Minimizing household garbage

I just paid $300 for a junk hauler to come and take away a pile of garbage from my house. Aside from it being ridiculously expensive, I also feel like a schmuck for creating so much garbage when the environment is in such bad shape.

So, I have been doing some thinking and reading about ways that we can cut down on the garbage we generate at home.

Obviously the easiest thing we can do is recycle. We have bins from the city and they pick it up every week--all we have to do is make sure we put the recycle items in the bins and not the garbage cans. Simple.

Other ways we can reduce waste is by only buying what we need. As I was going through all the old boxes in my garage, I realized how much stuff I had bought in the past year--and about half of it is stuff I didn't even have anymore or had given away.

We can also buy stuff that doesn't come in layers and layers of packaging. Or buy items that are used. If we are going to buy new, buy items that are the best quality we can afford and then maintain and repair them rather than just throwing them out after using them for a short time.

Also, you can eliminate paper waste now in a lot of ways: paying bills online, reading the newspaper online, etc.

I'd love to hear some other ideas about ways to reduce household waste.