I really need to start composting but don't know how to make that first step...and what do I do with the composted stuff once it is composted? I don't have that many plants.

I wonder how you pay for stuff at the grocery store when the grains or whatever have already been put in a heavy glass jar.

Roxy - there is a TARE mechanism on the scale. Once you put your glass jar on the scale you hit TARE and it zeros out.

We joined The Compact this year.

We want to save money and reduce the number of "things" in our home. (Most people say our house is sparse already...but nothing like this Sunset house!!)

Here is a link for anyone interested.
http://sfcompact.blogspot.com/2006/01/new-years-resolution.html

I'm a total neat freak and I love to get rid of clutter, but that article just scared the sh*t out of me! This woman is clearly suffering from some mental illness.

I read about this family in the LA Times. They've got some good ideas, but biodegradable toothbrushes and buying meat and cheese in glass jars is a bit too neurotic for me.

I think the zero waste idea is really negated by the ownership of 2 cars.

Well, whatever floats your boat, but after a while, it did start to read like a case of consumerism anorexia.

I like some of their ideas but would not want to take it to this extreme with the glass jars, etc. Also it seems odd to buy compostable toothbrushes from Australia... if they are being shipped via air, the carbon footprint just got really BIG. Why not buy recyclable ones here?

I'm with RocketScientist.. HA! I love how she says she "needs" the car for her weekly errands. I haven't had a car in 3 years and I travel to work, grocery stores, meetings 4 towns over... it's called the bus. Or the bike. Or your FEET.
Thehb struck it right on the head with the toothbrush carbon footprint.
This lady is for show IMO.

I like some of these ideas, but ordering recyclable toothbrushes from Australia doesn't seem all that eco friendly to me.

Some of this I get and do myself:
Composting, reusing, recycling, using cloth instead of paper, purchasing more real food rather than processed foods in cardboard boxes and bags...

But shopping w/ her own jars - Where and when does she shop? Could you imagine walking into the Whole Foods after work or on a Saturday with an armload of jars trying to get them weighed empty, and reweighing again while making certain that the various tares match up??? It's no wonder she needs another car just to haul her jars everywhere!
I think I'll stick to walking and using paper & compostable plastic bags...
...which I can then reuse to gather my compostables.

It sounds very sterile, militant, and boring to me. Also, I do not trust thrift store clothing for the most part (not to mention, would you ever buy used undergarments?)
I'd rather re-use and find creative solutions for things like photos, art, toys, and memorabilia rather than throwing them out. Is the fact of being able to boast of minimalism conflicting with being OK with just having a little bit of clutter or mess?

Also, I would be upset if I visited her house for trick or treating on Halloween. Licorice root sticks? Soap? Feathers? It seems less about being minimalist, and more about being cheap. Or at least fuddy-duddy.

"I do not trust thrift store clothing for the most part"

Are you afraid they'll run away while you're at work or stab you to death in your bed?

And how about the carbon footprint created by meat and dairy consumption?

It's true bepsf. The sweaters in the stores always eye me suspiciously.

And I haven't read a lick of the article, but there are towns in the US without any public transportation. I live in one. To bike or to walk anywhere would take hours because it's all spread out over farmland.

Just tossing that around for anyone who might care. I'd love to not have a car, mostly because I'm cheap.

This article was far from inspiring; I even support limiting waste and I wanted to mock this woman. Instead of offering reasonable suggestions, this article makes people who limit their waste and consumption seem insane. Come on, she puts the strips back in the netflix envelopes? No thanks.

Living simply and sustainably is admirable, but I agree with the "consumerism anorexia" comment. I don't see anything "simple" (as the last sentence in the blurb about this article suggests) about their lifestyle. And I agree that ording toothbrushes from Australia and eating meat and driving cars seem addressible inconsistencies with their zero-waste & sustainability goals.

A friend picked up the toothbrushes for her, apparently. So there's that.

The article seems pretty harmless to me. It's clear she's pretty... driven, but I think we're far from the tipping point where it would hurt to have more ppl like her around.

I'm in the process of making all my own produce and bulk bags from lightweight bamboo mesh. That's so much more practical than bringing in jars and you pay maybe an extra $.05 for the bag. Getting my husband on board with this idea is hard, though. He doesn't see the point and thinks it's more work to bring your own bags. *sigh*

How the glass jar thing works: You only have to get them weighed when empty ONCE when a sticker with that weight is stuck on the jar. Or you could just write the weight directly on the jar with a permanent marker.

Mill Valley CA, where Ms. Johnson and her family lives, does have bus service but it is quite minimal and does not go on the very steep hills that most of MV is built on.

