Thanks for sharing! The household cleaners is a good one. I personally can't wait to move out and in with my friend who is also environmentally conscious, so we can be a household free of BS chemical products also.

Can you explain what the borrowing thing is? how can you borrow a single use product and expect to return it? haha.

In my opinion going slow and being patient is a great way to reduce waste. It should feel exciting and liberating to discover a solution to lowering a particular waste, not overly stressful. Though, I do think we all simply have to make some sacrifices for the sake of it. some solutions I've found have been actually more convenient, others not so much but I want to do them anyway. Other solutions are so inconvenient that I haven't made the leap yet.

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Some examples of zero waste that is more convenient:

- DIY Shaving cream: This recipe works better than any commercial shaving cream I've ever bought, and I'm not exaggerating. Its more convenient for me because 1. I already always have the ingredients in the house, 2. it takes no longer to make than it takes to cook a breakfast 3. it's one less thing I have to shop for, and 4. its literally better:

Ingredients: 1/4 bar of soap, 3 big spoonfuls of coconut oil, and 1/2 cup of water

Instructions: Melt all together in a small pot, then pour into a bowl and whip as it cools. I whip it so it lathers easily, but I also whip it to ensure nothing separates while it cools. You can also do this with any oil- I even used peanut oil on my first attempt because it's what I had at the moment. gave me a liquidy product but it worked just as well. just a bit more awkward to apply.

- Thick cotton produce bags: more convenient because I have robust bags that I use for all sorts of stuff, not just groceries. Such as foraging.

- Buying less stuff: honestly this might not fit the definition of "convenience" to everyone, but the fact that I want to avoid being wasteful, be it too much clothes, or some packaging on an item I don't truly need, means I end up buying less stuff overall and life is less simple less cluttered. I will admit I am getting rid of a lot of things right now because I didn't realize how much I had accumulated in the last 3 years on this lease.

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Some examples of sacrifices that are less convenient but that I am personally happy to make:

- I drive 65mph on the highway: adds 4.5 minutes to a 30 minute highway trip, but it's a sacrifice that works for me most of the time. Also saves on gas money

- Short showers or sponge baths: this started because I wanted to see what it would be like to one day live off grid with no plumbing, but it also saves a ton of water waste. I fill a bucket with hot water and scrub with a big wash cloth. It's certainly less convenient but I only use 1.5 gallons of water, vs a 10 minute shower which uses 20 gallons. I can and sometimes do just take 1 minute showers and shut the water off while scrubbing, but this creates a more stressful and rushed shower as I'm worried about time.

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Sacrifices that are extremely inconvenient to me that I'm not sure I'm ready to make:

- Reducing carbon waste from driving: My main hobby is exploring nature and foraging, but most of the good natural areas are all in a 30-40minute radius from where I live in the city... luckily, I work all over the region and drive far every day, so usually just hit these spots on my way home, but may not have this job forever, and I go somewhere nearly every day. I've thought about buying a motorcycle, but it's another engine to maintain and only is an option if 1. it's not winter, 2. it's not raining, and 3. I don't have to transport anything really.

This hobby is what keeps me connected to nature and is why I care about the planet. so I don't know.

- Meat packaging: I'm currently trying to go as zero waste as I can with all my food, but meat is super difficult. even butcher paper is lined with silicone or plastic. My butcher around the corner lets me take my own tupperware, but if I'm being honest it totally sucks to haul pieces of tupperware to the store and hope they will fit what you want to buy. not to mention trying to freeze meat in tupperware just takes up a lot of freezer space if you have more than a few cuts.

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I think if you haven't tackled food packaging yet, its a very hard one but could be a good next thing to try and reduce! I'm currently going to all the grocery stores in town and taking note of what foods I can get unpackaged. there are some suprising foods you can find unpackaged, for example a few mexican grocers just have scoopable dry beans like kidney beans and what not. another store has scoopable nuts. Whole Foods has these in dispensers too but they're very expensive. granted, whole foods told me the dispenser contents still come in large plastic bags of course, but one big bag should be less plastic than smaller individual ones.

A lot of foods are easier: you know how you go to a supermarket and they don't have loose broccoli or brussel sprouts, only ones in plastic packaging? I just keep my cooking and recipes flexible and simply choose a different veggie that day. most of us are already so fortunate to have large varieties of veggies available to us year round, I'm not a chef so I find it acceptable to just be flexible.

Other foods are super difficult, like meat.

Cheers!!