The Family's Guide to a Less Waste Lifestyle

Send us a text

Ever felt weighed down by the thought of going zero waste with a house full of kids? I'm Sheila, your eco-ally and guide through the maze of sustainable living, and I promise that integrating eco-friendly habits into your hectic family life is not only possible—it can be a fun adventure for everyone involved! On today's episode, I'm drawing from my own trials and triumphs as a mom and entrepreneur to offer you simple, impactful strategies for reducing waste that won't leave you in a panic. 

Join me as we explore the art of starting small with changes like swapping to stainless steel straws and cloth napkins, and gradually building up to bigger shifts like meal planning and batch cooking to cut down on waste. I'm sharing insider tips from my own journey, like bringing your own containers for restaurant leftovers and choosing glass over plastic at the supermarket. This heart-to-heart is brimming with encouragement and practical advice, perfect for anyone looking to tread more lightly on the planet while embracing the beautiful imperfections of family life. Let's create a ripple effect of positive change together, one stainless steel water bottle at a time!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everybody and welcome to Zero Waste
Imperfectly, the show that talksabout all things zero waste
with kids.
I'm your host, sheila.
I'm the owner of LifeEssentials Refillery and the
mother of three girls, and so Ihad someone ask me how do you
fit a less waste lifestyle intowhat is already a very full life
?
And it's a question a lot ofpeople have, and they often

(00:21):
wonder like it must beimpossible to do this.
But the reality is is that itshouldn't be much more work?
It is what you put into it.
So the biggest thing is don'tplunge feed first in and say I
am going to switch everything inmy life over to be plastic-free
.
I'm going to cook everything,I'm going to grow my vegetables.
I'm never going to haveanything plastic in my life

(00:42):
again.
It's too much.
You will feel overwhelmed, youwill burn out and it's way too
much.
So start small.
Do little things Like say youknow what, instead of buying
plastic straws, we're gettingstainless steel straws for the
family.
Or instead of using papernapkins, we're going to buy
cloth napkins.
Sure, you have to wash them,but you're already doing laundry

(01:02):
, so you just toss them in withit.
Start small.
Maybe buy a bidet and reduceyour paper consumption.
There's so many little thingsthat you can do that are not
going to make you feeloverwhelmed.
And then, little by little, asfamily has adapted the changes,
you add on more and you involveyour family, have them give
their input, because it goes somuch more smoothly when you have
buy-in from everyone that'sinvolved, if you have.

(01:24):
For us, laundry detergent was abig thing.
Our family did not want to dolaundry as much if it was going
to be a liquid or a powder, sowe used drops, because that is
what works for our family.
And, yes, we are still usingthe film on the tabs, but it
encourages people to do laundry,because if they had to do the
liquid, they would not.
So it's baby steps and youcan't be hard on yourself.

(01:51):
If you make a change or it'snot perfect, it's okay.
It's about taking a stepforward and if you're listening
to this podcast, you're alreadytaking steps forward.
So kudos to you and just keepmoving forward.
So another thing you can doaside from doing small things
one at a time ahead.
So less waste does require someplanning if you want to have a
bigger impact.
So meal planning is a big thingbatch cooking, reusable

(02:12):
essentials.
So instead of getting a waterbottle and throwing it away
every time, a plastic one you dohave to wash the water bottle
and make sure there's no funkgrowing in it, and chase after
kids to clean their water bottleon a regular basis.
So things like that.
They may take some effort, butthey're going to become so
habitual to you that after doingit for a few weeks you won't
even realize it anymore.
And buying plastic waterbottles takes effort too.

(02:34):
You have to go to the store,you have to lug them around so
it's not always perfect eitherand your water gets warm in the
car.
With a stainless steel bottle,you don't have that problem.
So plan ahead.
Meal planning that's a big one.
So if you have the time, youhave the patience, try that.
And if you're not a mealplanner and you're eating out
person all the time, instead oftaking the plastic throwaway
containers from the store foryour leftovers, bring your

(02:57):
container with you.
You can keep a stash of them inthe trunk and then, whenever
you go out to dinner, just bringit inside and put your
leftovers in there.
So that's another small thingyou can do.
And just in general, just lookfor eco-conscious, eco-friendly
options that you can substitutefor what you already have in
your house.
So let's say you're going to thegrocery store and you see one
item that you want.
They have a glass container ora plastic container.
Let's say you're buying spices.

(03:18):
Just opt for the glasscontainer.
It's so much better.
And even if you don't have arefillery in your area, you can
probably find another purposefor the glass container and you
didn't buy plastic.
So easy things.
So just try small, small steps.
Just reduce your waste and bemindful about what you're doing
and involve the family.
If it's fun, you're going toget so much more buy-in.

(03:39):
If it's a chore, no one's goingto do it.
So start small.
Find people that arelike-minded.
It makes it a lot easier.
It makes it more fun.
But yes, I know our lives arefull, but this is a small thing
that we can implement.
That will eventually seamlesslyintegrate into everything that
you are doing and you won't evenrealize you're doing it anymore
.
So when customers come in andsay, what are you doing?

(04:00):
That zero waste, I mean ittakes me a minute to think about
it because we've been doing itso long though we are definitely
not perfect but the smallthings that we have done we
don't even recognize anymorebecause we've been doing them so
long.
So I would love to hear fromyou what have you done in your
family to embrace a less wastelifestyle?
Was it hard?
Was it easy?
Did you get buy-in?
Is it half-half?

(04:21):
I'd love to hear from