10 Simple Ways to Cut Waste

Reducing waste doesn't have to mean completely revolutionizing your lifestyle. Here are 10 simple ways to cut waste:


1. Use re-usable shopping bags. If you drive to the store, keep them in your trunk so you don't forget them.


2. If you live in a city that composts, do it! All paper products, food scraps, anything that was once alive can go in there. You don't need a fancy compost bin, just put the compost in a used paper bag and toss the whole thing in your city's green compost bins. (If your city doesn't compost, you can start your own, but I don't think that qualifies for my "simple" list.)


3. Go fresh! Fresh veggies and meat will always come with less (or no) packaging. Buy meat from your grocery's butcher instead of those horrible styrofoam and plastic containers. The butcher will likely wrap your meat in paper (compostable!). Put your apples, potatoes, broccoli, etc. all directly in your shopping cart instead of in a plastic bag and then in your shopping cart.


4. Eat delicious dairy. Organic milk, such as Strauss, is often sold in re-usable glass bottles. Yes it's more expensive, but it's better for you, better for the cows and better for the earth. Same goes for cheese. Buying cheese at a specialty shop will offer amazing flavors and much less packaging.


5. Shop the bulk aisle. Bring containers such as Tupperware or jars from home. Put the empty container on the scale at the store to get the tare weight of the empty container. Then fill it with flour, sugar, beans, granola, pasta, chocolate covered raisins, anything! Just tell the cashier what the tare weight of your container is and they'll subtract it from the price.


6. Carry around a re-usable water bottle or travel mug. You'll get a discount at most coffee shops for bringing in your own cup! 


7. Forget paper towels. Yes they're handy, but a sponge or cloth could do the same thing. We keep a "food sponge" a "counter sponge" and a "floor sponge" because my husband is a sponge Nazi. You can also re-purpose worn out clothes for cleaning cloths and rags on that note.


8. Shop second hand, vintage and consignment stores for almost anything!


9. Plan for meals at home to avoid takeout waste. Consider cooking an art form, not a chore! 


10. Cut down on impulse purchases. Go for quality and only buy things you absolutely love. Don't be tempted by sales if the items are just OK. A mediocre top on sale for $5 isn't going to look any better on because of the price! Chances are you'll buy it for the sale and it'll just sit in the back of the closet. 

What I Learned from Steve Jobs

I just finished the Steve Jobs biography (on my iPhone, appropriately). What a fascinating man. And honestly? A real jerk. But there's a lot I took away from reading the biography. Jobs built a company of A-players. Purity was everything to him. One B-player at Apple was enough to bring down all nearby A-players. This was true of both employees and products. Jobs was committed to just a handful of perfect products, rather than a slew of mediocre offerings (cough... Microsoft....cough). Jobs understood purity in function and design could only be achieved by focusing all his A-players' attention on only his A-products.


I found myself thinking of Jobs yesterday as I was purchasing cheese at Cowgirl Creamery. Yes, the cheese is going to be more expensive than your typical block of packaged cheddar from Safeway. But one delicious bite of Cowgirl cheese, and suddenly you understand product purity as much as Jobs did. I didn't need to buy a huge bag of shredded cheese for the baked mac n cheese I had planned for dinner. Instead, a smaller chunk of heavenly Cowgirl cheese would provide a better flavor, because it's perfection in a product.


I also followed Jobs' philosophy throughout the rest of the house. Jobs was a huge proponent of beauty in design working seamlessly with function. I thought of this as I went through my closet and stripped out all my B-player items. What remained was a small set (2 drawers and 15 hangers) of an A-player wardrobe only. Not only did this simplify my routine each morning, I also feel great in every outfit I put together, without being mired down in abundant but mediocre options. My empty closet is also much more navigable as well!


Same goes for decorations, wall hangings, curtains, tchotchkes, bathroom products, and stuff lingering in the back of kitchen cabinets. If it's not perfect, out the door it went (to a thrift shop of course).


Steve Jobs taught me that life is too short for B-players, be it cheese, an old sweater, or a weird statue of a man I had on a shelf because I didn't know what the heck else to do with it. By paring down my life to A-player items only, not only am I appreciating the purity of the products I am keeping, I'm also simplifying my life and clearly defining my priorities. Jobs never settled for anything less than exactly the life and products and company he wanted to build. So why should we?