Beginners Guide to a Sustainable Lifestyle

Sustainability, what is it?

Sustainability as google defines it is avoiding the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain and ecological balance.

A sustainable lifestyle isn't telling you to give up everything. It's just simply maintaining a balance with the environment. That sounds simple doesn't it? But you might be thinking, okay how do I do this?

We currently live in an unsustainable world, there we are constantly being influence to consume more. It is shown that the more we consume the happier we will be. That is untrue, we all know that the more we have the more we want and it becomes a never ending vicious cycle affecting the world. It not only depletes our natural resource, it also contributes to pollution, waste, demand and unethical workforce. Oh boy, doesn't it sound like to too much? Definitely. Take it a little at a time.

It's getting to a point where we are using our natural resources at an unnatural rate. You want to shift into a more sustainable lifestyle? That is awesome, kudos to you.

Where to start

• Look at your surroundings. What are you consuming too much of that you can consume less of? Do you have too many items of clothing? Do you often buy too many items that are packaging in plastic?
  

• Take at look at what you eat. Are you eating too much meat? Perhaps dairy? Or maybe you find yourself throwing lots of leftover food.
  

• Take a look at your trash bin. Is there too much plastic waste? Perhaps you could be recycling your cardboard boxes? Maybe you could avoid using plastic bags at the grocery?

Implement

Pick one item from every room that you can either swap for a more sustainable alternative, buy less of, or not buy at all. Let me start.

• Kitchen: Reducing my plastic waste 🥤

• Living Room: Swapping out candles for soy blend candles 🌱

• Laundry Room: dryer sheets for dryer balls 🧺

• Bedroom: Thrifting before being retail 🛍

• Bathroom: Tree-free toilet paper 🧻

I have to be completely honest with you guys there are still certain things that I do not think I can give up and that's okay. That's definitely fine. Maybe one day I end up give them up or maybe I never will, I just have to remember that if I gave up 50 things I can't beat myself over two items I can't give up.

I'm in no means trying to imply I live a zero waste lifestyle, I am trying to live a more conscious lifestyle and be more cautious on what I spend my money on. I am trying to be as informed as possible but it could be too much to take in, definitely take it slowly.

Try to be realistic remember we are trying to build a sustaible lifestyle and it can't be done in a week nonetheless in a day. Don't be hard on yourself, set reminders, keep reusables in your car. You're already doing great!