How many bags of trash does your household produce a week? What's in them? Keep track of everything in and out of the house for a week. The more of these steps you do the better, but doing any combination of them that gets you down to one bag of trash a week will allow you to check them all off and complete this particular guide.

Before something goes into the garbage or recycling, consider if it actually garbage or if it can be reused in some way. Consider trying to sell larger items on Craigslist or Ebay or giving them away to the Salvation Army, Goodwill, or Freecycle. Know what sorts of reuse centers you have in your community.

Complete our guide on recycling everything you can.

Complete our guide on composting everything you can.

Consider the packaging of the products you buy. There is no reason for materials to go straight from the store into the trash. Look to see if your municipality requires manufacturers to take back their packaging.

Do what it takes to get down to one bag of trash a week. If you've completed all of these steps and still can't do it, raise a flag or ask for help in our discussion section until you manage to accomplish your goal. Make sure you can keep it up for a couple of weeks before checking off this final step.