Over the past few years, I’ve seemed to think about my New Years Resolutions around October time.  I’m not sure why, however, I feel it has something to do with coming off the back of summers filled with wakeboarding, surfing and other outdoor activities and being inside more.  I get restless and need movement and change.

I tend to go through my entire house and see what I can get rid of (either sell, recycle or donate to give it a second life).  I try to change a few things in each room with some basic Feng Shui methods.  I look at what my family and I are eating and how it can be improved.  I look at my body/activity and see what can be tweaked there.  So I put my loose resolutions into place well before the New Year.  I didn’t start this on purpose but it seems to have stuck, and it means that the resolutions have stuck as they are in place well before Christmas each year.

Last year I was focussed on cutting down on our waste in general, which also included cutting down on plastic, especially single use plastic, and also buying less, mainly clothes/toys/and just stuff.

So things we have been doing for the past year (or longer) to cut down on waste:

1. Swapped liquid soap out for bars of soap
2. Bought washing powder in a box rather than liquid in a plastic bottle
3. Switched our coffee machine that took plastic non-recylable pods to one that takes ground coffee
4. Became religious in taking water bottles EVERYWHERE for the whole family
5. Same with a travel coffee mug (I even take this abroad for my coffee shop stops)
6. Obviously buying loose fruit and veg where I can
7. Reusing carrier bags.. thats a given.
8. Food waste goes in the garden bin.
9. No more plastic straws, we have paper and metal straws now.
10. Buying items in glass instead of plastic where possible.
11. Buying less stuff, and thinking is it needed, before buying.  Also buying better quality items that will last longer than most of the fast fashion garments.
12. Looking at the packaging properly to see if its recyclable or not.  I used to be pretty happy with our one black bin bag week and a few recycling sacks, but now I’m paying 100% attention as to what can actually go in them, the ratio has sadly swung the other way which has been a wake up call to how much we are throwing away.

So thats all been going on in 2018.  And I feel I wanted to add to it coming into 2019:

1. I have started the daunting task of looking at the packaging of what I’m buying in supermarkets to see if I can recycle it.
2. I am also testing out different supermarkets for prices and recyclable packaging.  This is a painful process and will probably take me all year to come up with an effective and efficient weekly food shopping system (I do not like the weekly food shop or cooking for a family of four e-v-e-r-y-day, if I could have one thing in life it would be a chef).
3. As well as making more of an effort to source local foods
4. I’m whittling down the bottled shampoo and conditioners with the aim to replace them with bars.  (This is a goal, I will have to report back on what I test out).
5. Paper straws.  We have them (bought a big pack for a party) and we use them, but every time they still get thrown away… Once they are done, I’ll be sticking to the metal straw.
6. Just generally being more conscious on what we throw away as a family and always thinking about how to reduce/avoid it.

Other tweaks:

1. Diet: I feel my diet is pretty varied but I’m always looking for improvements.  So less processed and more food that had a life.  I have days where I eat meat, and also veggie days.  I like vegan meals and am looking more and more at them, especially to get more veggies into the kids, but I’m not sure I can see myself saying no to full fat cows milk and also my body weight in cheese.  I love cheese.  Fact.
2. Blog more 🙂 I always say this!
3. I bought an alarm clock back in November/December, its amazing, I love it.  I leave my phone downstairs at nighttime now so no playing on my phone in bed.

Any more tips?  I am always excited to hear what people do to cut down their waste!  I’d love to hear all about your hacks! xx