This is Optimal Living Daily episode 2201, 6 Ways to Use Minimalism to Support a Zero Waste Lifestyle by Jenny Lee of HelloBrio.com and I'm Dustin Malik. I'm featuring a brand new author today. I'll share some info about Jenny right after the post, so for now let's get right to it and start optimizing your life. 6 Ways to Use Minimalism to Support a Zero Waste Lifestyle by Jenny Lee of HelloBrio.com How does minimalism and zero waste go together?
The beautiful thing about minimalism is that it naturally supports being zero waste or near-o-waste as I like to call it, near-zero waste. Many people who are interested in minimalism are also interested in sustainability since they often go hand in hand. If you buy less, you're demanding less of the economy which will create less demand. Sure it'll take a lot of consumers to cut back on the products they buy in order to make a difference in the supply chain, but every little bit helps.
Reduce, reuse, recycle is in that order for a reason. Reduce the amount of stuff you have and use, reuse things where you can. Recycle is last because even though it's a solution, it's not a perfect one. Recycling requires a lot of energy, creates a lot of waste, costs a lot, and recycled materials become downgraded with every cycle.
Here are 6 ways you can change your consumption habits in order to be more minimal and therefore zero waste and sustainable. 1. Unsubscribe It's kinda crazy what a little unsubscribing can do. I somewhat recently found out about an app that allows you to request to be unsubscribed from various sources of junk mail.
Just snap a picture of the offensive mail and type in your mailing address and the app will do the legwork for you. Junk mail be gone. The other thing that can inadvertently help you to reduce waste? Unsubscribing from marketing email newsletters.
Guess what? This will also help you spend less money and make your bank account happier. The less you buy online, the less waste you will create. You'll reduce the plastic packaging, paper receipts, and the gas and energy of transportation it takes for your item to arrive on your doorstep.
I'm personally still working on this one. Amazon makes it too easy for a busy mom. It turns out that when you still need something like a pair of workout pants, that you'll be prompted to buy them because of the need. You'll be able to go to your favorite store, find a coupon online, and buy them intentionally.
This is a vastly more intentional approach than responding to a marketing email prompting you to buy something you may not need. Number 2. Hang in there with your old items. Your old items still work.
Hang on to them. For example, let's talk towels. Collectively we have maybe 5 adult bath towels. The boys hooded baby towels don't count.
These towels are old. They're fraying at the ends now. The white ones aren't so white anymore. They're not fluffy and some of them are downright ugly.
Would I love Luxe hotel quality towels at home? Yes of course. I've been tempted so many times to just buy new towels, especially almost every time we go to Target. They're so affordable, and they're so white and fluffy and soft.
But do we need new towels? No. Our towels still dry us. They are clean and free of mildew.
It's not like we're hosting extravagant house guests anytime soon. Number 3. Repair and clean. By repairing and cleaning your items, especially your clothing, you can make them last a lot longer.
If you take really good care of your stuff, you'll end up buying less. Example, boot resole. I bought some beautiful leather boots in 2013 when I originally wrote this post in 2018. I felt like it was almost impossible those were still alive, especially being a woman with lots of new style options every season.
Okay, part of the reason I haven't replaced my boots yet is because I legitimately can't pull off short boots aka booties. Believe me, I've tried. Part of the reason why these boots are still around is because I took them to a cobbler and spent $30 on a pair of $100 plus leather boots to get them resold. That and I conditioned them with olive oil every once in a while.
Since 2018, I invested in a new pair of boots that have lasted me a couple of years already. I bought a pair of Timberlin leather boots. They're dressy or not work boots. And they're super high quality.
I suspect I'll get several years out of them. Cleaning. A little Dawn goes a long way. Yeah, so even though Dawn has a little duckling on its packaging, it's far from natural.
That is a chemical and cuts through oil in order to save those cute little wildlife guys. But Dawn is a lifesaver when it comes to getting tough things out of clothes. Greasy ones, blood-related ones, who knows what my kid was eating or doing ones. Just spot treat your item with a little water, a tiny dab of Dawn, and scrub the fabric onto itself.
Rinse it a little and then throw it into your next load of laundry. If the stain doesn't come out the first time, usually due to a grease stain, do the same thing, but then also let it dry with some corn starch before throwing it into the wash again. That should do the trick. Number four, repurpose instead of trash.
You know how I won't stop talking about our reusable tissues and napkins, how we bought the first batch from Marley's Monsters, and then how we repurposed Bean's flannel receiving blankets and had them professionally cut up and surge via Etsy? Yeah, repurposing those cute little blankets still makes me smile every time I blow my nose. You know those dingy old towels I mentioned before? In the name of Nero Waste, we will continue to run our less than perfect bath towels into the ground.
Then we will cut them up, serge the edges, and use them as rags. Repurposing will keep unpresentable items out of rotation and will also keep those items from going into a landfill. Repurpose what you can. Number five, buy parts.
So I love my French press, but one day I got a little overzealous with cleaning the carafe. That one fateful day, the bubbling soap caused me to drop it, and the glass shattered when I hit the floor. Sad face. Instead of buying a whole new French press, I found a replacement glass graph on Amazon for about half the price of a new French press.
Frugal? Check. Nero Waste? Check.
Win-win-win. Next time you need to throw something out because it's broken beyond repair, can you instead find replacement parts to fix it? Google's a monster of a machine. Just look up your product replacement parts and I'm sure you'll find something.
Number six, buy less and higher quality. When you need a new pair of jeans, do you want to run to Target to get your fix for $20? Or do you do your due diligence and shop around until you find the perfect pair of jeans? Okay, just kidding.
Shopping for jeans sucks. I could have come up with a better example, but you see where I'm going here. Chances are, the pair of jeans that will fit you well and that will last after several wash cycles aren't going to cost $20. If you splurge on a pair of $100 plus jeans, the quality will be there.
You won't be as tempted to shop for more jeans because you know you have this awesome pair of jeans that fit you just the right way and go with everything in your closet. Your jeans will last you longer because they're higher quality. And if for whatever reason you find yourself done with your pair of expensive jeans before the end of their life cycle, the resale value will be higher. You can use that money to buy your next pair of perfect jeans.
Feel me? For example, Stitch Fix sent me a pair of cut from the cloth black jeans years ago and to this day, they're still the only pair of jeans in my closet. So buy less. Buy only what you need.
Take away temptation. Run your possessions into the ground. Repair and clean them to your best ability. Buy higher quality classic style clothes you love that will last you a long time.
You just listened to the post titled, 6 Ways to Use Minimalism to Support a Zero Waste Lifestyle by Jenny Lee of HelloBrio.com Thank you to Jenny Lee. I had to look up what Brio meant as in HelloBrio, her website. And it's Vivacity or Vigor, if you didn't know, and spelled B-R-I-O. She created the site in 2013 as a place for her to rediscover her soul and find her true self after a personal life-altering event and after moving cross-country with only 10 boxes to her name.
She's now a Minimalism coach. You can set up time to chat with her on her site. You can also grab a copy of her Minimalism Map for free. That's a 20-page workbook to help you uncover every corner of potential in your life.
Again, that's all available at HelloBrio.com. And last, she has a YouTube channel covering Minimalism and Digital Simplicity. I have that linked in this episode's description. So do stop by.
Have a great rest of your Minimalist Monday and start your holiday week. And I'll see you tomorrow where your optimal life awaits Thank you.