one small change

Well the one small change is nearing a end and it's been a busy few months trying hard to make one small change a month. Some months have been easier than others and this month, being more careful with water has been the biggest challenge to date. With the weather turning cooler and with more rain I haven't had the need for most of the grey water I have been saving. I had initially thought that I would use the water that I was saving from the washing machine and a bucket in the shower etc for the garden. We have had enough rain over the last few weeks to water the garden so I've had to stop saving it in those ways. I have however been careful to only run the dishwasher when it was full and the same for the washing machine, something that I have been guilty of in the past. I have definitely found that it is very possible to save a lot of water just by putting a bucket in the shower when showering so I will be doing that next summer when I need water for the garden.

I have had in mind all my previous changes as the months roll on, consume less, use less - recycle more paper and to grow more food. Consuming less is by far the hardest, especially when faced with a secondhand book sale! The bags I made to hang in certain rooms so recycling paper is easy have made a big impact and was one of the easiest changes to make. Now all my paper waste gets recycled in some way, packaging for parcels, cut up into notepaper or actually putting it out for recycling.

My growing more food change in march has also made a big impact, I had never bothered to grow much over the winter months before, some silver beet or swiss chard, lettuce and that's about it. We haven't harvested anything yet, but there is some cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and broad beans and peas to come! I am really looking forward to having a winter harvest. The hardest part of that change is controlling all the white butterflies that attack all these winter crops.

I'm looking forward to making some more changes that will help to less the impact my family has on the environment and working more on the changes that we have already made.

April change

My March change was to grow more vegetables and especially grow some vegetables over the coming winter months, something that I've never done before. I got busy (with some help from my 4 year old daughter) and planted quite a few different varieties of winter vegetables, a few details can be found in this post. So far so good and nothing has died so far and they are growing well. Hopefully in a few months we will be eating them! It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be, the biggest problem so far is keeping up with the white butterflies that are laying eggs on everything that I've planted, as I try and keep the garden organic I've taken to keeping up with the caterpillar population by hand. After a few days away at Easter I've come home to some big holes and a few fat caterpillars.

A change for our family this month is to be more careful with water. While we are careful there are more steps that we can take to be more careful with this precious resource. I sometimes tip out the water in the children's' water bottles at the end of the day, this could be used to water the garden. I do try and save some grey water from the washing machine - but could save more. The list goes on really, so I'm going to try and change some bad water habits this month.

a change

My change for February was to use less and recycle more paper. This involved ringing up some companies that I was on mailing lists for and cancelling those. That went well and was much easier than I thought. I made a couple of bags to hang in rooms where there wasn't any recycling bins set up, our bedroom had the biggest impact. It is our office/workspace as well as a bedroom and I often would just pile up paper for recycling and it would sometimes not make it into the paper recycling bin. But now I have a cloth bag to pile it into and I can pop it in with the rest of the recycling on rubbish day. I was really aware of trying to fill up every piece of paper I was using this month, even if it was just the back of an envelope that I was using as a shopping list. I feel we have made a big change in the way that we use paper this month.

My change for March is to grow more vegetables. I grow a lot over summer however I don't grow a lot over the winter months despite many vegetables growing well over these months. So I hope to plant some vegetables that I've never planted before, this requires a little research on my part about what to sow and when. I better get busy!

month two

Last month I was committed to consuming less, with a big effort not to buy any new crafting materials and to stay out of thrift stores. Well I must admit I can't say that I didn't buy any new craft material or that I stayed out of thrift stores, but I can say that I was much more aware of what I was buying and my buying habits. I did actually buy and consume much, much less than I normally would. I do tend to visit the local thrift stores on a weekly basis, not looking for anything in particular but more for a browse and hoping to find a treasure or two and with that realisation I stayed away most weeks and only when when I was looking for something in particular.

I've been looking through all my crafting supplies and I've made a real effort (one that I want to continue) to make things with what I have. It's a great feeling to use up what you already have.

I tend to make poor clothes shopping choices at this time of year with all the sales about. But I've gone though my wardrobe to see what I actually have before buying anything. Then it has to be something I need, like I have a lack of T-shirt type tops for wearing around the house, or I'm looking for a lightweight summer cardigan to wear with a few tops I have already. If it doesn't fit in with what I'm looking for I've left it at the shop (sometimes hard!)

Committing to this change of consuming and buying less for January had made me really aware of what I'm consuming and my shopping habits. Hopefully in the coming months with this awareness I'll make better choices.

My change for February is use less paper and make sure I'm recycling all the paper I can. There are a few ways I hope to do this, first get off mailing lists from companies that I have no interest in buying things from. All sorts of catalogues get sent to me, I don't buy anything from them. I was looking at the some the other day and thought there must be a big cost to the environment with the printing of all of these that I just recycle without looking inside. So I've already started by ringing some companies to take my name off their mailing lists. By the end of the month I hope I've removed my name from all of them.

I also know that I could be better in recycling paper in my home, I don't have a separate bin for paper upstairs so some paper ends up with other rubbish and not in the paper recycling so I'm going to set up a system for that.

I'm sure as the month goes on I'll find more ways to save and recycle paper! Here's to February's one small change

the photo above has nothing to do with "one small change" it's a pink pineapple lily that has finally flowered in my garden after I planted the bulb over 3 years ago, I'm so glad, it was worth the wait

one small change

I decided to join in on the one small change on the hip mountain mama blog mainly because it ties in with my big new years resolution. I'm going to try really hard this year to use up all the craft supplies that I have before I buy any more. It's something that will be really hard for me because I'm adding thrifting to the no go list too. I get a lot of fabric at thrift stores and I visit them at least once a week so cutting them out will be a change in routine more than anything. I've decided that I've got more than enough supplies to last a years worth of crafting, and the bulging cupboards prove it. I admit there will have to be a few exceptions, like thread and a few little things like that, but on the whole I'm going to make with what I have already as of today. Oh this is scary stuff.

So the one small change part, this month I really want to concentrate on consuming less, only purchasing things that we really need. It's something I want to concentrate on more than just for January. I'm sure somethings that I purchase are more wants than needs although I sometimes convince myself I need them. At the same time of consuming less I want to watch what I do buy and make sure it's quality and will last - So watch this space and see how I go.

As for the photos, the strawberries were what I took to a New Years day late lunch and they disappeared very quickly, a visit to a stony beach with little feet that are soon to turn one, I can't believe it, and a special little forraging satchel that has hardly left the side of my little one since she opened it on Christmas morning (thanks melissa she loves it)