As you can tell from the cadence of my posts, I have slowed down somewhat keeping track with this Blog. Please note that I have no less fervor towards zero waste lifestyle. But also note, that with a new baby in the house, and as I have noted time and time again just how much time it takes to do a zero waste lifestyle, writing this blog has moved a wee bit lower on my to do list. :-)
Also, I have found myself at a lack of things to write about concerning food, and items associated with food packaging/groceries. This is no way to insinuate that my family has got it down, but I do feel like after a good year and some months of working on this we know what we really have to do to be zero waste. Now it's really just come down to time and then doing all the things, putting into place all the tactics I have researched. And furthermore, putting this process into the DNA of my family. Eventually, we will get to that zero waste marker with our food and food packaging, but we're not quite there yet.
Hey, this is a new year, 2017! New year = next phase in zero waste, otherwise known as the "stuff" phase.
"Stuff "can be everything that we stuff our houses and subsequent storage units with. Furniture, clothing, entertainment items, sports items, camping gear, that box of crap your mom kept from when you were seven, your atari game system that you think you can sell again someday… You get my drift. It's everything not living, or associated with food and packaging, that is in your abode- that is your "stuff".
I actually think the "stuff'" phase might be just as much if not more challenging than the food and food packaging phase of zero waste. This new phase cuts at the core of our consumerism in our society. Basically saying to our economy, "hey, I don't really need five different spring jackets, or four boxes of themed candles, or three TVs…" I jest, but only somewhat.
So this new phase is going to see some new blog posts about tackling downsizing "stuff". The first item I am going to start with is clothing.
There are several 'take this clothing challenge's being tossed around in social media right now concerning clothing. Most of them stem from findings about how much clothing Americans throw away and how much waste we create by buying crap clothing, buying super trendy stuff and only wearing it a few times or having it be such low quality, it falls apart and necessitates its' garbage can toss.
Apparently the average American throws out 82 pounds of clothing a year. ( see this video http://www.takepart.com/video/2015/05/29/clothes-trash-landfill )
82 pounds. per person. per year.
That is like three of my kids- and I only have two. This roughly equates to 11,000,000 tons of textile waste per year - just from Americans! It's great to donate clothing but apparently a large portion of us still toss it. Or we buy clothing that is of such low quality, and therefore ensuring the continued demand for low-quality clothing by buying it in the first place, that the clothing falls apart and we end up throwing it away or whomever, where ever we donate it to does the same.
If my family is aiming towards a zero waste lifestyle and if we want to do right by the environment, and in effect downsize so that we can have a small house someday, then we need to work on downsizing our clothes. And I never even thought I had that much. Until I start digging through the crap in my closet. And my drawers. And sometimes in boxes and under the bed.
If you Google it, there are many clothing challenges out there online. But they all seem to follow some of the same tactics. Take all the clothing you own and lay it out so you can see it all. Divide them into piles of things that you will wear, and things that you say you will wear, save for special occasions, and any other excuse you have for not wearing them throughout the year.
Then from the pile of things that you do wear, parse through it and make sure that you actually do wear it on a regular basis and love. Try to take out from that pile, things that are super trendy, that are not going to withstand the years of fashion trend ahead of us.
Then from that love pile, keep between only 30 and 40 items. That's it. That's all you get.
This is surprisingly hard. But as many of the challenge sites will tell you, if you have that one shirt that that one X gave you, or that one thing that reminds you of that one time you did xyz that was so great, take a picture because it will last longer. Then do not throw away anything but donate ALL of the rest of the clothes. Yes, that includes your 'fat' clothes, or all those awesome clothes you had one day when you worked in a nice office before you had kids. Let me break it down for you who are moms for example ( because I am one and I had to say this to myself) those super skinny trendy clothes, you will never wear again. You want to look at them from time to time, and think of how cute you were in them, thinking of when you were in the hip office setting wearing those things.
You will likely never wear those again.
And no, your daughter or son for that matter will NEVER want to wear them in 20 years from now. It is just not going to happen. And the longer you hold onto it, the longer you were depriving someone who really could use that clothing for the opportunity to wear something they need and you don't need. You are just plain being wasteful. Yes, I know you have 30 designer jeans that you want to fit into someday. Stop with the 'someday'. Those jeans could benefit somebody else and you just holding onto it is wasteful. These are the things we have to tell ourselves. Again I over emphasise numbers here but the reality is the concept here is that this was hard for me to go through, parsing through my clothing.
This was a three or four-week process, and I still have about 50 items but for the life of me I can't seem to get it under that for now. I'll keep you posted.
In the meantime, I hope to foster good habits prescribed by the clothing challenge sites like not buying on impulse, not buying cheap crap clothing, beware of flash sales, PLAN out what I need and IF I need it- and overall, be satisfied.
Especially be satisfied.
I'm sure you look amazing in just a plain shirt and jeans anyhow. And who needs more than 20 outfits for work, I'll give it to you straight, nobody at work is memorizing what you wear.