Reduce, reuse, recycle: the triad of activities to help the Earth. For us, we will not stop at saving the Earth, though. This group of activities can also help you save money, save time, and be healthier…all of which should make your life one filled with much more happiness. Today, we will focus on the first part of the trio: reduce.

Reducing is the idea of living with less. Recently, this has been popularized by minimalism: the idea of simplifying by removing everything but the necessities from your life. While I certainly like the idea of this movement, I am not telling you to go sell all of your worldly possessions. This is more about being cognizant of your actions. If you are aware of how much of your environment around you that you consume, it can help you possibly cut back in some areas:

Save Money

Think about the hundreds of things that you are overconsuming on a daily basis that could save you money. Since there are so many opportunities to cut back, I recommend that you look into reducing at least a few. Some quick examples I can think of:

• Reduce water: shower less or take shorter showers; don’t leave faucets on while you’re not using them (please don’t leave it running while you’re brushing your teeth)
• Reduce consumer consumption: do you need all of the TV’s, all of those useless toys, or 17 pairs of shoes?
• Reduce waste: realize how much your household eats and don’t buy food that will go bad before you eat it; turn off lights; don’t run your a/c or heater while not home.

Save Time

Now, think about the countless hours you waste over the year that you could gain back by reducing. Which of the below would give you some much needed time back:

• Reduce your dwelling size: think about how much time someone living in a Tiny Home saves on cleaning compared to the average person
• Reduce your number of belongings: ever feel like you can’t find something in the middle of all of your stuff? Maybe try less stuff?…
• Reduce your “need” for luxury: okay, this may be cheating, but it is quite important. Imagine if you decided that you would be happy with less. This could give you years more of time when you don’t need to work to support an extravagant lifestyle.

Be Healthier

I think this is probably something that everyone would enjoy. So let’s see some ways to do this:

• Reduce the junk you’re eating!! The stuff Americans eat is just plain disgusting. Believe me, I love it as much as anyone, but there are much better things for you. If people ate more fruits and veggies it would help their wallets and waistlines, as well as the environment.
• Reduce your driving: think about how much healthier you would be if you walked to the grocery store every weekend instead of drove.
• Reduce the trips to Starbucks: this could easily fit under all three of these topics. What I want to focus on is how they have made it socially acceptable to have 1 (or more) “coffees” a day. In reality, they’ve made it okay to have a morning milkshake, with a tad bit of coffee flavor. This is all while giving out cups that you see discarded everywhere and rarely end up recycled.

So go try a few of these tips for reducing; or maybe you can come up with even better ones that apply directly to you. Enjoy, and reduce to help the environment…and you!