Project Less Waste: Updates & Eliminating Kitchen Disposables

A LITTLE SNOW….A LITTLE RE-PURPOSING…A LOT OF FUN

Well it’s been almost two full weeks since starting Project Less Waste and the gears are turning at full speed. We had our first snow of the season this past weekend, which gave me the chance to put my repurposing skills to use. While I had lots of warm layers for teenie, I didn’t have any snow boots. No problem! Put a couple of sandwich bags over top of fuzzy boots, secured with rubber bands and voila…snow boots! Also, who needs a sled when you have an old dog food bag and some string pulled from an Apple store bag?

Blurring the lines between creative and crazy, maybe? Come to find out my parents used an old paint tray to pull me around in the snow when I was little, so I guess jimmy-rigging is in my DNA. Sidebar: I remember when I was a kid I wanted a roller coaster in my backyard, you know, like Richie Rich. So I tied several of my dad’s ski ropes to trees in the backyard, essentially building a rope jungle gym (NOT a roller coaster but in my mind it totally equated to one). It even had a trapeze/swing/moving monkey bar (made from a ski handle). Now I have no photos to document this feat of engineering and it quite possibly looked like a ski rope tied to two trees with a ski handle dangling from the middle, but in my mind it totally kicked butt.

While the sleigh didn’t get a true test run with a child (teenie was not a huge fan of the snow therefore would not hold on for a sleigh ride) I can say that it did hold up to being pulled around a couple of laps with a 20 pound weight on it. Stay tuned for further field testing.

SHOPPING MY CLOSET

Last week I started taking pics of what I’m wearing to document the mixing and the matching. Even though I sometimes feel a little silly when taking pictures of myself in front of the mirror, I think it will be fun to look back at everything I wore over the year and how many outfit combinations I was able to come up with from stuff that is just in my closet. This week there are only five because for two out of the last seven days the only reason I left the house was to play in the snow, which means I was pretty much bumming it those days.

I definitely wore the heck out of some leggings this week! Notice the transition from sweaters and wool to short sleeves. That’s because it was practically spring here yesterday folks! So nothing fancy – just a tee and some Vans…because that’s all we needed to play outside. 🙂

ELIMINATING KITCHEN DISPOSABLES

One of the first things I did in my house to reduce waste was start removing disposables from my kitchen such as paper towels, foil, saran wrap and zip-up storage bags. So far it has been an easy transition. This is where I am so far…

Paper Towels/Napkins:
As much as I hate to admit it, there came a time during the low point where we used paper towels for almost everything, but not anymore! I put a basket out with former burp clothes to be used as paper towel substitutes: we now use them as napkins and to wipe down countertops. There are kitchen towels to dry dishes and wet hands, a basket of wash cloths in close distance to the kitchen to wipe down the little food gremlin after meals and cloth napkins for when we have company over. Old rags have also been set aside for more involved cleaning. Goodbye paper towels!

Foil & Saran Wrap:
We primarily used foil before to line baking sheets or to wrap up foods and occasionally saran wrap cover containers that didn’t have a lid. The solution to both of these lies with glass baking dishes and lidded glass food containers. For cooked food you need to later transport, or even just to make storage easier, using baking dishes with their own lids eliminates the need for foil.

Plastic sandwich/freezer bags:
We used to have this huge stack of sandwich bags that came from a huge box of random stuff that was given to my in-laws. Having this stack of bags and feeling like I “needed to use them,” I got into the habit of using them to store cut up fruits & vegetables. Of course, eventually they would get thrown out. The bags have since been removed from the kitchen and again, I use glass storage containers in their place. Even the thing they were originally intended for can easily fit into the smaller 3-cup rectangular size. But sometimes a bag just fits better in a lunch box or purse than a hard container. For that, there are reusable sandwich and snack bags! As far as freezer bags go, I mostly used them to store extra meats when buying in bulk or veggie purees that I made ahead for snack pouches. While I don’t prep and freeze as much as I used to, I know I’ll need to utilize alternative options for meats or stews that I don’t expect to eat before they might expire. Pyrex containers and mason jars should work just fine to serve this purpose. Stay tuned for updates.

There are a lot of things that fall under the category of kitchen disposables; coffee filters, paper plates, plastic utensils, straws, skewers, single use chopsticks, lunch bags, sponges, cleaning wipes and so forth. The only thing from this list that I’m still actively using in my kitchen are sponges. I’m currently looking at alternative options. Obviously, there is also kitchen waste that comes as the result of the foods and drinks we buy but thats another topic in and of itself.

Are there any disposable, one-time use products that you have eliminated from your own kitchen?

xo, Erica