Small Things DO Make A DIfference

Sometimes with the drudgery of trying to keep things simple and taking extra effort in lots of small ways to save and conserve, you sometimes wonder if it's making a difference in the grand scheme of things. You know since there are so many people who don't care gobbling up the world's resources without a second thought.

With only a couple of simple changes, our power bill from February to April has gone down nearly $30 (new bill: $86 for 2 months). That's $180, which is more than 4 months of electricity use we conserved in two months.

"With weekly use of just one reusable bag at the grocery store, each person can divert approximately 100 plastic bags from ending up in landfill sites each year". Click on that for one of the many bags we use for shopping. Cloth bags are great as they hold so much. They're also easier to lug around, sturdier and it's great knowing one small thing can make such a huge change.

"If every household in Canada replaced 1 roll of virgin toilet paper with 1 roll of recycled toilet paper we could save thousands of trees for more highly valued uses." Even though we use mostly cloth (except DH ;) ), after the toilet paper we do have in our storage is used up, I am going to switch to this. It's generally not any more expensive than the other ones. Now I don't agree with what they say about it may take more energy to use reusable since we wash everything in cold water. I don't care what they say, cold can wash clothes clean without special formulas. Our homemade laundry detergent is super effective, super simple and cheap to make. I'll post the recipe later.

Use compact fluorescent bulbs wherever possible in your home. They use 75% less electricity than traditional bulbs and last years longer. One compact fluorescent bulb can save you three times its cost in electricity. We have been using them for more than 2 years now and it really does make a difference. We have also switched to all LED nightlights. They cost pennies a year to run. The one we have in our family bedroom is sensitive to light so when it's dark, it comes on but at night, it doesn't. I believe the label said it costs less than a dollar a year to leave it plugged in all the time.

Cloth diapers make a huge difference. If you take all the disposable diapers a baby would use in a week, put it all in a bag and leave it in your kitchen, how pleasant would that be? Imagine that, every week your child is in diapers, sitting in a landfill somewhere, not able to decompose in plastic garbage bags buried in the earth, full of human waste, which is technically illegal to put in most landfill sites, multiplied by each person alive, as that's how many diapers there would be if no one used alternatives. Considering some kids don't potty train until they are 3-4 years old (I know, many train earlier), that is a LOT of waste. For some REALLY good facts on the toll disposable diapers have, Check Out This Website: Real Diaper Association. I like that site so much, I will add it to my links here :)

Another is reusable containers. Where I live, it is estimated that anywhere from 25-35% of all garbage on the side of the road are Tim Horton's coffee cups, which are made from non-recyclable, non compostable materials. Walking down any street in town, you can see how bad this situation is. Now, we have three Tims in our tiny little town, and they are always packed to the gills. They actually had to rebuild one so the drive-thru traffic would no longer interfere with one of the main streets in town (it still often does though). So we have hundreds and hundreds of people hourly getting coffee from just one chain in these cups that will never break down. It's almost mind boggling how much waste that would add up to over time. They offer alternatives for reusable containers but few take them up on it. I think there should be greater incentive for that or they should at least switch to compostable cups (other places have done that). Fortunately it's not an issue for me since I don't even go to Tims, I just have to wallow in it's filth. An article from a few years ago (they didn't solve the problem and it's worse now). Here's a blog which gives a great visual impact of the cup problem.

Wow, those are just a few of the many, many things that may be small changes but make a huge difference.

Frenchy Shopping & The Compact

I may mention this here time to time that I/we've gone Frenchy shopping. What this means is we've gone to one of the many second hand stores in our area :). Guy's is the chain, but there are lots of them in thetown where I live.

I have come to realize that I cannot abide by the no spending rule I wanted to uphold. I will do reduced spending, which is more realistic. I will do smarter shopping.

Why am I mentioning all this? Well, mom took the kids and I Frenchy shopping yesterday. I wasn't going to buy anything but it was hard. I bought some scrapbooking supplies, books (a bunch of great ones I've had my eye on), a scarf for me (handpainted silk, lovely!), an interlocking squares mat and Mr. Potatohead for the kids. I didn't touch the clothes knowing how much we had just gotten rid of. I'm not going to feel bad. While mom was doing her retail shopping, I brought the kids to the playground. I really could have done without getting the kids a toy but I thought the compromise of one toy was better than the dozens they were bringing to me while we were there.

