The biggest difference for me this Earth Day is a mindset shift. There is so much to be concerned with it can feel overwhelming. I believe we are called to be good stewards of our planet and each day it seems there is something new to take in. Fast-fashion, ocean safe sunscreen, straws, reusable shopping bags, carbon footprints – the list is endless. I don’t want to become numb and unwilling to do anything. I want to fight the thought that creeps in so often which is that, “I can’t do anything so I’ll do nothing. In the spirit of my personal committment to fight that thought process, here are some items that have been useful in our household as of late. “
The key to my success at home is the Yeti Rambler, I like the 30 oz with a lid so that when my children choose to karate chop and kick and random we have less of a chance of my cup getting toppled. It keeps my water cold and the ice frozen and is awesome. Before we were in full social isolation mode, I had also started filling my reusable bottles with water to take them with me to lessen the chance of needing to buy plastic bottles on the go. The real hero in this situation is our new filtering water pitcher. I truly do not like the taste of the water right out of our faucet. Whether it is a placebo or not, this pitcher does something magical and the water that pours out is delicious. We’d had a Brita filter pitcher many years ago and though I’m sure they’ve made improvements since, it was kind of high maintenance – it felt like we were constantly changing a gross filter. This one so far is easy peasy.
A few years ago I quit my make-up wipe habit during Lent. I’d started slipping back into them for the sake of convenience and so this season in addition to working on my water bottle habit, I also readdressed my make up wipes. The make-up erasers that TIBAL recommends are a great way to break from the single-use make-up wipes, though those have those time and place occasionally. The CleverMade basket is a staple in my car for trips to the store (though that looks a little different now) and I was struggling to remember my reusable bags, but this one is so big and sturdy it carries so much, it became essential. And the classic Lorax – Margaret’s class read it (via Zoom) today and it is our favorite for thinking about how we impact our surroundings and how we can take care of where we live.
These last two are becoming regulars in our routine. The Sil Pat baking sheets are a great change from aluminum and wax paper, though I still use both it is just much, much less because of the Silpat liners. Same with the Stasher bags – these are great for snacks on-the-go. For leftovers and meal prepping. And I still use single use Ziplocs too but everytime I use a stasher I don’t use use a throwaway version. That is what I am looking for these days. Small, sustainable changes that snowball into tangible difference making for our household. Whatever step you take know that it matters and if we all take these steps forward together that is progress.
