October Simple Swap: Plastic

We all want to live healthier, more intentional lives, but sometimes it seems overwhelming and daunting to take even small steps toward our ideals because there are so many steps that can be taken.


Simple Swap was born out of a desire and passion to encourage other women on journeys toward living a healthier, more inspired, intentional lifestyle through implementing one simple swap per month.

Each swap will: 
1. Take 30 minutes or less to accomplish 
2. Be inexpensive to implement or boast overall, long-haul {health} savings 
3. Focus on improving health/eco-friendliness, being good stewards of our resources and/or fostering a creative and intentional life.

Some weeks, all three will be accomplished in 30 minutes or less!

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Plastic, it's quite convenient, isn't it? It's so easy to grab and go. It's so easy to use and toss, and not even think twice. But when Hyacynth challenged me to think about it, I realized I use way more of it than I should. Way more than the Earth would like me to use. So, it was time to make a SIMPLE SWAP change!

First I made a list of all of the plastic that bombarded my life. I came up with two categories that overwhelmed all of the others:


Plastic bags
We frequent 2 types of grocery stores. Costco and the regular ol' supermarket (friends make fun of me for using this term). Costco doesn't use plastic bags, they reuse cardboard boxes from the products they sell, so we were good there. But our family tends to visit the supermarket almost daily, racking up more and more plastic bags all the time! And while they smooth down pretty compactly, when you see them all in one cupboard it really hits home how much they must fill the landfills. 

(this cupboard goes all the way back to the shelf on the left,
completely filled with trash bags)

So, our first obvious solution was to take all of the plastic bags we acquired back to the supermarket for recycling, and gather all of the cloth bags we have around the house. Since we make more frequent, smaller trips to the supermarket, a couple of bags are plenty for our family. I decided to throw several bags in my car and 1 in my husband's car, so we are ready at any time to whisk them into the supermarket. I am excited to see how this works out, and I am super excited I gained an entire cupboard to store other things! Like crock pots, griddles and pressure cookers!

Plastic spoons
We give our kids pudding cups or fruit cups in almost every one of their school lunches, and therefore are in need of spoons almost everyday. We have typically used plastic spoons, ya know, because they are easy! But both of my kids have proved to be responsible in bringing stuff home from school, i.e. jackets, tupperware, their heads, etc. So, I thought this would be a great opportunity to introduce spoons that could be reused easily. We already have a handful of toddler colorful spoons, and I recently saw packs of 2 in the Target $ section. So, on my last trip I grabbed 3 more packages and dedicated the 6 new spoons to lunches. If they make it home, great! If not, they were only 50 cents a piece. 

We'll see how my kids do. If this plan fails, I can always reuse the throw away plastic spoons, although they seem more likely to be throw out by a 7 year old or a preschool teacher.
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Wanna take this simple swap challenge and be in the running for a cool giveaway? Head on over to Hyacynth's site and link up. And while you're there, check out the other Simple Swaps people made for more ideas you can implement in your home. Have fun!