(this picture is unrelated and blurry and messy. but. i love it)
- Hanging our clothes to dry. We have had a little foldable drying rack for at least 12 years, and used it off and on for workout clothes and sweaters. But for the last 6 months or so, we have been drying all our clothes on it. We have central heating, so everything dries fast. I actually love the 5 minutes it takes to hang the clothes. It feels monotonous and relaxing to me. And I’m usually listening to a podcast with my Bluetooth headphones while doing laundry, so it’s actually super enjoyable. Our power company sends us updates on how we are doing with power use, and since making this one single change, we have a great score on power use.
- No new clothes. I am almost done my second year of no new clothes. We make lots of exceptions like shoes, socks, swimsuits. I also got a few pieces (lululemon sweats) from my family for Christmas. But mostly, I feel done with new clothes. Also, Jon and I share clothes sometimes. the shirt in the above photo is both of ours.
- Recycling. Of course, we have always done this, but we are trying to be even better. We brought in a recycling bin at work for all those drink bottles in the staff room. And our town has just started a pilot program for recycling glass. So that’s huge for kombucha lovers like us.
- Buying only comsumables for gifts. I started this last year, and it is not hard at all. I just can't add to the plastic people have in their homes. All the parents I know have so many plastic toys in their homes, and are always trying to get rid of them. So I just can't give plastic toys as gifts anymore. So for birthday parties we now do markers and a gift card to the bookstore. Definitely kids are less excited about opening our gifts. But I don't care. And for my girlfriends and family I try to do skincare or bath bombs from Lush or wine.
- Library books. We love books so much over here. But after I read a book (and Jon sometimes reads it too), I pass it on, and I don't know what happens to it. So reading library books makes more sense.
For some reason, for me, all this stuff seems even more important now, in the time of coronavirus. I want to be more minimal now. I want our house to be easier to clean. I want less stuff coming in to it. Also, being home with the boys for 14 days straight now has shown me what stuff they are interested in playing with. For my boys, its lego and duplo, and craft stuff. Alllll the white paper and markers and tape and scissors. And board games. The toy box filled with plastic toys? Not getting much action. Jon and I are in a more financially worrisome position than we ever have been thanks to coronavirus, and I just want us to be buying less stuff and have less debt. So that's where I'm at right now.
No comments:
Post a Comment