Occam Goes Razorless

Part of the quest to find more just ways to live with the others whose lives and being permeate our own is to make adjustments in my life that acknowledge and respect those others. For me, this means developing some new habits that use more renewable resources, and fewer of them, and to produce less waste. Regardless of your position on, for example, climate change, a lot of what the eco-friendly movement advocates also helps us save money and improve our health. Here I hope to share with you some of my experiments on the way to more sustainable living.

A few tips for getting started:

Occam says, KISS it! (“Keep It Simple, Stupid!”):

1) Take it one change at a time: While the panic over the pace of environmental degradation can make the need to overhaul the way we live feel urgent, I have found that I can change habits most successfully by focusing on making just one change at a time and not moving on to the next one until the first is an integrated part of my daily life. Change may be slower, but more permanent, and therefore, hopefully, ultimately have a bigger impact.

2) Know thyself: I try to find a triangulation between the habits that are easiest to implement in my own hectic life, are most budget-friendly, and have the most impact. What are your priorities? What changes can you try first that will disrupt your lifestyle the least? What products are you less married to, and therefore open to switching up? What habits do you have that have the biggest environmental impact? This will, of course, vary from person to person, but I’ll share in upcoming posts some of the products and habit changes that have worked for me!

3) Try, try, try again: Patience is key since there are a variety of companies making new products, not all of which will work for you, but don’t give up before you’ve really sampled the field! For example, I recently made the switch to package-free shampoo and conditioner bars over plastic bottles (and I love them!). I’ll cover more specifics in a later post, including product reviews, but while the first conditioner bar I tried a few years ago worked ok, it was frustrating to use and not really up to taming my thick, curly hair, so I gave up for awhile and went back to bottled conditioner. I should have kept up with the research, however, because not all conditioner bars are created equal, and I just found a company that makes a conditioner bar my hair loves and I wish I’d found sooner!

From reducing water use, ditching plastics, finding new uses for old objects, and using more ethically, bio-sourced, and biodegradable products, making the switch to new approaches and products can be good not just for our nonhuman cohort, but our budget and well-being as well.