A Bad Month . . . kind of

This month we have not been very faithful to blogging or to our task. Perhaps when we started we gave ourselves the easy way out. As my wife mentioned, we already do a variety of things that help us reduce waste so part of me believes that this month was a waste. What good did it do to take bulbs out, take shorter showers, and do things we already do (recycle, compost). But I know that is just my desire to do something "BIG" coming out.

Although this month felt slower, it did have some significant impacts.

1) Longevity - This month increased our consciousness about how much we waste. I do believe that most of the time I will take shorter showers, I will not use the lights just to make the room "brighter",  I will rethink about the packaging on food items, etc. Because the month wasn't intense, I believe many of the aspects may be interwoven in the vision of my future (and Alyssa and my future together). Instead of things being "special" they can be normalized behaviors in our life.

2) Reinforcement - Although we already participate in recycling and composting. This intentional month reinforced these actions. And challenged me to better consider how and what I recycle and compost.

3) Intentional Compromise - Not using the heat was annoying. We had a cold March in Santa Barbara (which means 55 during the day) and the nights were very enjoyable. Alyssa and I would come home and put sweats on and eventually get into the bed with blankets (multiple blankets and Alyssa would always try to cuddle . . . .). At one point, it was not longer helpful to have the heat off. We weren't sleeping as well, Alyssa had taken all my body heat, and we were both getting a little agitated with each other. We decided to set a limit (around 64 degrees) to the heater. If we didn't compromise then, by now the heat would be 70+, I may have had no body heat left, and we would be ending the month still agitated.  Because we compromised, we are adjusted to 64 and probably will keep that as our standard temperature when we use heat (We like each other too . .  . and my body is doing just fine). Too often compromise is labeled failure, but it can be an honest readjustment of goals towards something that makes more sense. We realized this change was too fast for us and that if we wanted it to stick that we needed to slow down . . .

This next month might be hard though . . . 7 items of clothes a week. . . stick around for the details.

March: Adopting 7 ways to reduce waste

Wow....life really must be busy for us as we've been struggling lately to keep up with our blogging. February seemed to be crazy for us--Josh's job was literally crazy all month, some challenges for us occurred, we traveled quite a bit on the weekends, and I took on more and new responsibilities at work. Needless to say, we have felt emotionally and physically drained in many ways. However, it didn't stop us from our journey to simplify :)

Giving away possessions for me last month was difficult. Our goal was to each give something away each day. I must say, Josh was pretty good about this and did a great job of thinking about this everyday. I, however, was too overwhelmed with daily life to think about the one thing I wanted to give away. It was easier for me to take one day and get rid of a lot of things all at once. Hence, the picture in the previous post. I actually felt relieved to get rid of things I didn't need anymore. So refreshing and freeing!! So, I'd say I gave away more than 28 items but I struggled with having to think about it every.single.day.

For this month, we are going to be adopting 7 ways to reduce waste. We already do some of them, but this is what we're doing:

1) Reduce the use of light--Josh has taken out some lightbulbs in our apartment. This has been hard for me as I like BRIGHT lights! It helps me to feel secure when I'm home by myself...like these next 5 days while Josh is away at a conference.

2) Not using heat--This was SO difficult this last week as there were multiple nights during the week where it was really cold. One night, I slept with 3 blankets, long sleeves, and long pants.

3) Buying only local fruits and vegetables--Going to the Farmer's Market, Whole Foods, and another local place called Tri-County Produce

4) Composting--Josh takes care of this. We have a tub on our back porch for composting. He puts our food scraps in there for the worms to eat.

5) Being mindful about how much we use our cars--We have 2 cars, so just trying to think more about how we use transportation.

6) 5 Minute Showers--This one is particularly hard for me. I love taking long, hot, showers!

7) The 2 that we already do that we will continue to do: recycling and bringing our own bags when we grocery shop

Thanks again for following us!