Changes in everyday sustainability practices
Now as I'm healing and feeling liberated, I can again think more about my everyday sustainability practices. I've been contemplating how living with my partner changed some aspects of my mode of being. This change doesn't mean my mode of being is worse or less sustainable. It's just different in some ways. In some ways it is perhaps less sustainable, but in others more so.
I no longer live furniture-free. I lived without furniture for more than half a year, and prior to that I'd owned no furniture. It's not something I ever wanted to own and I wanted to move more. My fellow humans often ask me if I had a bed while I lived furniture-free. I didn't have a bed, I slept on a yoga mat. I wanted to experiment, to take less from the Earth (i.e., furniture requires resources to come into being), to feel free to move both indoors and out of the country. When I moved in with my partner, I realised this would not work. We live in a very small studio apartment. Keeping everything on the floor felt disorganised. Our very few possessions seemed to take up much of the floor space. The space didn't feel cosy. In Denmark it's not as warm indoors as it was in Sweden and Finland, so it was cold to sleep on the floor. We agreed to have a bench, a clothes rack, a table, the chairs my partner brought from his previous apartment, and a bed frame. We are not planning to get more furniture or ever replace the pieces of furniture we now live with.
We maintain many of my sustainability practices. My partner adopted many of them too, and some of our practices were the same even before we moved in together. We recycle. Recycling may seem an obvious practice but whenever I take my waste to the recycling area, I always notice that so often my fellow humans don't sort their waste. It is so common to see cardboard and plastic in mixed waste bins. Waste recycling here in my municipality in Denmark looks very similar to that in Sweden and Finland. There are some minor differences but I don't feel that I had to spend much time on learning to sort waste here. My partner is Danish and I asked him a few questions about recycling to make sure I do it correctly, though of course I could get the same information online or on the waste bins. To prevent creating waste in the first place, we try to choose zero-waste options whenever possible, but it's not always possible.
I've noticed that time in the biggest constraint to zero-waste practices even when zero-waste options are generally available. To shop purely zero-waste is time-consuming. I would need to go to numerous supermarkets and other stores to get everything without packaging. It is not impossible but it would take a great amount of time. We shop in a local supermarket that has many organic options. Generally I've noticed that in Denmark organic options are easy to find. It feels there are many more of them than in Sweden and Finland where I used to live.
We don't have a car and use only public transport. My partner has a bicycle and I don't. I might get one later but so far I prefer walking. Trains here in Denmark are very expensive. Generally we stay within our local area. Our area has many green spaces nearby and it feels good to live here. I often wonder how I would feel about living in my local area if I lived elsewhere, not in my current place.
We acquired a vacuum cleaner, which is something I lived without. I used to clean the floor by hand, but our current apartment is somewhat bigger than the studio flat I used to live in, and it would take much of my time to clean the floor by hand. I used to handwash all my clothes and textiles. Now we have shared washing machines in our apartment block. I like this a lot. In Finland I briefly lived in a place with a similar system but one didn't have to pay to use the shared washing machines. My neighbours used to wash their clothes and textiles very often and at times only one or a few items. Here in Denmark we pay when we use the shared washing machines, and our neighbours seems to use them more rarely and efficiently.
I've noticed that both my partner and I seek happiness and joy in simple everyday practices. We don't travel far away, don't go shopping for entertainment. We enjoy walking and cooking. At times he plays guitar. We read and write.
Both of us try to shop in small and independent stores, though this is not always possible.
We use very simple skincare and zero-waste personal care items.
We share a lot. Naturally we share everything in the household, but also we don't separate our budget. I wear my partner's clothes often. We don't feel the need to buy separate items (e.g., shampoo, reusable cotton bags and soap) for us. Sharing is an important sustainability practice.
Having a very similar taste helps us. Both of us like neutral colours and natural materials. We don't mind imperfections. In fact we celebrate them rather than replace an item as soon as there is an imperfection such as a small stain or a rip. We don't decorate our home with store-bought items designed for this purpose. Fruits, herbs and vegetables that we use every day serve as temporary decoration. They are incredibly beautiful. We also have some stones we picked up in the Nordics.
I believe that having similar values helps us practice sustainability together well. Both of us are researchers looking into sustainability transformations. We try to translate this into our everyday life too.
Some of the aspects of our lives we don't share. For example, my partner has a child from his previous relationship with whom he often spends time. I don't know much about that aspect of his life and the practices in that area.