I have been reading a lot lately about The Compact. I'm surprised I haven't mentioned it lately as I find it so facinating and it gave me the inspiration to go ahead and simplify my life, even though I don't feel ready to commit yet. I first heard about it on the Mothering message boards.

Links:

• Yahoo Group
• Compact Blog
• An Article
  
• What really got me inspired to simplify my life; a must see!!

Basically:
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• To go beyond recycling in trying to counteract the negative global environmental and socioeconomic impacts of disposable consumer culture and to support local businesses, farms, etc. -- a step that, we hope, inherits the revolutionary impulse of the Mayflower Compact.
• To reduce clutter and waste in our homes (as in trash Compact-er).
• To simplify our lives (as in Calm-pact)

We've agreed to follow two principles (see exceptions etc. on our blog).

#1 Don't buy new products of any kind (from stores, web sites, etc.)
#2 Borrow, barter, or buy used.

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I couldn't find the exceptions on the blog but I may not of looked hard enough. I think some of the exeptions would probably include items that fall under the category of health and safety, food, possibly crafts and things needed for livelyhood (example, if you need clothes or footwear for work). I would say some homeschooling items would have to fall in the category of need to buy but some may debate that. I think it is a matter of finding what works for you and doing the best you can to reduce the impact you have on the earth.

Going Shopping

This is sometimes the first place we can generate the greatest change. We have to evaluate our shopping habits. Every time we pick something up, some of the questions we should ask ourselves are, "Do I NEED this? If I buy this, will I use it? How often will I use it? Will it enrich my life? Will it end up being something I resent for taking up space and wasting valuable resources? Why do I want it? Can I live without it?" and so on. I find with a lot of items, I don't even get past the do I need it. Quite often it is something I can live without.

For example. The kids LOVE shopping at Dollarama, the place where everything costs a dollar. I usually say they can each get a toy. One will usually get a book and the other a piece of junk that barely makes it home. This week I managed to talk the child with the junky toy into getting toy furniture that we could go home, put together then paint. After spending 5 minutes talking him into it and out of the goopy stuff we could make at home (lol, persistent preschoolers!), we moved on. I started grabbing things I thought I needed, you know that lovely impulse shopping bug. Some things not so bad like a big roll of kraft paper for me to make wrapping paper (so much more paper on a roll than wrapping paper and I have the fun of stamping it :) ) and a pedometer, which I want to track my steps since I want to get to 10000 a day (and far exceeded it yesterday, yay!). However the lure of the summer isle was almost too much to bear. I started forgetting I wanted to be simple. That evil impuse attractively dressed in things we want. As we walked to the checkout, I started giving DH things to put away and by the time we paid, we truly had the things we needed. After we left, I told the kids we were not going there any more and if they wanted Dollarama junk, they would have to get their grandmothers to buy it. I probably shouldn't of said that though.

I know my need for stuff comes from being poor as a child. It's not that we didn't have a lot of stuff but I was always scared there wouldn't be more so I would hoard what I had. I don't want my children to think that. I want them to grow up appreciating the simplicity in having little but appreciating what they have. DH and I are both pack rats and it's hard letting go. People are always giving us stuff and it's hard to say no, but we have to start. We are so scared of hurting people's feelings that we end up suffering. Our parents give us bags of stuff almost weekly, mostly clothes for the kids. Our darling children could clothe about 10 children with the excess and do not need more clothing. Our pleas of "No more" fall on deaf ears. I think most will henceforth be donated to people who really need it, or at least something will be in it's place if it's something really nice ;)

I kind of went off track there, but I think there's a lot to be said for really thinking about what you are buying. A little here and there adds up over time. Are you bringing in more than you're putting out? If you are trying to simplify, more should be going out than what you are bringing in.

