Day #3-6..... This is difficult

I'm really surprised at how hard this it is to be aware of what we are buying and what we are throwing away. I find myself just throwing things out without even thinking about it. Which is why our friends are most likely winning this little competition. Just to clear some things up about why my wife and I are doing this little competition. We are in no way becoming environmentalist. For me we are realizing that we are could be better stewards of what we have and how we use what we have. Many of the practices that we are slowly trying to put into place are not only good because they are less wasteful but they also are very practical and save us money. Like re-using foil and plastic baggies. For a commentary by my Friend Justin that explains why we are doing this challenge follow the Link. It was recorded on our way to do a little dumpster diving. Go here to check it out.
I was hoping to be able to blog about this everyday but I just don't seem to have the time. I will blog as often as I can and try to process my thoughts enough for the post be interesting and maybe meaningful.
We have been doing some dumpster diving. Here is a link to some pictures that we took. It feels strange jumping into a dumpster. This was really the first time we have done it in broad daylight and had people actually see us in the dumpster. I don't know why but the thought of people seeing me do that made it harder. Deep down inside of me I don't want people to think poorly of me which I think indistinctly they would if seeing me scavenging through a dumpster. The more I do this the more it is showing me how I process what I see and how I react to what I see and how I can change that for the better.
One of the things we noticed was that in one day that dumpster we went to was filled. It was empty in the morning and full that evening. Even though it was a business it seems like it was an awful amount of stuff being thrown out.

Day #2

Today, I was sitting at my kitchen table just eating my lunch and I got a little of my lunch on my face. So without even thinking about it I grabbed a paper napkin wiped my face and threw it in the trash. Right after I did I realized that I didn't have to use paper napkins I could grab a cloth one that would just be washed and re-used. This got me thinking about how much of conserving our waste is changing our habits and the way we think. There was nothing easier about the paper napkin it was just there. If the cloth napkin would have just been there I would have used that. How much stuff do we use and then through away just because it is in front of us. Or another theory would be that we use a lot of products just because that is what we have always used. We have always used paper napkins so I instinctively reach for the paper napkin when I need to wipe food off my face. I'm not a big environmentalist. I don't think that I'm going to save the planet. But I do feel that as a person of this world that God has created that I should be a good steward of the little piece that God has allowed me to be in.

Day 1 Last day to put out the trash

So today was the last time I will put the garbage out for 30 days. We began thinking of ways to not produce waste such as reusing foil and plastic bags etc. Trying to put these thing in place and remembering to do them. Remembering, hopefully I can do that. I'm not known to have the greatest memory.

30 Day Challenge

Last night we were hanging out with some very good friends of ours, Justin and Jen, and they introduced us to a site call The Story of Stuff. After a lengthy and indepth discussion about this we decided to do a 30 day challenge together in the form of a family vs. family compition to see who can produce the least waste. Basically how this will work is each week we will weigh how much trash we have produced with a hay scale. In the mean time we will be visiting the local dump location for some good old dumpster diving to recover some useful things that others have thrown into the trash. We will collect these item throughout the 30 days and at the end have a yardsale and the family that produces the least amount of waste will get the cash from the yardsale. So stayed tuned, both Justin and I will be posting our families experience during this time.