With little space in a small household, it is smart to come up with creative ways how to sort garbage. Read below, what option we came up with?

With a new home usually comes emptiness, also in the garbage and in the recycling section. With a limited place and a buy less mindset, we decided that we need really a little section for the waste. Moreover, if we are looking more into a zero-waste and plastic-free household.

We would need three containers for the garbage: paper/cardboard, waste, and packages. Yep, just three sections, as this is what the rules are in our building. Usually, there should be also a fourth section for organic waste. We were used to collecting it. I guess we have to come up with something if we want to keep the garbage container emptier.

Working out a simple solution

The other day I was doing grocery shopping and I put my purchase in a cardboard box. I found a suitable one in the middle of the aisle, laying on the floor. The stores are oftentimes giving these away by the cash checkouts, some can be found by the bins and at the end of aisles. In bigger stores, you can find workers constantly stocking up the shelves, just like I got ours. Luck was at my side, as the box I had brought home was just enough to fit all three small plastic bags for our sorting purposes.

We are trying to become plastic-free step by step. But we do not believe in trashing bags and containers that we already have just to be free of them. Instead, we are using up all the suitable plastic we have somehow brought home with purchased food. We are getting the weekly specials of many stores weekly. I find the idea of such bundles great, but the papers come in a plastic sleeve. For some time it was fun to go through the offers, recycling them and using the sleeve for the garbage collecting.

We do not really like the weekly bundles, so I guess we will put out a sign not to receive any advertising, as this is just too much. So we will start receiving less garbage in the mail.

A small box is all you need!

The little cardboard box has enough room to fit three little bags. We really do not fill them much, as we really do not have much garbage or packaging. Cardboard or paper is something we gather the most. Good thing is that it all gets nicely recycled. When the plastic bag is full, we do not throw it away but reuse the plastic as long as possible. With waste and packaging, we can’t always practice it, due to messy contents. If there is an option we will do that, so we can reuse plastic more times.

The ideal would be to fold three boxes out of the newspaper and keep the garbage area organized that way. I guess something to try out in the future!

*UPDATE: before going to our summer holidays we taped a sign outside of the box saying: “No ads!”. Unfortunately, it didn’t work.

* Fall UPDATE: we added to the sign: “and no free newspapers!” As many free papers come with ads in between. It worked this time. This little hand-made sign of cut-out letters from the store booklets saves paper and more plastic coming into our home.

… A note from Eve: 

I am proud of our garbage system! It’s encouraging to see how little garbage we make as a family of 2. When we walk on our street home, we are baffled by the bags and bags on trash sitting out. We are glad that we know is a better way, and we are living proof of this! By not buying much processed and packaged food, we have cut our garbage down considerably.