff was perfect for topping bowls, wrapping cheese, and it was also really easy and inexpensive to make. We’ve also slowly been building our army of covered glass containers (we have that exact set and hope to add to it) that we use for storing hummus, sauces, leftovers, etc.

Action: Make more reusable food wrap. Get a few more glass containers. Do not buy more plastic wrap. Somehow I always end up with one because we have more to cover than I have things to cover them. Along these same lines, I’d love to find a better storage option for my freezer stuff (I do some glass, but all my bagels, burgers, and soups, etc. end up in plastic freezer bags).

Making Our Own Stuff

One way to eliminate waste is by not buying stuff in the first place. We’ve done a good job making our own laundry detergent and storing it in a big jug atop the washer. We also mix together basic cleaners that actually work using a solution of castile soap, water, and essential oils. Wow can you use castile soap and baking soda and vinegar in 1,000,000 different ways! As with everything else, though, this all takes time, energy, and foresight.

Action: Make a chart of all the cleaners and other household things we can make ourselves. Write down all the recipes so they are handy. And maybe even create some schedule for refreshing our stock of them. I’d also like to improve my formula for dishwashing detergent because our hard water has been an issue lately.

Do you have a goal to create less waste in 2016? 

What are your action items?

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Chemical-Free Clean With Castile Soap

Like what you just read? You can subscribe to the feed of these posts or follow us on Twitter or Facebook to be the first to know what the (never home)makers are up to. And we’ll love you forever!

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