Tuesday, January 23, 2018

The Art Of Sensible Consumption


I like to think we are pretty sensible when it comes to our consumption of goods and services.  In doing so we keep our footprint small and our impact on the earth is much more minimal.  I spend less money and because of that I'm able to save more of it into my savings and retirement accounts.


I try to be conscientious of the things I do buy and do my best not to buy too much.  For instance, our home is small by most standards in the U.S.  We have 990 square feet (not including the attached garage), two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, a bedroom (converted from 2/3 of our garage) and half bath downstairs.  Our living and dining room are combined, we have a small galley kitchen with an entry way as well as a dedicated laundry room.


Our property is only 1/8th of an acre and we make the most of it.  The front yard strip of grass was nothing more than wasted space that consumed water to keep it green.  I removed the grass and filled in that area with gravel to extend our parking space and eliminate the need for watering.  The backyard runs the length of our house and behind it.  We keep chickens, a large compost bin, raised garden beds, fruit trees and space for entertaining.  We can mow our lawn with a push mower and it requires minimal water and upkeep.


We are careful with our food and do our best to eat leftovers and keep waste to a minimum.  Extra vegetables, breads and other kitchen scraps go to the chickens which enhances their diet and helps us out a lot.  In return they give us eggs and loads of entertainment.


Our compost bins are a great way for us to deal with additional waste and keep it out of the landfill.  We add food waste (no meat products), mulched leaves, yard debris and chicken waste.  Once it breaks down it is added to our raised beds and spread on our lawn and flowerbeds.  We use mulched leaves in our chicken coop too.


We burn sticks, branches from pruning our mature trees and junk mail in our firepot on our backyard deck.  This provides us with entertainment as well as a way to deal with all the extra wood from our trees.  It is also a great way to deal with items we would otherwise require a shredder for.  We compost the ashes too.

Rinsed and ready to recyle

When it comes to other consumables we try to use up everything.  We rinse out soap bottles, turn condiment bottles as well as lotion and shampoo upside down, use a spatula to scrape out mayonnaise and peanut butter jars, flatten and squeeze out toothpaste, face cream and ointment tubes to use up every drop.


Our trash is kept at a minimum.  We throw away an average of one plastic grocery bag of trash into the bin and set it on the curb for collection about once a month, instead of weekly.  We fill our blue recycle bin to the top and set it out twice a month for collection.  We donate, reuse and repurpose as much as possible.


To limit the amount of fuel I purchase for our vehicles I combine errands and minimize the amount of miles we travel as much as reasonably possible.  I live close to work, my children ride the school bus and use the city bus quite a bit.  We don't make a habit of running around just for the sake of doing so.

Our fireplace uses less energy than our baseboard heating

We keep our heat low and wear layers and warm socks on our feet in the winter.  In the summer we use two window A/C units upstairs to cool the entire house.  We also do our best not to waste water.

Boise, Idaho

I am constantly looking for ways to spend less, consume less, increase efficiency and streamline our processes.  The more I do this the more I realize how much we don't really need, which has led to a lot of decluttering and simplifying of our life.  This has led to less time spent cleaning and maintaining our home and more time spent enjoying our life.  That, in and of itself, makes it all worth it.



15 comments:

  1. What a timely topic! We have to be frugal but also environmentally minded as well - for our children's sakes especially. Many in the quilting industry have brought up the subject of textile waste. It is a huge and growing problem. They were encouraging quilters to make it a point to try to make a quilt a year from all recycled materials (clothes, linens,etc). Of course you don't have to make just quilts - I have some work pants that are wearing in places but the legs are still in pretty great shape. They are not the right material for a quilt but I plan to make some cloth napkins from them. They will have to be the cocktail size napkins but we don't mind. Read up on textile waste if you get a chance - you will find it interesting and scary too.
    Thank you for this topic!

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    1. Funny that you mention that. About a year ago I watched a special on TV about it which spurned me to make a denim rug for our boots and shoes to sit on in the winter. I backed it with my old red flannel pj bottoms that were all worn out. We've been using it for over a year now and it has been great!

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  2. Great thoughts. I need to do better about recycling, as that is a lot of what fills our garbage cans!

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    1. We made it a big family goal several years ago and now its a great big habit! :)

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  3. Thank you for sharing these tips! Not many people are intentional about this topic so it is refreshing to read these priorities and ideas. I had never thought to burn sticks in our fire pit...when I prune raspberry bushes or trees I generally throw them in the trash, and I've always hated doing that (I typically compost yard waste). But I got a new fire pit this fall and what a good use for it!

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    1. Sticks work great in a rocket stove too. We built one out of old bricks and it works really, really well.

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  4. Thank you for sharing these tips! Not many people are intentional about this topic so it is refreshing to read these priorities and ideas. I had never thought to burn sticks in our fire pit...when I prune raspberry bushes or trees I generally throw them in the trash, and I've always hated doing that (I typically compost yard waste). But I got a new fire pit this fall and what a good use for it!

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  5. Nice post! I think we all consume too much until we really stop and think about what we need. Our house is much to large for our life now and I would love to sell it to someone with a family who could fill it up but right now I live 2 minutes form Mom and will not sacrifice distance for less house.
    Yesterday I decided before I could do anything other than have a cup of coffee, I had to do 10 chores in my bedroom and find 10 items to give away. The 10 chores turned into the better part of the day including finding 30 items I have no use for which now live in the Goodwill box.

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  6. You are awesome.

    A lot of what you do I recognize in my mother. She is in her 90's and is like a treasure trove of wisdom on how to live. There are so many things she does that I'm not even going to attempt to list here. I wish these things were taught in schools. You are such a great role model, even for me - a 52 year old who is still learning how to live well.

    D.

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    1. You are so sweet to say that. Thank you very much. :)

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  7. Great post! I've been reading your blog for several months, but have not yet commented. You have eloquently described how we also try to live (except no chickens for us!). Thank you for sharing! :)

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  8. Thank you for your good ideas. Right now two of my sons have moved back home while looking for new jobs. They brought the leftover food from their apartments back with them. My cabinets are so full they won't close now. My focus has been on using up all this extra food plus cleaning and painting my pantry. I have too much stuff.

    The next big project will be to go through all the clothes closets and give away as much as possible. We no longer know who owns what.

    I needed this inspiration.

    Jeannie @ GetMeToTheCountry

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  9. A very, very, VERY SMART source of helpful information! Thank you so much for investing the time and energy to share your tips....I'm learning so much and feel comfort knowing that I'm not alone in trying to be sensible with "stuff" and finances! :-)

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