Use them before you replace them

Have you heard of the triple ‘R’? Reduce - Reuse - Recycle, basically this is my mantra in terms of minimalism or in terms of my way of understanding minimalism.

The Triple R approach I use to live a better and more sustainable life.

Recently I inherited a large amount of stuff, basically spices for cooking mostly spice mixes, herbs from mustard seeds to oregano you name it, household items, useful things in general, even though I did not require these items, however these things can be used in my household, it will take time, but I am sure, all those items I “rehoused” if I can call that way, will be used.

The realization of the importance of using all the things available to us and surrounding us always has been close to my heart.

Growing up in modest circumstances meant that we used things until they got broken and could not have been fixed anymore.

In my family I saw my parents cooking basically all of our meals from scratch and it gave me the love for cooking, the smell of freshly prepared delicious food made me curious about how these dishes were made.

I frequently ended up helping my parents and family members in the kitchen and loved eating as a kid, I assure you it did not change till today. The use of spices and seeing my parents drying frequently in the kitchen parsley or spicy Hungarian peppers, freezing dill, freezing soups, freezing stew and carefully placing it in an ice cream container (typical…) and so on and hearing them saying well we cannot waste food, meanwhile others have nothing to eat.

These childhood memories are still strong till today and basically was living a kind of sustainable lifestyle and had a minimalist approach to most things in life even before I knew anything about minimalism or sustainability, even before it was cool just realized we imperfectly but practiced it in our daily lives.

I know for sure the spices and kitchen ware that I received are going to be used and eventually won’t be deemed as clutter even though they may seem like now, but that’s part of the reuse - reduce - recycle approach that helps me making sensible decisions.

The spices eventually are going to be used, instead of going to waste they will serve me well, glass jars/containers will be recycled or reused and that’s what I can call a mini ecosystem, not a perfect ecosystem but the goal of our consumption should be that we are using as much as we need and not more, not less, the issue always has been overconsumption and waste of resources rather than consumption on its own.

I would suggest to think about the triple R method and try to reduce your footprint by not overconsuming the resources, try to fix things instead of replacing them if they can be fixed and don’t waste food or resources in general.

You won’t be perfect, but you can be mindful and a step closer to make this planet a little bit of a better place.

Your sincerely

To/Minimal