Going Zero in Connecticut

 So I have been researching the best way to go the most "Zero Waste" on my purchases of one of the most important products in the house: TOILET PAPER! NO WAY am I going to go 100% reusable toilet paper with three kids. Sorry, not sorry!  In my research, however, one of the blogs I read suggested having reusable cloth sheets for cleaning up after going #1, and only using toilet paper for when the family goes #2. Have a small closable trash can next to the toilet to put the cloth into, and then wash them later... My five year old son still wears pull-ups and wets the bed, and I handle urine soaked stuff on a daily basis (speaking of which, does anyone have a solution for this never ending issue?). Knowing this, tossing in some pee cloths with the rest of his wash doesn't seem like a bad idea. It would definitely cut down on costs with toilet paper! So with this solution, which toilet paper brand would I use that would be the friendliest for the environment?...

Taking a moment to update what has been going on the past week, zero-waste style. MOZARELLA STICKS I've been making slow progress, but each little change is a small victory. My children LOVE mozzarella sticks, particularly the ones made by kraft. But buying the sticks means that each stick of cheese is wrapped in its own individual wrapping. I found a substitute that actually tastes way better than the kraft version. At the grocery store's deli, I ask for a pound to a pound and a half of mozzarella cheese, and to just have it cut in one big chunk, and put inside my jar. The jar will have the tare weight on it so they can subtract it from the total weight on the scale***... When I come home I take the hunk of cheese, cut it up into sticks, and stick them in a glass jar.  TADA!! Mozarella cheese sticks!!! The kids love them, and I admit I love them too. ...***I want to make note that a lot of deli people don't know how to subtract from the total, or w...

Part of zero waste is to eliminate things that you have excess of. All the plastic nicknacks and things that are not useful and unsustainable. One morning I felt the need to go through a drawer in my kitchen that was packed with utensils. I found all sorts of treasures I never knew I had, but I tried to keep only the things I knew I would actually use, and pass along the things that I wouldn't. Do I need twenty corn cob holders? I probably only need six or so. Do I need three egg slicers? I only need one. Will I actually use a plastic rice spoon? I could use my regular spoon! After the one drawer was done, I went on to the next, and the next. I rearranged my crammed spaces as well to be more friendly. I went through the kids craft cabinet and got rid of a whole bag of useless junk they never touched. When I was done, I had four filled up bags of stuff I didn't need! I didn't know I didn't need them.  I asked James to not look in the bags (he did anyway, and i...

Today I was determined to get to the grocery store and try out my new Zero-Waste shopping method!! The only place that I knew of at the moment that sold things in bulk was Whole Foods. If I was going to buy in bulk, however, I would need to have on hand cloth bags to fill bulk products up with, instead of the plastic bags they offer at the store. As some of you know, I consider myself a fairly crafty person because of my sewing skills. It is something I am incredibly grateful for learning about in college, because it has come in handy so often...Just like today! So down to the basement I went, and grabbing some cute scraps leftover from way back in my College days when I was learning how to quilt. (They finally came in handy today!!). Using a serger and a sewing machine, I whipped them together. Then I used a safety pin to feed my string through the tunnels I created, to make drawstring bags. Eureka!! Cute and useful bulk bags, TOTALLY FREE! YAY!! If y...

UPDATE: this experiment did not work well with absorption! It works well on a lighter day, but not heavy days.  ...It came... I knew it would come, and today it came, much sooner than I had hoped it would. I immediately grabbed my trusty tampons, with the trusty plastic applicator, and in the trusty and sanitary plastic wrap containing it... ..And then... I did what I thought I would never do in my whole life... Because only boon dock hippies would do something like this, and not me... Oh yes I did. (O_O) I talked to my mother about the possibility of forming my own feminine hygiene products earlier this week. She said to me sternly that I would soon have a whole lot less friends if I ever attempted reusable feminine products. I accept this challenge, just like I decided to accept zero waste into my life. Only true friends will still stick around after this. If these don't work well, I will try sewing my own reusable pads together and ...

Today is a new day! With renewed vigor I set out to try to find LOCAL beeswax. The first thing I am dying to make on my zero-waste journey is my own reusable saran wrap. Amazon prime is so tempting, so quick and simple to buy plastic-packaged beeswax...But in order to reduce waste I decided to try hard to find any kind of beeswax I wouldn't have to have shipped. After making a few phone calls to local farms nearby, I was directed to Bee Commerce in Newtown, which is close by. Unfortunately they don't open until Thursday, so I will just have to wait! Better to wait than to waste, right? Something that has been weighing on my mind today is the word COMPOST. I happen to have chickens, and though adult chickens will devour most of the chicken-edible scraps I give them, most of mine are babies right now, and won't eat very much of it. I have been left with a lot of food waste going into my garbage can. Perfectly good scraps of food that could otherwise go to the so...

DAY ONE...Was probably a disaster...But at the same time I know this is going to take some time for me, and since it is only my first day, I am seeing what I never truly saw before. Here is what I saw for my first day as a now conscious zero-waste consumer parent running a household: 1-JUNK MAIL I opened my mailbox and found magazines and brochures clogging it up. This is not anything new, and I don't even look at them usually and throw them away. But since I have committed to start a zero waste journey, I realize that simply throwing them in the trash just adds more to my waste, and no one on the sender's side knows if I am reading their brochures or throwing them out. One of the magazines I get is "Pottery Barn," and "Pottery Barn Kids." I read neither of these magazines, because if I even begin to open the pages I feel consumed with retail envy, as well as inadequacy, and that is just a feeling I as a young mother don't need to have in my...

Hello World!!! Today is the day I make a big change in my life. It is the first step towards the unknown, and I have NO IDEA what it will bring, or what I am getting myself into, but here it goes! Let's dive in feet first!   Today I decided that I want to try to live a zero-waste lifestyle here in Connecticut, or at least get as close as I can towards this feat. What is zero waste? This is living a life free of plastics, or at best anything that needs to be thrown away. Kitchen food will be composted, and we will avoid anything that we would need to trash or recycle to reduce our carbon footprint on this earth.  The words "zero waste" is a term that scares me. It feels like I am limiting my life rather than setting it free, and I will have to make a lot of changes in order for me to see if this is truly beneficial or not. I am hoping that it is! I am a mother of three small kids, as well as a watercolor artist, along with my husband James with me.  It...