Reduce, reuse, recycle; that’s it, right? Not quite… There are so many other “R’s” that are helpful when considering ways to increase your sustainability efforts. The R’s below are all words that begin with the same prefix as “reduce, reuse, recycle.” Re- is really what the zero waste / low waste / sustainability movement is all about. We help ourselves and the planet when we can create a closed loop cycle versus a one shot direction to a landfill. “Re” literally means “again” or “backwards.” The ideas below are meant to help you use something again, or back up and rethink.
Another benefit to being more mindful and trying to put these “R’s” into practice is the ability to save money. Often times putting in a little effort and finding a way to make do with what you have saves you some cash. Saving cash is always nice, but feels especially great when you’re trying to pay off debt. Using these strategies benefits us twofold; they help me meet some of my 20 in 2020 goals, and they help us save money that we use towards paying off our debts.
Repair
Pause for just a second before you toss that pair of jeans that have a hole in the knee, or you throw away your kindle cover because it’s fraying. Can you fix it? Can someone you know fix it in exchange for help or baked goods? Recently my kindle cover has been fraying and crumbling at the spine. I almost took it off, threw it away, and ordered a new one from Amazon. Instead of taking the one click route, I found some Duck Tape we had around the house and patched it up myself. It’s good as new and has a boost of personality that it didn’t have before.
Repurpose
We repurpose a lot of household items as learning materials for LJ. Below I used an empty peanut butter jar to make him a button drop work. LJ loves to pull tissues or wipes out of a box, so I put silk scarfs in an empty tissue box for him to pull out as many times as he wants. We also up-cycled a few baby food jars as crayon sorters. If you don’t have small children, maybe you could repurpose these types of items to hold craft supplies/body scrubs/jewelry/etc.
Regift/Rehome
Regifting doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Gifts aren’t required to be brand new, from a store, with a gift receipt. I love when a friend passes on a book someone else gave them, or when I can pass on a pair of shoes that don’t fit to someone who will get more use out of them. Sometimes I notice I have things lying around that I just don’t use; maybe I don’t need or want it, or it’s not my style. These are perfect things to find a new home for. The whole purpose of any of these efforts is to extend the life of the things we use and minimize the amount of stuff we send to a landfill.
Revive
Oh man, how easy it can be to decide I want something, find it online, and click buy. Recently we’ve been struggling with the amount of paper/mail in our office. We both have paper items that can’t quite be electronic, and we also need somewhere organized to stash in progress mail. Our family has a small filing cabinet that will fit I out office- but it doesn’t match the decor and I don’t love it. I could definitely just get over that and use it anyway, but I know I’ll love it more with a fresh coat of paint. A few cans of paint are definitely more affordable than a whole new storage system, and we get to use something we already have.
Refocus
I’ve noticed that every so often I start to get a little side tracked. All of a sudden I notice myself falling back into easy, somewhat lazy mindless consumption. Sometimes it’s because I’m just not paying attention, or I’m really focused on something else, or I get stressed out and falling back on old habits is comforting. This is where refocusing comes in. Usually all it takes is a good heart to heart with Travis, a podcast, or rereading a favorite book (We’re in the middle of Meet the Frugalwoods right now) to get me back on track and remind me why it’s important to live our values.
Refuse
The easiest best thing to do is to refuse something outright. If you are capable of doing without, that will save you time and money in the long run. The less you acquire, the less you have to clean/maintain/repair/etc. I would say this is easy, and maybe for some people it is, but as is evident from the paragraph above, refusing something from the get-go isn’t always my strong suit. I do believe this is a skill that can be improved upon with practice though!
Happy Earth Day! Thanks for reading!
Leave a Reply