How to create a sustainable daily routine

Interested in building sustainability into your life? Want to know how to create a sustainable daily routine? In this posts, I share simple changes to incorporate sustainability into your daily life.

Maybe you are interested in adding more sustainable practices to your daily routine, but aren’t sure of where or how to start. After all, making sustainable changes to your daily lifestyle can sound intimidating. I promise you, though, these changes are easy to make!

Student priorities: quick, easy and cheap.

As a student, I don’t have a lot of free time. When I’m not in class I’m studying, commuting to and from campus, running errands, preparing food or sleeping (not much of the latter, though…). This means that my routine has to be quick, easy and not require a lot of thought beforehand. I haven’t had any trouble incorporating sustainability into my busy schedule. I’ll show you how easy it is to live sustainably in this post!

By sharing my daily routine and all of my sustainable activities, I hope to show you that making change is not intimidating or timely, and can actually be fun! Every change I have made is written in bold so it is clear what I have done, and how you can do it too! When you see how simple these changes are, you may consider adapting some into your own daily routine! Every action we take, however small, can lead us towards a more sustainable world.

Without further ado, here are my tips for how to create a sustainable daily routine.

Starting the day off right.

6:30am– I wake up for class. I drink a glass of water using my metal straw as I get dressed.

My wardrobe consists largely of items from consignment stores or thrift stores. I try not to purchase “fast fashion” clothing items (items with funky prints or patterns that are currently “trendy”) because chances are I’ll get bored of them quickly or they’ll fall out of style in one or two seasons. Instead I opt for solid prints, complimentary colours and cuts that won’t go out of style.

After getting dressed I put on my LUSH moisturizer, which comes in their signature black pot that you can recycle in-store to get a free face mask. I then start applying makeup: I usually keep to just concealer, eyeshadow and mascara. Most of my makeup is by Tarte, a PETA certified cruelty-free company.

The most important meal of the day.

7:00am– time for breakfast. Often this is oatmeal with toppings like flax, chia seeds, hemp hearts, cinnamon, yogurt and frozen fruits. All the toppings are purchased in bulk at my local bulk food store, in reusable containers collected from pasta sauces, take-out food and more. The yogurt I buy is from Canadian dairy farmers, and the frozen fruit is picked during the prime growing season instead of being grown out of country in a greenhouse. Any fruit peels or food scraps I have and can’t repurpose I toss into the compost bin.

Look around the house.

7:30am – I may sound crazy, but this is often when I do chores! I have some free time in the morning before class and way more energy at this time than after classes when I need to study. I may spend this time doing laundry; I only do laundry every one or two weeks, when my load is full. I always wash my clothes and bed sheets in cold water, using a natural detergentto do so. I only use the dryer if majority of my items are dryer-safe; more often than not my clothes need to be hang-dried, so I just use a large clothing rack to hang all my clothes for the day to dry. If I do use the dryer, I use reusable wool dryer balls instead of single-use dryer sheets to help reduce static.

If I don’t need to do laundry, I may vacuum, dust with reusable pieces of cloth, or water my herb plants I use for cooking. I use a mixture of vinegar and water to clean the sink and floors, and to remove any stains on my kitchen counters or the stove top. This is the best natural way to rid of mess without using any harmful synthetic chemicals that could go down the drain and harm water ecosystems. Vinegar is also inexpensive for a large container; some bulk stores even offer it, so you can bring your own reusable container! Vinegar is also what I use to wash the skin of my fruits and veggies. After finishing my breakfast and tea I brush my teeth with my bamboo toothbrush and LUSH toothy tabs, which come in a small post-consumer recycled bottle that I reuse for travelling once it’s empty.

Sustainability on campus.

8:00am– off to class. I pack my lunch with my reusable containers, cutlery and snack bags. I wrap fruits like apples in homemade beeswax wrap and use an old cloth shopping bag to carry everything to work. I fill up my reusable water bottle and head out the door. I walk to class if it’s nice out; if it’s raining or super cold then I will take the bus to campus.

8:30am – 12:00pm: during the day, I still try to exercise sustainable practices. I don’t throw anything away. My snacks are all litterless and homemade(like trail mix or granola bars wrapped in reusable snack bags) and if I purchase a drink like coffee on campus I use my reusable thermos. When I buy a cookie or pretzel at the Environment Student Coffee Shop I ask for a plate or use my own container instead of a napkin.

Eating well on-the-go.

12:00pm: lunch time! I meal prep on Sundays to make my mornings less hectic and to save energy by only using the stove or oven once to make big batches of food rather than individual, smaller portions every day. Lunches are usually homemade soup, bread and a salad with protein, or a bowl rich in carbs, fat, protein and micronutrients. A grain like quinoa or whole wheat pasta are my favourite bases, and then I use whatever vegetables are in season or discounted at the grocery store because they are going “bad” (which often means they simply have a bruise or scratch). Dessert is a homemade treat in my reusable snack bags to save money and waste from pre-packaged treats like candy bars or cookies.

Shopping sustainably.

12:00pm-4:00pm: my classes typically finish early in the afternoon so I have time to study on campus or run errands before dinner. I always have a few reusable shopping bags in my backpack so I am prepared to shop sustainably at any time. I also use reusable mesh produce bags instead of plastic for fruits and vegetables, reducing my waste and sometimes getting me a discount at grocery stores. When they get dirty they can go straight into the wash!

