Sure, we talk about Carbon Offsets and alternative energy but at the base of the green movement are three main tenets:

• Reduce
• Reuse
• Recycle

This has gotten me thinking about my own household and how much trash we generate. How much of these basic philosophies have we really adopted? We’ve always returned our deposit bottles and cans but honestly, we fell off on recycling and I started to feel super irresponsible.

I think a lot of people probably ditch the recycling idea because they’re lazy, trash is annoying to deal with and there are a lot of recycling “rules” that make it more difficult and more annoying than it has to be. To that end, my family and I decided to just go for broke in regards to our trash.

In fact, I think a lot of people lose sight of the simplicity of reduce, reuse and recycle. So here’s some of what my family is doing – and it’s pretty painless, I swear!

1. The Recyclables

The first thing we did was bring a couple of plastic waste bins we’ve had laying around into the kitchen. We then determined that one would hold metal – meaning aluminum cans and steel cans. The second we determined would be plastics (bags, milk bottles and other properly labeled recyclable plastics) and the third would be paper – primarily newspaper, magazines, glossy inserts and used art paper from the short one).

I’ll be honest – my first instinct was to go out a buy a trashcan with multiple bins for recycling which would have in turn created more waste as we wouldn’t have needed all the bins we already had. Clearly this would have been wasteful and somewhat environmentally counterproductive. So we decided to keep the smaller bins and just be diligent about emptying them frequently enough.

The other issue that arose with our new fabulous system was our dogs. They are used to having no access to any trash because we have used a can with a lid forever. Dogs love trash anyway, but ours are truly trash enthusiasts – trash connoisseurs you might say – especially of deliciously shred-able paper goods. So we did have to quickly re-tool the paper can and its height.

Still, once this system was in place, the separating and recycling of most of our easy to process items was complete.

2. Reusing

You may have noticed that we don’t have a “glass” bin in the recycling? That is because we’ve been washing, boiling, de-labeling and reusing the glass jars. I love whole foods and I buy them in bulk and they usually come in baggies to reduce packaging costs and environmental impact. I like to keep my black beans, wheat germ and quinoa organized and accessible though, so we started using the jars from used salsa, pickles – you name it – to store alternate dry foods, preserves and other creations. It’s been working great although I think a label maker might be in my future!

Eventually, we may very well need a bin for the glass but I know the jars and lids may come in handy down in the garage and work room as well. You’ve seen the innovative way to use jars in your workshop, right? You screw the lids to a board, ceiling or shelf mount the board with the lids facing down and you can screw the jars into the lids. You can see what you have, keep them off shelves and re-use glass jars like nobody’s business!

3. Reducing

This is certainly the hardest of the three to actually implement! My heart and head are in the right place but it is hard to reduce consumption and consumerism in general. What I’ve tried to do is channel my shopping glee into the most efficient and multi use items possible and I’ve changed our care of our existing things so they last longer.

On the clothing and apparel front, there are no more pairs of shoes that can only work with one outfit. There is no impossibly cute jacket that doesn’t work with anything else in my closet. I wash most things on gentle and I’m learning to patch and mend so my husband’s and daughter’s clothes last longer. We buy higher quality, versatile shoes that can be polished and repaired for years to come.

In the kitchen, every fresh herb is either used within days or processed to be frozen for use when we need it. Fruit is likewise flash frozen and thawed when needed. No food is left to mold or be thrown away from carelessness.

Around the house, I rearrange, re-use and recover furniture. We’re more apt to buy from the Salvation Army and find a couch with “good bones” or a table that simply needs a new veneer than to head to the furniture store and spend four times as much money on something “new.”

We walk instead of driving when we can and we have only one car.

Primarily, at this stage of the game, I have sought to truly reduce waste and we’re doing far better than we were by just being aware.