New Habits Need To Start Now!

Being out in the country now, there is no garbage pick up. We didn’t expect there to be, but it’s still something to get used to. We have recycling, but we have to take it to the landfill ourselves. Not a big deal, just one more thing to get used to.

However, garbage is expensive. We have to buy a garbage tag for $1.00 per bag, I think it is, then it’s $3.00 per bag to take it to the dump. That’s a lot of money for a family of four.

So, what does that mean? It means that we have to recycle and compost a lot more than what we have been. We’ve always been good at recycling, but all of our food waste has always just been put in the garbage. We just can’t do that anymore.

So, what new habits are we learning?

Well, hubby just dug out the existing composters. They were set back behind the driveshed and completely overgrown with weeds. They are now accessible and being used. I call them Helga. 😉

Pretty much everyone on this road burns a lot of their garbage. So, we started doing that as well. Well, guess what? It stinks. Bad. We don’t like it at all. All we’ve done is burn some cardboard and paper, but the stench is just too much. And it’s dirty and honestly a fire hazard. I don’t know if you’ve ever burned cardboard outside, but pieces of it fly away. So, with things being dry, that’s dangerous. We decided this morning that we’re not going to be doing that anymore.

We’re going to buy a water dispenser for the kitchen. We’ve always bought water bottles, but we go through so many, it’s not only expensive, it’s bad for the environment too. In a one week period, we went through 2 cases of water bottles. That’s $10.00, and 24 plastic bottles that we’ve used. That’s just not acceptable.

The kids lunches are another place where we need to rethink things. For instance, my daughter has been taking little packaged carrot cakes in her lunch. One box of them cost me $4.00, produced one box that needs to be recycled and 12 plastic wrappers. I can bake a lot more carrot cake for less than $4.00, put one in a reusable plastic container in her lunch. That cuts down on costs and on waste. Everyone, including this beautiful planet we call Earth, wins.

It’s going to take a lot of getting used to. I’m going to have to re-tool my thinking a lot. I’m also going to have to learn to really organize my time better to make sure I get the baking along with everything else done in good time.

We can do it though. It’s all part of learning to live a simpler life, right?