5:00pm-7:00pm: dinner! If I pre-made it (like a giant batch of soup made on Sunday which I can get 10 servings out of—seriously!) I have that and toss together a few other items to round out the meal. If I’m making it from scratch, I’ll usually prep enough for a few nights, or freeze a portion to save time and energy.

Night-time routines

7:00pm: The next few hours are usually filled with studying, so I need to save as much time as I can to fill my brain with knowledge. I take short showers in warm-cold water, only staying in them for the time I need to get washed up (so no standing under boiling hot water for eternity, as nice as it feels). I use my shampoo and conditioner bars from LUSH that I keep in reusable metal containers, and a soap bar I purchased from a local soap maker. I used reusable cloth makeup pads to remove my makeup; I also just bought a bar facial cleanser from LUSH, so my makeup removal routine is now waste-free! I leave virgin coconut oil in my hair to moisturize it, which comes in a glass jar that I either refill with oil at the bulk store or repurpose for another item. I make my own body butter, which I store in reusable containers left over from other beauty products I previously used! I use my same moisturizer from the morning.

When studying or making review notes, I recycle as many materials as I can. I take my class notes on my computer usually to save paper; when I’m practicing calculations, writing practice papers or drawing diagrams, I use old paper from forms, ads and even cereal boxes! I also have a white board that I can reuse again and again to make notes.

10:00pm-10:30pm: this is around the time I’m settling down for the evening. I’ll brush my teeth, add a few drops of essential oils made by another Ontario based company to my diffuser and turn it on, then settle into bed and read until I fall asleep. That’s it for my day!

Reflecting on the day.

As you can see, it’s easy to make small changes in your daily routine that incorporate sustainability. You may think that using one plastic water bottle a day instead of purchasing a reusable bottle is an insignificant change, but think about it this way: if you drink one plastic water bottle a day, every day, for one year, that’s 365 plastic water bottles being wasted by one person every year – and if you drink more water than that (which you should be because 500mL of water is not enough for a day!) that’s hundreds more bottles per person. If everyone in Canada used one plastic water bottle on one day, that would be over 37 MILLION plastic water bottles wasted in just a single day! Same thing for plastic toothbrushes, take-out containers and cutlery, straws, shopping bags – anything that is single-use.

Now, if you swap these items out for reusable items you will be saving time, money and priceless environmental resources! One reusable water bottle can prevent you from throwing away a minimum of 365 plastic bottles a year. Maybe purchasing one 12-pack of water bottles is cheaper than the nicer looking reusable metal bottle at the store, but I can guarantee that the nicer bottle is more durable and cheaper than purchasing 30 12-packs of water bottles for the year. It will also save you trips to the store, money at the movies, amusement parks and on vacations because you can fill your bottle almost anywhere!

Inconvenient? Think again.

I think that one of the greatest barriers preventing us as a society from completely adapting these sustainable routines is the perceived inconvenience that these changes create in our lives. Ugh, I have to carry a reusable water bottle with me when I shop?! No thanks. Wait, but wouldn’t you be doing that if you have a plastic water bottle, too? But I might leave it somewhere! Like what if I’m trying on clothes in a store and leave it in the changeroom…at least I don’t have to worry if I use a plastic bottle! Fair. But do you leave your phone in the store’s changeroom? Do you leave your keys in the changeroom? Do you use single-use phones and keys so you don’t make mistakes like this? My guess is that you don’t.

Everyone hits bumps in the road.

I hear this one a lot: I just forgot! I won’t do it again. I understand that we all forget things sometimes, but the more you commit, the more you pick yourself up and dust yourself off after making these mistakes, the less mistakes you will make. When I first learned to drive, I forgot to turn the headlights off a few times. I learned from these mistakes (mainly because I killed the car battery the first time…) and now I always turn off my lights. Seems so simple and kind of silly, right? It’s second nature once you learn to drive to turn off the lights, to turn your signal on when turning and to check your mirrors – but it seems tricky and somewhat intimidating in the beginning. Then once you start doing these simple tasks you realize how easy they are and never think twice when doing them. Making sustainable switches in your daily routine is no different than learning to drive a car. The changes may seem intimidating at first, but once you start doing them regularly it becomes second nature. You just have to take that first step.

Final thoughts.

If you want to start making your daily routine more sustainable but don’t know where or how to start, use this post as a guide. Spend one day creating a mental (or physical) list of all the actions you take – brushing your teeth, making breakfast, going out for lunch, driving, etc. – then at the end of the day look back at the list and see where you could make a change. Using plastic straws in your iced coffee? Ask for no straw or use your own metal one. Buying a pre-wrapped cookie from your campus store every day? Try making your own. Simple changes, simple actions, huge results. As I’ve shown with the water bottle, one simple action can create a massive change; it’s up to you to determine whether that will be a “good” or “bad” change.

I’m not perfect with my routine. No one is. I still have areas that I want to improve, and I am constantly working to better my routine. I encourage you to start make changes today. Even just one simple change, like walking to school or not using a plastic straw or making your own lunch. If everyone on this earth made one simple, positive change today, that would be 7.5 billion acts helping to shape a sustainable world.

So, what are you waiting for? What will your small action be today?

For more tips on building a sustainable lifestyle, check out these posts:

Until next time.