Once we have familiarized ourselves with the big picture of the climate crisis, it’s time to transition to the four walls of our home. I am super excited to invite you into my home and share my experience of working to be gentler on the planet and myself. This is a continual and never-ending journey, so we are learning together. The practices I have been implementing in my home have been a private and solitary act until now. I was called to write this book because I wanted to share these quiet acts that brought joy and a sense of connection to the wider issues. Over time, I have been learning and gathering tips and practices from books, blogs, videos, and social media. No matter what we do for a living or for fun, each of us spends a significant amount of time in our home. It is liberating when this important space begins to reflect and represent our values—what we truly believe.
Let’s start by walking around and looking at the various spaces in our homes. Taking on your entire home all at once can be overwhelming and lead to feeling out of control, a feeling I hope this book changes for the better. My advice would be to tackle one area of your home or one issue first. In my journey, I started by looking at packaging within my kitchen as I became increasingly aware of the damaging effects single-use plastics have on ocean health. Once I began making small changes in my kitchen and seeing the positive impact on my trash can and mood, I was hooked on researching and using my creativity to find more positive habits I could adopt. This excitement led me to look at single-use packaging in my bathroom and then in my house as a whole. My latest fascination is compost and soil health. For you it could be something entirely different, such as the fibers in your clothing and where and how it was produced.
The most helpful tool for me was an inventory table. I started by writing down five to ten items in a given area of my home then evaluating them based on their materials, functionality, and environmental impact. This helped me to figure out which of my habits I wanted to evolve and how to implement those changes.
I want to stress that this journey is not about getting rid of everything and starting again in order to adopt a perfect “sustainable lifestyle.” Instead I want to encourage you to be creative with what you already have and to find methods and tools to get the most out of what you have, buy, make, and do. There is no right or wrong, only suggestions, facts, and options to be inspired by. Throughout this book, we will not only shift habits to reduce our carbon footprint but also form habits to maximize our use of resources.
Since I started with my kitchen, let’s begin there.
THE KITCHEN
The kitchen is the brain of the house: lots of decisions are made here, and it’s where we find our nourishment. But sadly, a lot can be thrown away here, too. However, once I started thinking critically about what food I buy and how I buy it, I soon discovered that many positive changes can be made here, too. Today I am getting the most out of the food I buy, buying food that supports farmers and the land, composting my food waste, storing and keeping my food in clever ways, and much more.
We are all creatures of habit. There will be some items you are attached to buying, but there is also opportunity to find alternatives, discover new things to become attached to, use what you already have, and sometimes compromise. I invite you to get out a notepad, a scrap piece of paper, or a note-taking app to make notes as you take inventory of your kitchen and begin to get to know your space, habits, and potential for solution-driven change.
BUYING HABITS: HOW YOU SHOP FOR FOOD
I started by identifying which food and kitchen items I frequently bought. A shocking 80 billion pounds of food are thrown away each year in the United States, more than any other country in the world, according to the EPA. The USDA estimates that 30 to 40 percent of the food in the food supply chain gets thrown away. That is an awful lot of sun, water, energy, labor, transport emissions, and nutrients wasted. Why does this happen? It’s a combination of the rigid food supply chain, overbuying by grocery stores and consumers, people not storing food correctly, and the repercussions of this waste (from wasted finances to the methane emitted by landfills).
When identifying my food-buying habits, these were the questions I asked myself. Here is the first inventory table I ever did:
BUYING HABITS INVENTORY TABLE
