I'm Stephanie Safarian and this is episode 80.

You are listening to the Sustainable Minimalist Podcast, a show about living simply and sustainably with your family.

Here's your host, Stephanie Safarian.

Hello there and welcome back.

Today we are talking about the super popular phrase in the lowest and zero waste communities, which is use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without.

Maybe you have heard this phrase before. I'm guessing you have, but before this phrase ever became the anthem of modern day

Zero Waste Living, it was our grandparents' realities.

Our grandmothers and our grandfathers use stuff up or they wore it out or they

made do or they simply did without before zero waste or low waste living was even a thing.

The truth is we can learn an awful lot from our grandparents examples

and that's what this episode addresses today.

So right off the bat, today I am asking you to keep some things, 13 things to be exact.

And at first glance or at first listen doing so may appear to be completely

contradictory to minimalism, right? I'm asking you to keep things.

Minimalism is all about letting items go. So why on earth would I ask you to keep some stuff around?

Well, there's a balancing act to be had between minimalism and zero waste living living and the balance that feels right for you and

your life and in your particular circumstances is what we're seeking to uncover today.

For me my balance between low Waste Living and minimalism means that I won't

and really I just can't throw something out that I can reuse and thus save me from an unnecessary purchase down the line.

Now if you are a minimalist through and through and the thought of saving anything

makes you cringe, don't despair. I purposely picked the items we're talking

about today because they don't take up a lot of space and many of them can save you money

...