A walking reusable roadshow and Rockin' Bags

Living a non-disposable life means a lot of things. Once you make that decision to truly live *with* Attachment and Presence to your life and your surroundings there's really no going back. All of a sudden the blinders are off, you see all that is around you, you're connecting and it's no longer cool to just 'get that to go please'. Now you see where the waste doesn't go (away)...

It's wonderful, refreshing, fulfilling and... sometimes a colossal pain in the...asana (haha, yep I totally made that lame joke).

Trying to live a non-disposable life can get pretty tricky. I have a non-disposable, reusable option for almost everything and walking to work can be a total musical roadshow. Kinda like that puppet on Sesame Street (before they went PG) who sold letters. Remember him? Lefty the salesman. 'Do you want to buy a Klean Kanteen? How about a glass container? Yes?'

Walking to work I sound like a klinking, klonking traveling musician all bundled up with scarf, mittens and hat.

My reusable arsenal for work:

• small plate, fork and spoon (always left at work in my desk-cleaned)
• lunch in my stainless steel lunchbox and/or a few glass containers
• Klean Kanteen water bottle
• Klean Kanteen coffee carafe (yay Yulemas and delivering excellent gifts!)
• Loose tea options in mason jars (kept at work)
• coffee and tea mugs complete with attachable strainer (left at work)

Walking to the ferry with a stainless steel lunchbox, glass containers, water bottle and coffee mug PLUS my work bag gets to be a bit much. And such a colossal pain.

Part of my solution won't be switching to plastic... but a better carrying bag. Months ago I purchased this beautiful purse from LoveMe Boutique made by Toronto based Mariclaro. I heart my purse VERY much and was surprised at just how beautiful these bags truly are... the website really doesn't do them justice for some reason. Since my regular work bag (of two years) broke a few months ago, I've been searching for a sustainable and practical solution, other than another Lulu, made in China with petrochemical synthetic materials bag.

Mariclaro has ridiculously fabulous bags. They are all hand cut and sewn using recycled materials (car upholstery, seat belts, tarps) in Toronto. My purse is uber sturdy, comfy and beautifully made. I've been drooling over this Aries Sport Bag for months now and have finally just decided to just suck it up and buy it. (It's like this one, or more like these, but green, orange and mostly off-white- etsy takes the bags off once you order them). All are one of a kind, which is another little cool bit. This bag should fit my bottles, lunch tin AND my agenda and work stuffs, with an over the shoulder strap perfect for walking. It's really too bad they don't have any yoga mat bags...THAT would be cool. Maybe in the future? :)

I'm also hoping this bag will help out during my copious amounts of work-related travels that are happening soon. In January I made a few trips around the province and had to bring another slew of reusable containers, including my yoga mat. Travels to come:

Yarmouth and Clare Nova Scotia for a week
Ottawa for a week (training! any fabulous yoga studio suggestions while I'm there?)
Montreal for a week (WOOT! CASLPA conference here I come! Roseanne, we are so meeting up for coffee- right? Oui, Oui!)

How about you my yoga-eco-peeps? How are you managing the adjustment to a non-disposable, connected life?

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com