Skip to main content

First Step!

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 won't just be myself that decides to go zero waste, it will be my whole family! James will also be a blogger on this website, so he can give a man's perspective on the change that's happening. He may even offer some financial perspective on our savings, if any (He is a CPA). 

I have so many questions...How is this even possible, with all the world's conveniences? Does this mean no more Amazon prime shipping? Does this mean no more blueberries in winter? What about receipts? This is a fearful step, but at the same time there is something inside me that says this is important, and it is possible to accomplish. And so this blog is born!!

I would like to take these small steps with all of you, so I won't be alone in this world. I'd like to incorporate one zero waste change in our family's life each month, at least. We will record how we did it, and how we liked the change (or disliked it!). The change needs to be gradual, so I don't feel so overwhelmed with it all, but hopefully you as a reader can relate to these changes, and perhaps try to incorporate it into your own life.

I believe this can be possible as a family, albeit a little complicated, but possible. I'd like to go from a normal consumer to a conscious one, and turn away from things that are told to me to be necessary to living more self sufficiently and sustainably. 

So cheers to you, and to us, and to us all on this planet, towards a zero waste lifestyle! 

<3,
Laura D'Onofrio

Comments

  1. Truth B. ToldSeptember 16, 2017 at 10:01 PM

    One suggestion that tremendously helped manage my kids while checking out in the grocery line was to pick a designated spot for the kids to go to...like a bench, or stand near a bulletin board...that is out of the way, but within view. Let the know you will come get them as soon as you are done bagging your groceries. This helps relieve some of their anxiety because they know what to expect. It also helps them realize that mom needs a few minutes to take care of business and will give them attention again after she's done. It took a few visits to the store for my kids to realize that I wasn't going to ignore them forever, and I wasn't going to forget about them. But ever since, it has worked like a charm!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Zero-Waste Christmas!

Hi Friends! I hope you all had a fantastic holiday this year! I wanted to write about what I have been trying to do/discover this Christmas season to make my life a little more zero-waste. I'm grateful for the friends who have chatted with me and helped me on my journey. Together we can all be a little less wasteful, and a little more loving to our earth.  LET'S TALK ABOUT WRAPPING GIFTS! This year I had decided to try to use my Christmas gift wrap so that I can transition next year into more zero-waste options. One of my friends had been reading my blog, and contacted me about what she decided to do for gift wrapping. I'm so grateful she paved the way for me (and all of us!) to part from paper gift-wrapping traditions. She decided to go to her local fabric store right after Christmas, and pick out all the Christmas fabric deals. She brought them home, and made her own Christmas gift wrap bags, and then wrote about it! The gift receiver can use them for their own g...
Post a Comment
Read more

My Zero-Waste Food Tips

It's true. Zero-Waste has completely transformed the way I look at and purchase food. Gone are the days when I could just pick up a bag of Celery from the local grocery store. I now have to make sure what I purchase is bagless, and hopefully tagless, sticker-less or rubber-band-less: which is VERY difficult, if not sometimes impossible to get during the Connecticut winters. I can't wait for summer, when farmer's markets are plentiful and happy to give me my celery naked!  I would like to just share with you a few food tips that I have found has helped me on my Zero-waste grocery shopping. Ready to dive right in?   HUMMUS: In a jar? Did you know you could make hummus? But even more important, did you know you could make, and freeze hummus? YES! I am not really excited about cooking every single day, and I don't have a lot of time, as I am sure you don't either. What I do is I bring my cloth bag with me to my local Whole Foods and fill it up with Gar...
Post a Comment
Read more

Zero-Waste Entertaining!

This past weekend was an exciting one for our family. My 8 year old daughter tested for her black belt, and my baby turned two! We wanted to celebrate it all with friends and family in one fun-filled weekend!  I want to let you know that I was THIS! CLOSE! to throwing in the towel and going to Costco. I mean, do you know how hard it is to resist Costco, pick up some Hummus, some Juice, some prepared meals in their plastic containers so I don't have to make everything from scratch? I was so close, I sat in the parking lot and wrestled with myself, struggling between convenience and my caring so much about the environment. It was a difficult moment, but I negotiated a way that I could entertain a group of people without waste on my part. Please note, on MY part, because I couldn't really help others bringing in waste, and I am also not the kind of person that gets on a high horse and tells others how to live their lives. When we took out the trash, I was a little sad abo...
Post a Comment
Read more