2021 Conscious Commitments


The New Year signifies a passing of time, a shift of letting the past four seasons go and inviting new hopes and dreams onto the horizon. For many, the New Year is also wrought with the stress of the holidays, or in the case of 2020 (AKA one of the worst year's in history), ample opportunity to say bygones to a year of challenges and create a fresh start.

For Better Basics, we don’t like to make restrictive New Years resolutions that leave us feeling bad about ourselves and don't set us up for success. Instead, we use the new year to take time to reflect, learn and evolve. We set some new commitments that truly empower, motivate and bring us joy.

Our mission is to make living a lower impact life more accessible. Here are some 2021 commitments that we feel are within everyone’s wheelhouse and will leave a positive impact for future generations.

Here are our top 6:

Take 5 Before You Buy – A big part of reducing our impact is only consuming what we really need. Sometimes all it takes is taking a pause before you make a purchase. Ask yourself how often you will use it, if you have anything else like it already that you could fix, and if it will last. We like to read the reviews, do some comparing and contrasting to ensure that the item on your list is really going to fulfill all of your needs.

Do Your Homework – Making more conscious choices starts with choosing more natural materials, ingredients and packaging. You can usually find this information right on the label, along with a lot of other helpful pieces of information like is the packaging recyclable, or recycled, are there ingredients or materials that these items have avoided? Does the company have any charitable affiliations or natural or sustainable certifications? 

Start In Your Own Backyard – When you're shopping for groceries, home goods, clothing or presents, start by checking the shops in your local community. Homemade and homegrown is often higher quality, reduces carbon emissions by shorter transportation distance, and supports your local economy.

Create Before You Consume – With all the time we had at home in 2020, many of us picked up some new hobbies. Not only is it rewarding to bake your own bread or knit that scarf, but it is also very sustainable. So, break out those art projects and indulge your inner Martha Stewart – it’s good for the soul and the environment.

Set Yourself Up - Set yourself up with the right eco-friendly side kicks: reusable bags, mason jars, silicone bags and beeswax wraps so you never get caught without the basics.

Reuse What You Can - You can make a massive reduction in your impact by reusing one item twice. Now image reusing an item 100's of time. Before you discard something, think about whether it might have a new use. That pasta jar? Great for your pantry. That wrapping paper? You can save it and reuse it again!