Free yourself from all that packaging

Hey folks,

I'm almost through the Story of Stuff and let me tell you, that book is having a big impact on me.  Initially I was more focused on minimizing the number of belongings and saving money along the way.  Now, my main effort through this project will be to minimize the production of waste.  I have decided to try to limit our family's waste to a grocery sized bag every 2 weeks.  I think this is do-able and probably not the most ambitious objective, however, our son sleeps in disposable diapers overnight and there are a few other items that I am sure will require the trash can as opposed to the green bin (Ottawa's composting system) or the blue/black bins (plastic/paper recylcling).  As a result of this goal, I am going to have to do some household dumpster diving and really sort through our garbage, e.g., tissue that I use to blow my nose or paper towel can go in the green bin. These are the types of items that often end up multiple different grocery size bags that all get put into a larger black garbage bag. With the new challenge to reduce waste, I am going to be particularly mindful of plastic bags.  Although we own canvas shopping bags we are not great about bringing them with us to the store.  As a result of this newfound consciousness, I am going to be much more careful when it comes to plastic waste and bringing new plastic into the house.  I think I would like to learn how to make something like this with all the extra plastic bags that fill my house and probably many friends and family's homes.

So far, the buy nothing for 6 months challenge is definitely going ok.  I've had a couple minor repairs to make on my bike but I have held off buying anything new.  I went to a fourth of July party at the US ambassador's house on Monday.  Had I not been going through this challenge I definitely would have bought a new dress for the occasion and likely other items as well as a result of that excursion.  I ended up just wearing a dress I owned which is completely fine- there were soooooo many people there and the crowd was wearing a mix of outfits so I don't think I stood out.

So we are dicsussing the story of stuff at Tuesday night's book club.... should be an interesting discussion. I'll definitely post any highlights or surprising viewpoints that come out of the meeting.

Talk to you soon and in the meantime, free youself from all the plastic!!

Next challenges - seriously thinking about food packaging.  This is a tough one.... who doesn't like to eat.  Chocolate and coffee are basically the base of the food pyramid for me.  I have some work to do.... I know it's just about making some changes and I'll be happier for it!

And I'm back... Free yourself from the consumer cycle!

Hey,

So it's been about 5 years!  And I've come full circle and am ready to once again take a look at my life and try to make some positive changes, question the mainstream, and set myself free from .... well I am going to take this beyond big pharma and just break free from this trap that I think a lot of ourselves are struggling with.

I took a quick look at my last post from 5 years ago and found it kind of interesting to see how much has changed from a "check the box" kind of perspective (the boyfriend is now my husband and my son's father, we no longer live in the suburbs... I am no longer a unit of 1 but a Manager of 5 employees)... but I see that I am still struggling with the same emptiness at times and am frustrated because I truly believe I know what I am doing wrong... but "society"... (whatever and whoever that is) and of course myself, as well, ... make it difficult to step off that ladder or hamster wheel and do the things we want to be doing with the people we want to be interacting with.

This week, my focus has been embarking on taking a 6 month break from purchasing any material goods such as clothes, makeup, shoes/accessories, furniture, house decor.  So food, eating out, essential toiletries (TP, aveeno lotion, Cetaphil face soap, conditioner (I think I'm going to run out soon!), are still ok, and of course anything for my son although I really haven't had to buy much for him with all of the donations from neighbours and friends and the gifts upon gifts upon gifts that I received to celebrate his birth and some big milestones since.

So the decision to take a 6 month break (which will lead me to Dec. 19, 2016) is as a result of relatively few big purchases but many many smaller purchases that didn't really result in making me any happier at the end  of the day and did result in needless hours spent scouring thrift stores, home decor stores and whatever else in between trying to craft some image of a particular type of persona (which changed on a weekly basis).  But what really prompted me to take the plunge into radically changing my behaviour was my book club's current read: the story of stuff by Annie Leonard, and a documentary "the true cost" (available on netflix) - which was recommended to me by the librarian helping me find the book club read.

So... initially the motivation was more selfish, (i.e. I am looking to save $, have more time to spend with friends, family and especially my son and husband, looking for a more pure/minimalistic lifestyle without the burden of heaping amounts of stuff to maintain, clean, and organize), however, as I am delving deeper into this phenomenon I am beginning to appreciate the environmental, social and economic consequences of society's consumerism. The documentary's focus on the fast fashion world (aka H&M, Forever 21, etc) was definitely something that was scarcely on my radar prior to the last week and I feel extremely ignorant for not having ever thought about really further exploring the the rumblings that briefly pop up in corners of the media, or are part of my more activist family and friends facebook feeds.

Alas, I have decided to go 6 months without purchasing anything for myself.  Overall, I don't think this will be extremely hard for me as I tend to have an all or nothing mentality so I will likely do ok, as I am *now* hellbent on not being a consumer lol.

But... I have purchased a lot in the last year, always with the "I am going to be so....".... (hip, well put together, artistic, eclectic, the best mom ever, the best wife ever, etc). Therefore, after the novelty wears off perhaps I will have a harder time with this.

I do have a very fancy black tie wedding at the end of the summer for which I definitely would have bought a dress if this challenge was not on the table.  I have one or two dresses that will likely do the trick but definitely aren't knockouts.  However, I think one of the nice side effects of such a challenge, something I remember from my extreme "no big pharma days", was that when you remove all of the makeup, fancy clothes, etc, you are forced to focus on your own health, your personality, good conversation, being interesting, etc.

So, join me on this journey to free yourself from debt, from being the victim of ad companies, from clutter; free your time, free your inner beauty, free the planet, free the workers, free our future and free your soul.

2016 .... it's time to get back on track.

L