I wanted to take a moment to step away from some of the deeper writing and share about some of the conscious decisions I’ve made in my home because of my concern for the environment.
Food waste is a waste for everyone. I regularly take stock of what is in my fridge so that very little goes to waste. Food wasted is not only money wasted, but also land, energy, water, and fertilizer wasted. I plan meals for the week and only buy what I need. Leftovers are eaten either for lunch or a different dinner. I have some go to meals to use random leftover bits. Leftover bell pepper? Throw it on a pizza. Broccoli going bad? Make a stir-fry. We also limit condiments in our fridge. If is doesn’t fit in the fridge door, we don’t open something new. I attempt to keep the number of salad dressings open to 3 or below. Scraps that aren’t edible or the occasional rotten produce go out to our compost on the back patio. The compost will be added to my container garden in the spring.
As a expecting mother, I knew that I wanted to cloth diaper my kid. So when we created out baby registry, we chose to put cloth diapers on there. That decision has definitely saved us money, in addition to keeping lots of waste out of the environment. When James was in daycare last spring, we used disposables there. When we took a two week road trip, we used disposables. But generally, we use his cloth diapers and it works out well. I wash them about every 2-3 days (or when they get too stinky!). About half of them were gifted to us and the other half we bought. I think we spent around $50. They grow with James and will still be in good shape if we go on to have a second kid. The plan now is to look at reusable training pants for when we start potty training.
Its the holidays. Everywhere I look I see ads to buy this or that. Most of which I know will end up sitting on a shelf somewhere eventually. This has become even more true with being a parent. There are endless lists of “Best” toys. Walk the aisles and you’ll see plenty of choices. But we live in a small space. 1000 sq ft. Our living room is also his playroom (trip over ALL the toys!). So, I chose to be very intentional about the gift lists I created for James. This was especially important since his birthday is in the same week. I went looking for experience gifts that relatives could help fund. I chose a few items that would grow with him and provide entertainment for multiple years. And a few small things that will be easy to store. Intentionally, we aren’t buying him gifts until we see what others have given him. At 1, he won’t know the difference.
A few additional last notes, we have chosen to move away from plastic in our personal hygiene. We elected to purchase bamboo toothbrushes and refuse the plastic ones offered at our cleaning appointments. We decided to move away from liquid laundry detergent and now use laundry sheets instead. My next desired move is to swap out our bottles of shampoo and conditioner for bars.
To close, my mom was the queen of extending the life of a Ziploc bag. As a kid, I watched her wash them by hand again and again and again and again. Hand drying over the dish basket. I didn’t know this wasn’t normal. Rather than having nice brand new bags in boxes, we had bags stuffed inside bags. I carried this habit into adulthood. Currently, I’ve got a bag full of dirty ones waiting to be washed and another bag of clean ones to be used. However, I have never purchased any Ziploc bags. All the bags we have ended up in our home from somewhere else. Leftovers sent home from a potluck or cookies bought at a bake sale, etc. When they are finally beyond use, I estimate they’ve been used a dozen times at least. Now that we have been gifted silicone Stasher bags, we use Ziplocs even less. They are so much sturdier and easier to clean.
I am taking the next two weeks off for the holidays. I’ll be back on January 8th. Subscribe so you don’t forget! In the meantime, catch up on any posts you have missed.
Creation Care Mom 
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