Currently Reading: Zero Waste Home by Bea Johnson

I have currently been reading Zero Waste Home by Bea Johnson.  This book is full of so many tips on having a zero waste life, while I have found many of these tips helpful but I know that many of them are not practical for me and the way that I currently live.  I know that I won't be able to get down to having just on quart jar's worth of trash per year but I have been celebrating the little victories in my efforts to become low waste and live more sustainably.

I currently live with my mom and sister, and one little victory that we had this week was that our trash that went out this week was not full.  It's a small thing but that actually is a lot of little things that did not get put in the trash.  Also our recycling amount was down this month as well (our recycling is only picked up once a month).  I have been buying as many of vegetables unpackaged from the grocery store since the farmer's market won't be open until May and even then won't have produce until almost June.  I have also just been avoiding buying as much as I possibly can that is in plastic.  

I have also been making my own shampoo bars and conditioner bars, which I absolutely love!  I have found that they also last for a really long time in the shower since you really don't need that much to get your hair clean.  I now make all of the products that I use in my hair: shampoo bar, conditioner bar, detangling spray, and hair spray.  I am also able to save so much money by making these items because before I would have to buy a new bottle of each about every 3 weeks.  Even if I got the cheapest products that my hair could stand (which I usually did) that was still almost $20 for all of them.  Now it costs less that $5 for all of them and my hair is so much healthier.

I am planning on starting an Etsy shop to sell the sustainable products that I make including the shampoo bars, conditioner bars, reusable produce bags, and reusable coffee sleeves.  I should have that up and running in the next couple of weeks.