Reduce Waste with these Household Tips

Many homeowners wage a daily battle with clutter. It’s part of their normal routine. There’s a pile of unopened mail on the kitchen counter. Old unwanted clothes are tossed in a corner. Plastic grocery bags stick out of overstuffed kitchen drawers, and recycle bins are overflowing. Everywhere they look, there’s clutter, waste, or excess of some sort. Many people give up on ever having a tidy home.

One of the best ways to reduce clutter is to reduce household waste. Household waste is any trash that’s generated within the household. This includes everything from food scraps to wine bottles to old newspapers — anything that gets thrown away, essentially. It all goes to the dump, where it sits for as long as it takes to decompose, anywhere from a few months to years depending on the item. This is bad for the planet.

Our job at Small Haul Containers is to help you get rid of the trash before it becomes a nuisance. Our small roll-off dumpsters are ideal for clean-out projects — cleaning out a spare bedroom, attic, basement, or garage. We bring the dumpster to you, you load it up, and we come pick it up and haul it away. Just like that, the trash is out of the house and out of your life!

It makes sense to try to reduce the waste generated by your household so that you have less to toss out to begin with. If you’re also thinking along these lines, take a look at these tips for reducing household waste. You might be able to implement one or two in your home and decrease the amount of stuff that piles up. And who knows? You may also help save the earth, too!

When you go grocery shopping, how many plastic bags do you end up with? If you’re like most people, it’s probably way more than you thought you needed. Grocery and big-box discount stores often put only two or three items in a bag before rotating the carousel. They send you out the door loaded like a pack mule.

Rather than relying on the store to provide bags every week, pick up a few reusable grocery bags. Reusable bags are widely available, and many are made from recyclable materials. They’re durable and last a long time. Once you start using them, you’ll probably notice that the check-out person puts a lot more in them than in a typical plastic grocery bag. This means you’ll have fewer trips into the house from the garage when you get home.

Reusable bags are good for more than just groceries. Use them to pack the dog’s food and toys when you take him on vacation. Fill them with old newspapers and magazines to go to the recycling center. Or fill them with old clothes to donate to the thrift shop. The more often you reuse them, the fewer plastic grocery bags you have to throw away. And here’s a bonus tip: Keep reusable bags in the trunk or the backseat, so you always have them when you’re ready to shop.

Try to avoid purchasing single-use cups and bottles whenever possible. Reusable cups and bottles are perfect for beverages on the go. If you’re a coffee drinker, buy an insulated coffee cup that you can use every morning when you head to work. If you have a favorite coffee shop, ask them if they’ll put your coffee in your reusable cup. Many will. This saves you from having to throw out a stack of single-use coffee cups every week.

If you like sipping a soda on the road, buy sodas in cans and pour one over ice in a reusable bottle before you leave the house. Your drink will stay colder, and you’ll cut down on the purchase of single-use plastic or glass beverage bottles.

There’s a surprising amount of household waste that is compostable — some experts say as much as 25%. Start a compost pile in the backyard and toss in eggshells, fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, grass clippings, leaves, and more. Read up on what can and can’t go in a compost pile and learn how and when to turn it to create a healthy ecosystem. Soon you’ll have fresh new dirt for your garden!

Another way to reduce household waste is to cut back on paper usage. If you get paper statements in the mail from utility companies and creditors, ask if you can switch to online billing. Many companies give a discount for this. Take your name off mailing lists when possible; this will help cut down on the number of catalogs and pieces of junk mail received. Consider digital subscriptions to your favorite magazines and newspapers. You may even want to buy an e-reader and move to electronic books. You can also check books out from the local library.

It’s not feasible to cut out everything that’s no longer needed. Everyone has to wear clothes, and they eventually wear out. Paper will find its way into the house, even if it’s just in homework assignments and school art projects. The point is to reduce waste as much as possible and responsibly dispose of what’s left. Send as much as you can to thrift stores and recycling centers or sell it online. Then reserve a small dumpster rental from Small Haul Containers for the rest.

Small Haul Containers is one of the most trusted Kansas City dumpster rental companies in the area. Think of us the next time you need help clearing out the clutter. With our help, you’ll have the rest of your household waste cleared out in no time!

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