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Zero Waste update

The things that are making it into my bin 🙁 I welcome suggestions from readers (as well as offering my own, to date) on how I can keep the bin waste down! (I’ve decided to go without images – there’s no need, you all have imaginations I hope!)

In the trash, there’s been

  • old underwear: well I’m not going to go without, and there’s no way I can ‘recycle’ these, so maybe let that one through to the keeper?
  • muesli plastic bags: I have a preferred muesli, due to it’s low sugar content.  I suppose I could make my own, with all the individual ingredients.  But normal oats vs the oats in muesli are different (from the muesli, I was eating oats everyday for a year or so straight – and I just got fed up!)
  • gluten free snack bars: I love that I can ‘grab and go’ and they are GF and sugar free.  Individual wrappers – not so great.  I need to find a ‘snack’ recipe or 10 so I can make my own and nix the waste – suggestions welcome.
  • dried apricot & date bags: I saw these in the bulk bins at the co-op but the apricots were black (obviously more natural, but might turn the BF off them), and more pricey…. decisions
  • stock cube wrappers: I like that they are small, and shelf stable.  I do not like trying to crush them up!  And of course the waste.  The issue with DIY stock is that I’d need a much bigger freezer… :s
  • plastic mailing bag: thank you to 71toes.com.au and her blogging group for the mail, but the plastic mailing bag, while thin and durable, is just plain waste.  And I can’t help how people chose to mail things to me.
  • meat tray: this is a rare ‘waste’ – as I try to take a reusable container to the butcher.  However, the butcher’s hours are shorter than the supermarket’s, so on this day, I missed the butcher.   I can easily fix this one!
  • cheese bags: how can I get cheese (any cheese) without waste, given I don’t have a local deli or similar?  I admit I could grate my own (rather than buying grated packs) – but whilst all supermarket cheese is wrapped, I’m going for the ‘easiest’ option of the cheeses!
  • cotton buds: I know they are bad for me, but it’s a hard habit to crack – suggestions?
  • floss: both the thread, and soon enough, the container it comes in.
  • tissues: I’m just scared I’ll ruin the balance in my bokashi bucket.

Have you got any miracle solutions to these waste woes?  Anything that’s worked for you?

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Categories of Clutter

Thanks to Cindy’s post at www.365lessthings.com (which I love, and happy to have ‘worked out’ how to get the emailed posts now that I can’t read the blog at work), I’m inspired for another LIST!

She mentions categories of clutter, and I’m going to go through each one, and see which I could work on more.  Then I’ll share my little list of identified things to thin out

– things from put off decisions: a little bit,  I do have a ‘use it or lose it’ list (also to come)

– craft supplies: don’t really have any.  I have brown paper for wrapping presents, and a few sheets of white and yellow tissue (the white is reused from a brand that wraps stuff I buy).  I have three types of ribbons (leftover from weddings I did) to make florist style bows on the brown paper.  I have coloured pencils (since I was 12 I think I’ve had those, how much I wanted that 72 set of Derwent Water Colours).  But I don’t have any scrapbooking decorative stuff or the like.

source: melstampz.blogspot.com
source: melstampz.blogspot.com

– office supplies: worked hard to thin out the biros I don’t like (yes, I WANT people to ‘take’ my pen when I loan it sometimes….!)

– toys and games: I move most puzzles on as I do them. I have two lingering – one a gift from my mother for Christmas (from France) and one I never did that I got from freecycle. Might need to rehome both of those!

– books: again, anything that’s not a library book, I try to rehome once read. Mum gave me a book she’d read, Leon and Louise, not sure where that’s got to. And when I’m finished the one I’m reading, I’ll need to pass it on to someone, or donate it somewhere. And I really must decided on the few books on my bedhead – the one about Israel is tiresome reading, and I may never crack it!

– papers left over from school: I have a container for ‘school’ and one for ‘uni’. The school one is not 100% closing, cause I have an old uniform and a jumper passed from all my siblings to my God daughter, and I want to keep it (as it’s still 100% usable!).  So I need to thin out that box.  The uni box is rather emptier since I moved my 3 travel journals downstairs, to somewhere more accessible when I want to show someone something.  My thesis paperwork is now all stored in the garage as I never want to access it regularly, but I feel it’s important to keep proof of such a major amount of work.

– technical books: I always sold my textbooks from semester to semester to fund the next batch.  I also inherited some from a friend.  Pleased to say, I have NO reference books for my field.  Perhaps this isn’t ideal, but it is what it is!

– career related magazines: don’t have any, but I am fighting my professional organisation to STOP sending me them monthly, as they just end up in the recycling (or making me feel guilty!)

– electronic this and that: I have a drawer in my kitchen for there – charges for AA batteries and  Li Ion battery, plus some international adaptors, earphones.  I also have 2 HDD (at the moment, one I bought last week).  I work INCREDIBLY hard to have a minimal amount of electronics.

– garage items: I have one length of wood leftover from a project, and a caulking gun with silicon.  Both of them bother me, as they aren’t in active service, however it’s rather minimal.

– outgrown clothes and toys: I don’t grow out of stuff anymore!  And I’ve mentioned toys above

– art supplies: just the Derwents, above, really!

– things girls collect: I have some Indian bangles that I seldom wear (they make too much noise), so they could go.  And too many hair clips (and no hair now), so they are in the ‘declutter box’ now.

– unwanted gifts: as soon as I open them, I tend to know.  So the vanilla scented stuff gets passed straight onto my mother (two items recently!).  But mostly, I get cheap jewelry and wine, both of which I use.  Anything that doesn’t suit me, I move on – such as tolitieries not to my taste, books that are… inconsiderate.  There is a travel souvenir from a friend that’s just collecting dust, it may move on v v soon!

– impulse purchases  I am the QUEEN of returns (and store’s policies).  Anything that doesn’t suit/fit goes back for a full refund (even unopened groceries)

THINGS TO DECLUTTER – the strike through items have found new homes since I drafted this! 😀

– hair clips (still in packaging)

– excess bubble wrap: why does no one want this when I put it on freecycle?

– two lamp shades: can’t be returned as they were part of a set

– 4 wine bottle gift bags: I never give wine, but I get a fair bit!

– broken (cheap) jewelry: not sure if the bin is the best way, or if there’s hope of fixing them

– travel souvenir from a colleague