52 Weeks of Simplicity. What a crazy idea, right? How many things can one person do towards simplifying their life? I am about to find out. I wrote out a list of things I have done so far. Each one has simplified my life because it has either allowed me more time, more money and/or a stronger connection with the planet and other living beings, so that I myself am living more simply, or simply allowing another to live.
- Don't buy anything at all, or buy used items.
This one took me a long time to finally master. It is REALLY hard to go upstream from mainstream. Advertisements truly are everywhere (despite the fact that I don't watch tv) and we have been "trained" to want to buy things all the time. I started with a simple rule: Never buy anything new unless I am absolutely in love with it (on very rare occasions I buy new). If there is anything about it that I don't like, don't buy it. Why? I started noticing a trend with my purchasing; whenever I settled on an item, I always ended up buying something else to try to compensate for the disappointment. I can always reason with myself that if I have gone this long in my life without that item, how badly do I really need it? In order to "fill the void" of shopping, I settled for buying used. That way, I am only indirectly impacting the environment. The additional perk? Not buying anything at all means 100% more money than had I bought something, and buying used means only spending a fraction of what I would have spend on a new item. This frees up money to use on more important and needed items. We have zero recreational debt (ie. We only owe for the house and car).
- Follow a vegetarian lifestyle.
I won't get too much into this one here. A few of my other blog posts touch on this topic already. Now, that being said, I fell of my path to vegan, but you can bet you'll see that one on one of my 52 Weeks of Simplicity.
- Cut back on washing my hair.
While in hairstyling school I learnt that your scalp produces the exact right amount of oil for your hair. When you wash your hair, you are sending your scalp a message that it needs to produce more oil. More washing literally means more oil. Once your hair finds a good balance (aka. There is an adjustment period as your scalp learns to produce less oil, but it will!) you only need to wash it every once in a while (I do it once a week, but I once went 3 months. I plan to wean off more).
- Cut back on showering.
I also realised that taking a shower every single day in our society (unless your job leaves you feeling like a dirty sock at the end of the day) is pretty pointless, for me anyhow. I used to think that I would feel dirty if I didn't shower every day until I realised that was all in my head. There is nothing wrong with smelling like your natural self. I'm not sure of the history to smelling "fresh" all the time, but I just don't buy it anymore. It's a huge waste of water and products.
- Stopped dying my hair, putting product in my hair, and wearing makeup.
I am literally au natural. I don't even pluck my eyebrows anymore (I won't make this its own category so as not to draw too much attention to it, but I don't shave either). I feel as though I look 'presentable' and feel good, and think others would agree (unless everyone is just being overly polite... haha). And don't tell me that I just naturally "look good". I truly believe that everyone is beautiful, and making ourselves look different is not doing oneself justice. Looking good comes from feeling good.
- Switched to legitimate (manufactured) environmentally friendly products.
The products I do use are truly better for the environment that most other manufactured products (all purpose cleaner, dish detergent, laundry soap, hand and body soap, shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, tampons, deodorant, face cream. These are all the products we use. Everything else has been deemed not important or needed enough to warrant consuming them). I don't trust that a product labelled "all natural" "enviro ____" or "eco____" actually is environmentally friendly. I read labels and make an effort to truly understand each ingredient. I have read lists of harmful ingredients, and take note of them. During my 52 Weeks of Simplicity, I will be switching to making many of them on my own.
- Learnt to sew.
With this new skill, I plan to repair and make our clothes, and make/sell products that will reduce the waste on our planet. In addition to that, I am only using unwanted resources (with the exception of thread at the moment). I will be weighing the benefits buying specialty materials in order to make things that will truly help the planet (reusable menstrual pads, cloth diapers and wetsacs, "paper" towels, food storage bags, hankies, etc.) I may need to break the "no new" rule for these items if the product will counteract the emissions from producing the material from replacing items that pollute.
- Walk or take the bus within the city.
I rarely break this rule, but I am human, and also have a 16 month old.
- Use reusable bags.
I make sure to have my reusable produce and grocery bags with me when I do groceries.
- Responsible coffee choices.
I will not ague that I need coffee, and plan to give it up on my 52 Weeks of Simplicity journey. However what I have done to lessen my impact is only buy locally roasted and fair trade coffee. I make it in a french press (regular drip or fancy single cup coffee makers have loads of unnecessary waste, AND you have to buy more stuff).
