Happy New Year, everyone!
Hope you all had a relaxing holiday and are ready to get back into a whole new world of content.
I thought I’d start the year off as I’ve been doing for the past couple years now: with my intended zero waste goals!
I find setting these up at the beginning of the year – and re-reading what I hoped to accomplished last year – really helps keep things in perspective of what’s manageable, what I keep putting off, and if I need to change anything to make new goals easier to reach.
So, let’s dive in and see what I said my 2024 goals were going to be:
- To-Do list alternatives
- Reduce single use paper towels/test out Roll Up bamboo paper towels
Let’s start with the good news first: I found a great To-Do list alternative to the paper notebook lists!
Instead of getting one of those Rocket Notebooks, I ended up just getting a big dry-erase board. I put a very detailed break down of everything on it: daily hour chunk to-dos, month to-dos (for both work and real life), a weekly work-out break down, a Buy Next section (to keep my wallet organized) and the daily general to-do list.
It has been working amazingly well! It’s everything I was looking for in a To-Do list re-placer and then some. Originally, I was just going to get a small one so I could put it beside my laptop and use it strictly as the notebook paper alternative. But then I thought: it makes more sense to just get a big one, so I can replace all my To-Do lists, instead of just the one on my desk!
Then, I got to work mapping it out in Photoshop. I found this sort of break down was great for two reasons: it helped me organize my millions of To-Do lists, and it helped me figure out what size board I needed.
I’d definitely recommend getting a big dry erase board for all you visual organizers out there. It sounds cliche, but this has literally been a game changer for me. Not only is it every To-Do list all in one place (which saves massive amounts of time trying to find them scattered around), it’s also a giant board, so it helps with the visual aspects of having them all right there. There’s no way I can ignore the board.
My only sort of issue with the board, is that it wasn’t cheap. At all. However, for how much paper it’s replacing, and how many years I’m hoping it holds up, I’m thinking it’ll be worth it.
I know I’ve said it before, but the upfront cost vs long-term cost really seems to be a thing with these zero waste alternatives. Which isn’t a bad thing! I just see why some people are adverse to switching. You need slightly more money now, but it’ll save you money later. Unfortunately, humans aren’t so great at the concept of ‘later’, so it doesn’t seem worth it to a lot of people.
Onto the bad news: I did not get a chance to test the Roll Up paperless paper towels or the tissues.
Honestly, some real-life stuff happened that made me get a little behind on work (which you guys hopefully didn’t notice, because I believe all the posts went up on time, but behind-the-scenes, instead of being 3+ months ahead of schedule, I was maybe 1 month ahead, or less) so I forgot.
That said, it didn’t really make a difference, because as I explained in last year’s post, I don’t use tissues very often, and I was able to reduce my paper towel usage significantly by just… using the intended dishware.
So, what are my zero waste goals for 2025?
Honestly, I’m not sure.
I would like to say reducing my plastic bag usage, but as I’ve mentioned previously, I don’t really use them that often (I was also gifted a butt-load of silicone reusable bags last Christmas) so I don’t feel like they’re as big of an ‘issue’ to tackle.
I’m pretty sure I’ve actually cut out all of my biggest single use garbage usage already. Not to sound too high horse-y, but I don’t think there’s another area that’s a really big problem.
I will of course continue working on the smaller aspects: completely switching out paper towels and tissues, completely changing out the single use plastic bags for the silicone ones, etc but I don’t think there’s any real ‘big’ zero waste goal I feel the need to list and tackle this year.
Obviously not saying I’m completely done, I just can’t think of anything as specific as those first few goals.
How about you? Do you have any zero waste problem areas you want to work on this year? Are there any problem areas I’ve mentioned in other posts that you haven’t seen me address that you’re curious about? Have I forgotten any big things?
Let me know in the comments!
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