Right now, I am waiting for the weather to warm so I can have a massive yard sale. However I daily look at all I want to get rid of and wonder....will I last that long? I want this out of the house. The clothes I have no problem giving away but I would like to recoup some of my loss by selling the good stuff. We don't get tax credit here like they do in the states (plus we give our max in charitable donations in other ways so it wouldn't help). After I have sold what I want to, THEN the big purge will begin.

Every Journey Begins With A Single Step

I have been living elements of simple living without really pulling it all together. I guess Simple Living might not be the proper term for what I am doing, but rather what the end result will be. I wish to live a greener life. To tread lightly upon the earth and raise enviromentaly responsible children. I want to lessen our footprints upon the earth and give back some of what we have taken.

This is taken from another blog of mine with the gist of some of my goals:

• No more using store bags. We will bring cloth bags or totes when we do our shopping.
• No more buying chemical cleaners. When what we have runs out, we will use natural alternatives (I will be giving away most of the cleaners we have, except the Tide Free we just got and dish detergent, which I will find hard to give up). Vinegar, baking soda and essential oils expected to be mainstays and I'm going to try to find Dr. Bonner's soap somewhere.
  
• Moving towards natural body care. I would like to go shampoo free and start using natural soaps. Eventually move towards natural toothpaste or baking soda. We have rock deodorant but I never think to use it.
• Cloth for bathroom use. TP is a huge expense and I feel bad as I flush so much of it down. When I read how many forests are clear cut in the name of disposable paper products, it makes me sick. We're also going to stop using disposable diapers (we usually don't use them, but DS has been getting rashes with cloth at night. We'll just use liners. The biggest size is getting hard to get around his hips anyway plus DD wants to wear them too so even just 2 a night adds up over time). I also totally use cloth for menstration now.
  
• No disposable paper products. We've actually been doing pretty good with this anyway. We always use cloth napkins and I probably go through a small roll of paper towel every couple of months, but it's just as easy to use cloth.
• Walk more. I need to anyway as it's good for my health. Plus if we walk to shop, we will buy less. I would love to go car free but it would be limiting not to go farther than we can walk with the kids (like parks, beaches, vacations, to visit parents, shop at stores out of town, ect...). Maybe someday :)
  
• Buy less. We don't need as much stuff as we have. We need to stop buying things we only use once or twice and end up in the garbage. This is really hard with the kids as they love dollar store junk. Buy quality over quantity. Buy second hand when possible.
  
• Replace all lightbulbs with the energy efficient ones. This we have mostly done. I am noticing a few that weren't changed that I will do soon. It really does make a difference.
• Be more energywise. Shut off lights not being used, unplug things not being used, turn off computer moniters when not in use, make better use of cooking heat, use crockpot more, ect..
• Hang all clothes to dry. This is way easier than it sounds. We save a ton of money by doing it too. We could probably easily get rid of the dryer, but I hate to.
• Be more diligent in recycling and cutting down garbage. Right now, we have an elaborate system for our garbage so we have to. Garbage goes in clear bags, paper goes in a blue bag, other recyclables go in another bag and we have a compost bin. I would love to only have to put garbage out every other week or once a month (other than compost).
• Eat healthier. I am trying to make all our own foods and cut out buying processed junk. Thing is we have a lot of that in the house in our year's supply of storage. I'm trying to find the middle ground. I would eventually like to go vegetarian but the thought scares DH, lol! I would like to go more organic but our budget can't really handle it with the cost of food around here. Eventually!!!
  
• Garden. We are attempting to garden. The kids each have a planter they have planted a veggie they like in it and I have prepared an area out front for planting if the weather ever warms up. MIL said we could have a little patch of their garden to put some things in too.
• Use the library more instead of buying so many books.
• Reuse items or donate to charity if still in good condition but not needed. Reduce the clutter by at least half....and then some more.
  

Ok, this is not everything I want to do but it's a start. The hardest thing for me is giving up the books. Since we homeschool and the kids and I are bookworms, we'll have to find some middle ground. I have already started using the library a lot more and buying a lot less. I'm sure we could get rid of a lot of books if we tried.

I guess what I will be doing is blogging about the steps that we are taking and explain in more detail what we are doing and why. In short, I think we can be happier with less. I know I would personally be happier dealing with less mess and clutter, lol!