This past Sunday I sent my son out to take the trash to the curb. This is normally a long process but he was back in three minutes. “All done! There was hardly any trash.” How can that be? People are staying home. Shouldn’t there be MORE trash? That’s when it dawned on me, the things we are doing to keep us safer at home may also be safer for nature!
True confession time – we were a take-out family. I rarely cook at home. I have a middle schooler on a busy schedule and we are often gone from early morning until late at night. Even though we take our own cups and utensils, we still manage to generate a lot of take-out containers. True confession number two – every weekend I empty my fridge of our used take-out containers. However, over the past six weeks we’ve cooked almost every meal at home. I’ve taught myself to cook things from scratch. We eat leftovers for lunch. I’ve managed to waste less food and generate less trash without even trying!
While writing this blog, I reached out to some of you to find out how your new habits might be benefiting the planet. Some of you are driving less, consolidating trips, walking or biking when you can. You take daily walks, learn things aren’t as far away as you thought they were, and stop to look at things that you never noticed from your car. You use your time inside to watch documentaries or read books to learn more about nature and ecology. As it turns out, Safer at Home might just mean Safer for Nature.
Did you know it takes an average of 66 days for a behavior to become a habit? What new lifestyle habits will you move forward with after your quarantine ends?
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We definitely drive much less! Because we have groceries delivered to our home and don’t shop at retail stores, we no longer accumulate those ugly plastic bags. I now wash out lightly used ziplock bags and bread bags and reuse, which I routinely did thirty years ago! In a pinch, I even use large potato chip bags for soiled kitty litter! All our meals are cooked at home so try to make good use of leftovers. I found a great recipe for a frittata using leftover spaghetti noodles and now freeze ripe bananas, lunch meat and bread. I found last year’s homemade frozen gooseberry jam at the bottom of the freezer and enjoy it on toast. Donating to my compost pile has become a priority and have planted several cool weather crop seeds in vegetable garden. I have put on puppet shows for preschool granddaughter to watch through our window and have used the same large metal sign for three different Happy Birthday signs. (Repainted with new name and # of years!) BUT…I miss the social contact and can’t wait to enjoy that again, however until then “carry on”.