- Don't buy products made with GMO's.
This is a topic on its own. If you don't know what GMO's are, I strongly encourage you to inform yourself. You can check out this link if you would like to learn a little:
http://davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can-do/queen-of-green/faqs/food/understanding-gmo/
- Rescue items from the curb.
Since I walk a lot, I have found some pretty crazy things that were heading to a landfill. I rescue as much as I can, and rehome what I don't need myself.
- Purged my "stuff".
I made a rule for myself about 10 years ago: I do regular clean ups of my stuff. If I find something that I haven't used or thought about in over a year then I give away, sell or donate it.
- Use cloth diapers and wipes for my baby.
This is fabulous because I don't have to stress about going to the store for diapers and wipes, nor do I have to worry about what is touching/sitting on my baby's skin. I will admit that they were a complete disaster for night time use for us, so we use biodegradable diapers at night (which we compost).
Phew! For those of you who actually read through this list, congratulations, and thank you. :) It has been an incredible journey so far, and I am looking forward to further simplifying my life.
- Don't buy anything at all, or buy used items.
This one took me a long time to finally master. It is REALLY hard to go upstream from mainstream. Advertisements truly are everywhere (despite the fact that I don't watch tv) and we have been "trained" to want to buy things all the time. I started with a simple rule: Never buy anything new unless I am absolutely in love with it (on very rare occasions I buy new). If there is anything about it that I don't like, don't buy it. Why? I started noticing a trend with my purchasing; whenever I settled on an item, I always ended up buying something else to try to compensate for the disappointment. I can always reason with myself that if I have gone this long in my life without that item, how badly do I really need it? In order to "fill the void" of shopping, I settled for buying used. That way, I am only indirectly impacting the environment. The additional perk? Not buying anything at all means 100% more money than had I bought something, and buying used means only spending a fraction of what I would have spend on a new item. This frees up money to use on more important and needed items. We have zero recreational debt (ie. We only owe for the house and car).
- Follow a vegetarian lifestyle.
I won't get too much into this one here. A few of my other blog posts touch on this topic already. Now, that being said, I fell of my path to vegan, but you can bet you'll see that one on one of my 52 Weeks of Simplicity.
- Cut back on washing my hair.
While in hairstyling school I learnt that your scalp produces the exact right amount of oil for your hair. When you wash your hair, you are sending your scalp a message that it needs to produce more oil. More washing literally means more oil. Once your hair finds a good balance (aka. There is an adjustment period as your scalp learns to produce less oil, but it will!) you only need to wash it every once in a while (I do it once a week, but I once went 3 months. I plan to wean off more).
- Cut back on showering.
I also realised that taking a shower every single day in our society (unless your job leaves you feeling like a dirty sock at the end of the day) is pretty pointless, for me anyhow. I used to think that I would feel dirty if I didn't shower every day until I realised that was all in my head. There is nothing wrong with smelling like your natural self. I'm not sure of the history to smelling "fresh" all the time, but I just don't buy it anymore. It's a huge waste of water and products.
- Stopped dying my hair, putting product in my hair, and wearing makeup.
I am literally au natural. I don't even pluck my eyebrows anymore (I won't make this its own category so as not to draw too much attention to it, but I don't shave either). I feel as though I look 'presentable' and feel good, and think others would agree (unless everyone is just being overly polite... haha). And don't tell me that I just naturally "look good". I truly believe that everyone is beautiful, and making ourselves look different is not doing oneself justice. Looking good comes from feeling good.
- Switched to legitimate (manufactured) environmentally friendly products.
The products I do use are truly better for the environment that most other manufactured products (all purpose cleaner, dish detergent, laundry soap, hand and body soap, shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, tampons, deodorant, face cream. These are all the products we use. Everything else has been deemed not important or needed enough to warrant consuming them). I don't trust that a product labelled "all natural" "enviro ____" or "eco____" actually is environmentally friendly. I read labels and make an effort to truly understand each ingredient. I have read lists of harmful ingredients, and take note of them. During my 52 Weeks of Simplicity, I will be switching to making many of them on my own.
- Learnt to sew.