@TrishinPeoria I've been composting for less than 2 yrs now, and just the deduction of garbage alone has been worth it - it's amazing what all can be composted. Even though you don't have a lot of plants, you can probably find a friend or neighbor who would take some of your "good" compost. If not, it will only utilize the space that your bin will already take up in your yard, so if you have an area to spare, do it!

No art on the walls? Blehhh. Reminds me a bit of the bit on Ab Fab when Patsy and Edina visit their friend Bettina (played by Miranda Richardson) in her all white, no stairs, no art, no furniture home. The best bit is when the husband tries to find a place to set down the gifted bottle of wine. We must all take important, conscious steps/acts towards less wasteful and purposeful living; but seems so stifling and borderline fascist.

@potpie - Easier said than done, unfortunately. We've tried taking out own containers to various stores and none of the registers seem to be set up to tare. Even the little organic grocery down the street from us isn't set up to tare and much of their food is in bulk.

Yeah. So minimalist & OCD, that I scare all my friends but that was pure pathology. Sorry.

Wow, that was truly interesting. I think about my unnatural attachment to things everyday and yearn to once and for all release myself from those things. When it comes down to it most people's happiness is not tied to having a fancy car, an expensive house and buying loads of processed and packaged goods. I sometimes think about how we are all held hostage as we run on that treadmill of a lifestyle that leads us nowhere. I really believe that most of what we consume is extremely unnecessary.

Some may believe that taking the time and energy to garden and compost is a waste of time. I don't understand that. What else would you be doing with your valuable time? Working? Commuting? Watching TV that is just a medium for getting you to purchase more unneeded and unwanted crap? Seriously, I just want to live a simple, debt-free life. Because that is my goal, not working until I drop, I find articles like these inspiring. They encourage me to look at my life and think about what I really need to live a freer life not one enslaved to Mastercard.

@ cdanojohnson I don't see how their lifestyle is fascist. When I read the article, I didn't see the family trying to force everyone to live like them. It is their choice how they live. Just like it's any other family's choice to watch excessive amounts of TV, overeat or hoard cats. If you really think about it, this family's way of life is truly a way to have less but gain more

I read her blog and she is S.C.A.R.Y. judgmental and pretty sanctimonious to boot. Her ideas for alternative Halloween treats are hilarious, though. Honestly, I think that paring down, purchasing less (or much less), thrifting, recycling, reusing, and composting are all wonderful things to do. But if she really wants to inspire other people to do the same thing, she needs to be way less of a PITA about it. No Impact Man is a much better role model, not only for the lifestyle but for the attitude he has toward himself and others. Zero Waste woman would do well to look at his blog for ideas on how not to alienate people who are not as whole-heartedly into her lifestyle as she is.

The no art comment just killed me. I'm an artist, and I love to be surrounded by creative things.

LOVE the couch idea though :)

I have to admit the woman in the article is a little neurotic - and this is who you all are taking advice from? She needs a therapist.

I can guarantee I will not be bringing glass jars to the supermarket... I can't imagine the girl at the till trying to subtract the weight of my jars off my purchase regardless of if I have it pre-weighed and stickered. What about dog food? That would be one hell of a glass jar. I settle for buying in bulk, less packaging = less waste.

If she were truly zero-waste, she and her family would be living in a community garden and using their own poop to fertalize their garden. Nice try!

And all in all, California towns do have horrible public transportation.

I don't see why everyone thinks she is crazy. She's just committed to her way of life and offering suggestions for other people that want to live the same way. I thought her home was lovely and some of the suggestions were really helpful.

The "2 skirts (1 also wearable as a top)" killed me. I can also picture the absent-minded Netflix employee opening the envelope and throwing everything in the trash, including the carefully returned strip of plastic and the carefully worded condemnatory note about it.

As bepsf said, doesn't everyone already do a lot of this, without veering into what was aptly named above judgmental consumerism anorexia?

We've been composting EVERYTHING that can be composted (and that's most of our household waste) for a long time. Our weekly waste is less than a small grocery bag. I've always used the cheese grater as a zester, because that's what mom used. We clean with microfiber cloths. We have a vegetable garden, and we avoid all food in plastic packaging. She uses four beauty products, I use two (ha! beat ya there, lady!). We call it normal living. Now, where's my book deal??

What woman only has 6 pairs of shoes and 7 tops? Seriously??? Now THAT is a problem LOL.

After reading the comments I expected a seriously sterile, tiny home with no furniture. Her place is bigger than my apartment! There are some good ideas in there. I guess we need "extreme" people and then we find our own happy medium. I have seen more extreme examples than her though, people who renounce furniture and have 1 pair of shoes and no cars. I haven't read her blog yet, but "holier than thou" types drive me nuts. Sometimes I drive myself nuts.

