#letsbesmarterhumans

-reducing my stuff. Giving away things for others to use (f.ex. an analog camera, clothes, books, pens, toiletries, kitchen stuff,.....) 

-i do not use make-up, and only use bar soaps 

-cleaning my home only with vinegar, baking soda & water

-i stopped buying packaged candy (well, yes i know. i should stop altogether!),

-stopped buying useless things/clothes etc & don’t go shopping anymore - i am saving so much time &money now! only buying what i need and in second hand or from the sales (never pay the full price of an item anymore if i can help it!). quality over quantity.

-i do not read leaflets/commercial advertisement at all, what a freedom!!!

-no more physical magazines, books or cd’s - reading & listening them in the library or buying as electronic downloads

when i get back up north again -after Christmas with family-, i will start to save every thing i will not be able to donate/recycle/rot.

every buy is a choice. and i need to make the better ones!

lately, i’ve been digitizing (scanning) my important papers. getting rid of piles and piles of paper, which feels liberating. 

also getting rid of (donating) stuff “i’m going to use, when.......”. yes, so right. things i’ve been keeping in the cupboard for years, not using.

Béa: Yeah so there are two quotes actually from Ghandi that really lead me to where I am today. "Be the change that you want to see in the world." That's really the one that I really thought about when I was watching documentaries and reading books early on and that's when my husband and I realised that if we wanted a better world for our children we had to be part of the solution. I think it's up to us to see where we can be part of this change. You know, some people might think well why don't you work in politics to make change and I'm like, well, because that is not my strength. It's up to everyone to figure out what their strengths are in bringing about change and making solutions available to their people.

Béa: The second quote is "happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do is in harmony." I really believe that the zero waste lifestyle has done exactly that for us. Somehow it's connected all the dots for me. As a kid, I grew up in a very simple way in the south of France. When I started looking for zero waste solutions somehow what had been taught to me as a child came rushing back into my head. I was an artist originally. I was a painter, but I no longer feel the need to put my creativity onto canvas because the zero waste lifestyle is feeding my needs for creating."

I found it hard to give up my magazines at first. I still bought second-hand mags and went to library to read them. But then I stopped and felt happier with what I have, what I do.

The term 'giving up' is a problem for me. It's not that we have given up things - we have found alternatives.”

Johnson (her first name is pronounced Bay-ah), 44, born and raised in France, came to the United States at age 18 to be an au pair. She is the founder of the blog and web site Zero Waste Home, and author of the best-selling how-to manual “Zero Waste Home” that grew out of her blogging.

She’s a character. She’s passionate. She speaks with the zeal of a fanatic, but with a warm twinkle in her glacier-blue eyes that tells you she’s having a ball living a dedicated zero waste lifestyle with her husband Scott and two teenage sons on board, supporting her ideals and practicing them alongside her.

...

The family uses cut-up washable towels, washcloths or rags instead of paper towels. (“Men are addicted to paper towels. It takes time to get them to use rags instead,” she laughs.) They use no plastic bags or containers, only glass containers that are washable and re-usable. Instead of tissues, they use handkerchiefs. Everything in the home, from cereals to flours to nuts to washing detergent to liquid soap, is bought in bulk. All commercial cleaning products have been traded in for white vinegar and water, sometimes baking soda.

When it comes to the kitchen, there are no processed foods. Fresh bread is carried home from bakeries in clean pillowcases. Leftovers are stored in glass containers. Instead of paper napkins, the family uses cloth. They’ve eliminated sandwich bags, aluminum foil, plastic wrap and freezer bags.

“We rarely freeze leftovers because I reinvent them right away; I am on top of our food inventory,” Johnson says. “We do not waste any food at our house.

“Zero waste becomes a lifestyle when you let it simplify, rather than complicate, your life,” she continues.

The family discovered that as they practiced zero waste, they were saving up to 40 percent of the money they used to spend on things, random stuff, standard American heavily packaged products. Impulse buys.

“We were able to use the money we saved to afford to do things that we wouldn’t have thought possible before,” Johnson says.