With this new skill, I plan to repair and make our clothes, and make/sell products that will reduce the waste on our planet. In addition to that, I am only using unwanted resources (with the exception of thread at the moment). I will be weighing the benefits buying specialty materials in order to make things that will truly help the planet (reusable menstrual pads, cloth diapers and wetsacs, "paper" towels, food storage bags, hankies, etc.) I may need to break the "no new" rule for these items if the product will counteract the emissions from producing the material from replacing items that pollute.
- Walk or take the bus within the city.
I rarely break this rule, but I am human, and also have a 16 month old.
- Use reusable bags.
I make sure to have my reusable produce and grocery bags with me when I do groceries.
- Responsible coffee choices.
I will not ague that I need coffee, and plan to give it up on my 52 Weeks of Simplicity journey. However what I have done to lessen my impact is only buy locally roasted and fair trade coffee. I make it in a french press (regular drip or fancy single cup coffee makers have loads of unnecessary waste, AND you have to buy more stuff).
- Don't buy products made with GMO's.
This is a topic on its own. If you don't know what GMO's are, I strongly encourage you to inform yourself. You can check out this link if you would like to learn a little:
http://davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can-do/queen-of-green/faqs/food/understanding-gmo/
- Rescue items from the curb.
Since I walk a lot, I have found some pretty crazy things that were heading to a landfill. I rescue as much as I can, and rehome what I don't need myself.
- Purged my "stuff".
I made a rule for myself about 10 years ago: I do regular clean ups of my stuff. If I find something that I haven't used or thought about in over a year then I give away, sell or donate it.
- Use cloth diapers and wipes for my baby.
This is fabulous because I don't have to stress about going to the store for diapers and wipes, nor do I have to worry about what is touching/sitting on my baby's skin. I will admit that they were a complete disaster for night time use for us, so we use biodegradable diapers at night (which we compost).
Phew! For those of you who actually read through this list, congratulations, and thank you. :) It has been an incredible journey so far, and I am looking forward to further simplifying my life.
Thank you for doing this. I will look forward to reading what you think and hope when I get a chance to join you. Here is a quick list of things we have and are doing:
ReplyDelete1. Buying: we have a great circle of people that have given us lots of items and clothes for the kids. If we did by something it was usually used (value village, kijiji, fb used pages...) and surely never full price.
2. we try to get our food locally, meat especially. we are still searching for a "place" . farm we used to go to closed, we are still "shopping" around.
3. I guess being a not so girly girl girl is making me "simple" by default. I can say that the only time I put some make up on was for my wedding and it was minimal! Being a red head, no need for changing colour! I was brought up in a pool. If I do use some "curling or gel" product they are environmentally friendly.
4. I have 7 years ago with a new baby in the house, looked into "greener" house products or making them. This was and still is my guide: Green Clean by Linda Mason Hunter & Mikki Halpin
5. I asked my 98 years old grandma what was the best thing she saw arrive in her life and she said plastic. funny how many years later we try to get away from this product! reusable bags, re-purposed items, rescued items from the curb are only a little of the fun thing that can be done.
6. don't drink coffee so easy one for us!
7. purged my "stuff" this is a ongoing items. 2 years ago stumble on this site to help me "clean, keep clean and organize the house"
http://www.home-storage-solutions-101.com/organized-home.html
great place to help you get started with a purge!
8. cloth diaper and wipes was a no brainer for us.We have been lucky that our daycare providers are also on board with this. we have for the convenience used non-cloth wipes.
I also have switch 7 years ago to Luna pads (mama pads) and diva cups.
I even for maybe half a year did cloth toilet paper and washed them with the cloth diapers. but was not able to keep it up after diaper phase was done. I should look into this again!
for the kitchen we rarely paper towels, dish cloths, plenty of them that we was daily, cloth wipes for baby spills...
9. laundry, cold water only, front loader and hang to dry.
same as for showering and washing hair. no need to put clothes in the laundry after one use. clothes can be worn numerous times before being washed.
I'm just getting around to being able to respond to your post Catherine. THANK YOU so much for writing down your journey. It is great to see that people around me are on the same path, and that I will have someone to bounce ideas off of during this next chapter to living a more sustainable life. As you know, letting go of things is not easy, but it seems that you would agree that you are better off because of the changes you have made. Kudos, friend, and keep it up. I would be happy to share this experience with you. :)
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