Moving With Minimal Waste
At some point, we all move.
Okay, maybe not ALL of us. But even, my 70-year-old mother who has lived in the same town since I was born 28 years ago, moved a few times in her life. I hope you have an opportunity to move. I hope you are blessed enough to see the world, and experience different cultures. I don’t think it’s reasonable to say we should never travel or vacation or move, because carbon emissions are too high when we do. If you prefer not to do any of these things, that’s great. You have an opportunity to live a nearly zero emission lifestyle. I believe these experiences often make us better people, more open-minded, and more aware of the difficulties or successes of others in this world. These experiences bring us outside of ourselves.
These experiences do create waste and emissions though. I am here to tell you that it is possible to reduce waste and plastic use when moving.
I have moved across the country twice now, and before that I moved several times during college. My first distance move was to San Antonio when I became an officer in the Air Force. My then boyfriend Carey and I had just finished college. Surprisingly, we had quite a bit of stuff. How? I don’t know, but the Air Force packed it all up while we watched. We each drove a car to San Antonio, talking along with way with walkie-talkies. Then, the military dropped everything off. It was mostly very smooth, but I wasn’t worried about waste at that time in my life, not like I am now. Our second move was to Los Angeles after I separated from the military. This time, Carey and I had an additional family member, our dog Boca. This move coincided with the beginning of my waste free journey. I had just started avoiding plastic completely, which was not the best timing, I’ll admit. Needless to say, I was very anxious about all the resources I was using to fulfill my dream to live on the west coast. We were on the road and/or living out of our car for a total of 18 days. We traveled to Ohio to visit family before driving to LA. It was not perfect, especially because I was very new into the world of zero waste. But, I did my best to keep a positive attitude and do everything I could to reduce waste. Overall, I was proud of myself, and I’m sure I could have almost no waste next time!
The FIVE things you will need for your move to eliminate plastic and reduce waste:
1. A reusable water bottle AND a filtering system
2. A reusable coffee cup/drink cup
3. Tupperware or any type of reusable food storage container
4. Silverware
5. A reusable, earth friendly bag
I used 3 reusable bottles to fill for drinking water (one for each of us and one for our dog). I brought our Brita filter to purify water from our hotels. I brought our growler (most commonly used for beer) and filled it at night with filtered water to have refills the next day. You can also buy Purepods for your water bottles. You will definitely want coffee or iced tea or lemonade when you are in the car for 8 hours a day. When you go inside to get these drinks, and you can always use your reusable cup. No plastic waste. I used a Tupperware container at restaurants for leftovers. Also, I had two full sets of silverware. If you order to go food, the restaurant will give it to you in Styrofoam containers in a plastic bag with plastic silverware. So, I ordered food for “here” and transferred everything to my own containers and bag. Bags can be used for SO MANY things, you will realize when you start carrying one around at all times. Most of our food to-go waste occurred with family. I wasn't prepared for instances where family would order food.
The THREE steps you can take to reduce waste while packing:
2. Get rid of things that you don’t need or use
3. Save your boxes if you are able
I’m serious guys. If it’s soft and washable, use it to your advantage. I wrapped photos, mirrors, and anything breakable in blankets, towels, sheets, pillows, etc. I used socks and hand towels for kitchen dishes and cookware. Nothing broke. I only needed one small roll of moving wrapping paper, which is recyclable. I felt like that was a miracle. The biggest impact was selling and donating items that we didn’t need or use anymore. I made $800 in the garage sale I had before moving. I made another $200 selling items on facebook marketplace. We even sold one of our cars prior to moving. We made five trips to goodwill prior to moving. That was over $2,000 earned just from our used things, and that’s not even discussing the savings from needing to move that stuff. Downsizing is too big of a topic to discuss in depth here, but trust me, it is life-changing. Lastly, we used the same set of boxes for our two moves, and even now we have most of them stored in our tiny garage in LA for our next move. They actually store really well when broken down and flat. Saving your moving boxes for your next move is #zerowaste goals.
HAPPY MOVING!
For those of you who are curious, this is an almost complete list (I tried my best to record everything) of the waste items we used during our move.
Boxes (I don’t know the number)
One roll of moving plastic wrap
One roll of moving wrapping paper
3 rolls of tape
1 bottled water bottle
1 plastic bag
3 plastic utensils
7 takeout meals
4 to-go plastic cups
For our next move, I know that I can eliminate all plastic materials and takeout materials, using the tricks above. As for the boxes and wrapping materials, I haven’t fine-tuned my disappearing spells yet, but I’m not giving up.
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