The Year of Living Minimally - Week Thirty

Living minimally leads to a better environment. Makes sense, right? Less waste.Here are a few tips that you might already have incorporated into your lives, but if not, they're easy fixes to clear clutter and help the planet.No more plastic bags. Some communities have stopped using them - bravo! - and I'm sure you have a few of them in your car. But don't just use your cloth or recycled-material shopping bags in the grocery store. Take them everywhere (CVS, Target, etc.). If you have plastic bags, there are places where you can recycle them.Cloth napkins. They don't have to be this fancy. I picked up a dozen cotton napkins online about two years ago. They've stood up well, and with just two of us, we have enough.Ditch the plastic straw! Most of the time, I get them at restaurants, but I've started asking not to have a straw. I do have this lovely glass straw at home, and it's easy enough to take with me. According to The Last Plastic Straw, 500 million straws are used and discarded every day in the United States alone. That's 175 billion straws a year, filtering into landfills and littering our waterways and oceans.And look! It comes with a teeny-tiny brush for cleaning, and its own little bag. Mine is from Glass Dharma - they make great gifts!These are just three ideas. There are plenty of ways you can reduce the stuff in your house AND make a small difference around you. The landfills and oceans are full of plastic, so whatever positive changes you make today, you do for your children and grandchildren.