@cdanojohnson

She does display a lot of her children's art, actually (on the stairs; I think that's a neat idea....)

You all should definitely check out TheFrugalGirl.com for lots of helpful tips.

haven't clicked through yet, but regarding the bulk bins, i use reusable cloth bags, then dump into the bins in my cabinet when i get home. easy!

they weigh practically nothing, so the scale reads just fine. there are heavier weight ones (more opaque) for smaller grains. here is one version i use: http://www.thegreenlifecostore.com/m8/1023--produce-bags-by-eco-bags-full-size-breathable-cotton.html

if you get grains or beans in the bulk bins, i highly recommending putting them into your freezer for 24 hrs *before* your pantry, to kill any grain bugs (common occurrence, no real harm, just a big pain - google it). so going from bulk bin to glass isn't ideal in this situation anyways.

I actually just now finished reading the entire article. I find it funny they are so worried about being zero-waste but yet the wife keeps a car just for this reason: "I need something once a week for errands." Wouldn't the better idea to sell one car and share one since as she puts it she only needs it once a week - all else fails she could drive her husband to work and have the car all day.

"I do not trust thrift store clothing for the most part"

To each his/her own, but my wardrobe (underwear, sox, and shoes, excepted) is thrift store or flea market derived: in other words, recycled. I favor embroidered ethnic styles, both commercially machine made and hand crafted and have a lovely assortment of tops and jackets people constantly admire -- they cost me about $3-7 typically, they are often much higher quality than I could afford in regular stores, if I ruin them by accident, it's not a heartbreak (well, sometimes it is!), and I'm helping charities with my purchases. (I have a lot of silk knit tops and some cashmere, too...)

"what do I do with the composted stuff once it is composted?"

I assume you live in an apartment and have no garden, so if you do bin or worm composting, when the material is thoroughly composted, you can do a number of things: offer it to a friend or neighbor, sprinkle it onto any lawn or garden (not in big globs, but a light coating that will soak down and fertilize the spot), use it to start new plants, etc. It's good stuff, use it up!

I have mixed feelings about the No Waste woman and her lifestyle. On the one hand, I admire her ability to set this goal and live with it. On the other hand, at the moment our economy is in dire straights partly because of lowered consumption. I don't think that means we all should rush out and buy stuff we don't need, but maybe it's not a great time to strive to be uber-thrifty, either.

I try to do what I can, and I know I can do more. Stories like this make me consider what more I CAN do without going to this extreme. But I can't imagine the effort it would take to transition to this lifestyle, and I hope I don't ever need to try.

(By the way, no-waste households rarely have pets. Pets are a "frill" we can live without, they cost a lot of money to feed and keep healthy, they require more use of transportation to get vet care and large bags of food, they create messes requiring rersources for cleanup... so the dogfood "jar" would not be a consideration. (*I* will continue to include cats in my family, anyhow -- although maybe the rabbit will not be repeated!!!)

Wow. I can't imagine feeling guilty about having even one small recycling bin, or about visiting my family once a year in France. She seems to view anything other than "perfect" as terrible and shameful (and yet rationalises away other things like having two motor vehicles: get a bike with a big basket and stop carrying 20 jars with you to the store.) . You should treat your environment, fellow man and creatures with care and respect. But no one is perfect and respectful all the time, not even Mother Nature. Even she says "f*ck it" sometimes, and throws a hurricane, or earthquake, or tsunami, or volcanic eruption our way. ;)

I don't understand how her family tolerates this kind of controlling nonsense. We are alive: wouldn't it be a good use of life to do your best to take care of your surroundings, but still, you know, live?

Ummm, how does this family apply stuff like calamine lotion, alcohol or peroxide if they don't use cotton balls? Toilet paper is NOT made for these purposes. I'm with the majority here: this woman is over-the-top insane.

i love this idea
i did something similar at my home
http://theregjoe.blogspot.com/2010/12/perfume-plant-house.html

I agree that paper towels are easy to stop using. A roll lasts me a month or more; I have a stack of dishtowels that can be washed easily. Cotton or linen napkins, not polyester, absorb well, and are much nicer to use than paper. Just plain buying less stuff makes a big impact on the environment. I'm not as obsessed as she is, but I'd rather have more people like her, and fewer people who live a lavish lifestyle, buying and discarding lots of of stuff.

madampince- You would have to use fingers or small peices of cloth instead.

We tend to use fingers to apply things like calomine anyways (but do have cotton balls!), and scarps of rags hold up better if you need to srub any sort of area with chemicals.