Reduce, Reuse, Reuse, Reuse, Upcycle, and Sometimes Recycle

Reduce, REUSE, REUSE, REUSE, Upcycle, and Sometimes Recycle

For the past few months, my husband and I have been trying to reduce the amount of consuming we seem to do. While I feel responsible for the new material things I bring into the house, this habit is a huge part of our culture and it seems strange to not want. I have to be honest, I've been very challenged with this seemingly simple task. You might be saying, 'It's easy! Just don't buy anything new!'. But it's not quite as simple as that. 

CSA's and Buying Locally

Start a Revolution: Why Joining a CSA and Only Buying Local Meat and Produce is Integral in Saving American Farms and Communities

What's a CSA, you ask? The basic definition is this: a community of supporters who purchase "shares" in a local farm that then grows food specifically for those "shareholders". When you join a CSA you're doing three VERY important things:

1) Allowing the local farmer to continue growing food for members of the community.
2) Cutting out the middleman grocery chain by getting your food directly from the source.
3) Benefiting from natural, healthy, usually organic, produce and other items that don't contain harmful preservatives and other chemicals. 

Need more reasons to consider joining a CSA? Here's the more detailed rundown:

Bottled Water: Just Say "NO!!!"

Bottled Water: The good, the bad... oh wait... there is no "good" (unless maybe in a disaster relief situations)

Wow.. I just got done watching a clever documentary about bottled water and the companies that package and sell bottled water called "Tapped" (a link can be found under the "resources" and "recommended" links on my homepage). I mean, I knew bottled water was terrible for the environment. But honestly, the only thing I really knew was that the plastic container sat in landfills for something like a thousand years. There was so much I had to learn.