I once aspired to design my home’s interior the way I saw design done in my favorite home decor catalogs, which is to say I chased an aesthetic that was white, pristine, and contemporary. But doubling down on what’s new and in style left little room for displaying trinkets with stories, passed-down but quality furniture, and antiques that infuse uniqueness. I had created a beautiful space, yes, but it was an impersonal one. Unimaginative, even. This week, I speak with...

Read More Read More

The post Intentional Interior Decorating appeared first on Sustainable Minimalists.

Curating a Healthy House What’s eco-friendly also tends to be non-toxic, and if you’re like most sustainable minimalists, you likely aspire to curate a healthy house that supports your eco-minimalist ideals. Yet non-toxic products can be difficult to find; they tend to be expensive, too. Today I’m speaking with the brains behind Shades of Green, Angela Wade and Ellen Strickland. Shades of Green is a sustainable shopping platform that’s committed to creating healthier living spaces by sourcing only non-toxic, environmentally-friendly...

Read More Read More

The post Curating a Healthy House appeared first on Sustainable Minimalists.

How to Host a (No Plastic) Party   Like to entertain but hate the overwhelm? Join the club. While it feels so right to open your home to your loved ones for dinner parties, barbecues, and holidays, being chained to the kitchen (and the dirty dishes!) feels oh, so wrong. The alternative is equally cringe-worthy: Heaps of plastic plates, cups, and cutlery in the trash? No thanks. This week, I speak with Repurpose founder Lauren Gropper. Lauren believes hosts and...

Read More Read More

The post How to Host a (No Plastic) Party appeared first on Sustainable Minimalists.

Why is it that, in times of fear, society reverts back to relying on single-use disposables? COVID-19 will have lasting effects on the environmental movement. While some of such effects—like embracing forced slowness, for example—took cars off the road and reduced worldwide carbon emissions in the short-term, our propensity toward fear-based buying over the past year has littered the planet. Indeed, communities that fought long and hard to ban single-use items embraced them during the pandemic; there’s the plastics problem,...

Read More Read More

The post The Pandemic Versus The Planet appeared first on Sustainable Minimalists.

Palm oil: Ever hear of it? Imports of the stuff to the United States have risen a whopping 263% in the last 15 years and, these days, it’s in our toothpaste, our shampoo, our pet’s food, our makeup, and more. Palm oil is in nearly everything, and its cultivation has dire consequences for our planet. This week, I speak with award-winning journalist and author Jocelyn Zuckerman. Jocelyn traveled to 4 continents to research the ripple effects of palm oil’s rise,...

Read More Read More

The post Why is Palm Oil Bad? appeared first on Sustainable Minimalists.

Sustainable toys provide countless benefits to both children and the planet yet, still, finding such toys can be difficult. What, exactly, makes a toy sustainable? Are wooden toys (ahem … Melissa & Doug) considered eco-friendly simply because they are made of wood? These days, most toys are made of plastics; stuffed animals and dolls are also made of artificial (read: plastic) fibers. Through a complex chemical process, plastic toys are made from fossil fuels and eventually break into many small pieces,...

Read More Read More

The post The Lowdown on Wooden Toys appeared first on Sustainable Minimalists.

How To Be Happy In A Small Home   Choosing to live in a small home is one of the most basic ways we can both reduce our carbon footprints and curb unnecessary spending. Indeed, while living small (not necessarily tiny!) is the epitome of sustainable minimalism, it can be difficult to intentionally embrace less square footage in a culture that suggests bigger is best. It’s a real conundrum: We revere space, but we also revere eco-simplicity. Can we have...

Read More Read More

The post How To Be Happy In A Small Home appeared first on Sustainable Minimalists.

When humans solve problems, we often overlook an incredibly powerful option: Subtraction. We add baskets and bins to fix organizational issues within the home. We buy new clothes when we find ourselves frustrated with our wardrobes. In correspondence, we get loquacious in efforts of making our points. In design fields, we add elements to improve “flow”. In short, addition rules. But intentional subtraction is a powerful practice that’s rewarding, fun, and backed by science. And once we retrain our brains to...

Read More Read More

The post In Defense of Subtraction appeared first on Sustainable Minimalists.

The Circular Economy’s Benefits for You and Me   ** Like this show? Want to help it grow? Please leave it a quick review on Apple Podcasts, and thank you! **    Our “take-make-waste” economy has cost consumers billions of dollars and has cheated us out of an inhabitable planet.  But it doesn’t have to be this way: embracing a circular economy will save taxpayer money, preserve resources, and lead to an estimated $4.5 trillion in economic growth. Even better?...

Read More Read More

The post Circular Economy Benefits appeared first on Sustainable Minimalists.

Finding your Minimalist Mindset   It’s often the case that we are our own worst enemies. It’s easy to fall back into old habits and old ways of thinking—it’s too easy, in fact, to revert to what we’ve always done. Indeed, in my capacity as host of this podcast, I often hear the same struggle from you, my listeners: it’s really darn hard to both find and maintain your minimalist mindset for the long haul in a culture that glorifies...

Read More Read More

The post Finding your Minimalist Mindset appeared first on Sustainable Minimalists.