This won’t come as a surprise, I’m sure, but anyway, I follow a few minimalist and zero waste blogs, and had a bit of an epiphany over the weekend regarding not only this little project of mine, but minimalism and zero waste in general:

It’s a privilege.

I don’t really have art for this post so here’s a cute zero waste graphic I found. SOURCE.

I don’t think of myself as privileged, so it was kind of weird to realize that I am. There are a few blogs I don’t read because they reflect what I do consider privileged lifestyles — the quitting of the day job, the extensive traveling with only a backpack of worldly possessions, the single people who have a thimbleful of garbage every year. (Man, that sounds snarky. Honesty is ugly.)

But.

I can afford to get rid of stuff without having to worry if I’ll someday need to buy that thing back (or where I buy it), I can pick and choose what to feed my family and how it comes packaged, and I can spend my time doing any ol’ thing I want.

You know. Instead of being worried that I’ll need something again after I get rid of it and then have to worry about how I’ll get it back. Instead of having to choose between this value pack of XYZ wrapped in plastic and this XYZ that I can not only get organic, but in my jar. Instead of spending my time just trying to keep my family alive.

That’s pretty damn privileged.

It’s possible I’m overthinking this — it’s kind of what I do — but I think it’s good to take a step back and just be grateful. That I can choose to live with less, to see how far I can get on the zero waste front, to get to spend my days reading and writing (real job) and experimenting (second zero waste job 😉 ). To just walk into a grocery store and walk out with what we need.

I’m not even sure this is a real post, but I thought it was worth mentioning. I am stupid lucky. And I understand that we’re all on our own journeys and that we don’t all have the same options. And it’s okay — we do what we can. I truly believe it all helps.

THIS is the post by Cait Flanders that inspired all this thinking. It’s long, but worth the read if you’re in the mood for a personal crisis. (Ha. Kinda.) It’s possible I just need more sleep, or maybe more coffee. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Next up: Johanna is an artist. It’s not exactly zero waste work.