The corrollary to getting rid of excess is also limiting our consumption. This is the reuse part of the recycling idea, and I'm not as good at it as I am at reducing. I tried limiting my shopping to only essentials last January, an idea I found on the blog Small Notebook. Great idea, but I found that the limitation actually made me focus more on my wants (kind of like forbidding chocolate makes it all I can think about).
I've found several ways to cope with this:
* If it's a non-consumable item, I try to find something that we already own that can serve the purpose (I may not have a purple t-shirt, but could navy work just as well?).
* If it's a consumable item, I ask if we really need it (turns out, we don't actually need dusting cloths for the floors- we do just fine with the vacuum and occassional spot cleaning).
* If I can't make do, I try to buy used or borrow (thanks for lending us all those tools Dad!).
* If I have to buy new, I try to make an informed choice about how to do it. Is it something we'll need repeatedly, so that buying a quality version will create less waste over time? Is it something we'll only need once, but can pass on to someone else? Is there a greener product that performs comparably?
This is definitely a process for me. How have you reduced your consumption?
No comments:
Post a Comment