One Small Change

I talk a good game, but my follow-through usually needs work. I want so badly to live differently, to do better at living simply, helping the environment, making the world better, but at the end of the day, I let life wear me down and do nothing. Accountability helps a lot in this area, I find, and the new year with all its glorious promise beckons me to make small changes.

I've made some small strides. I use reusable grocery bags all the time now...if I forget to put them in the car, I buy new. All our house lights are running on CFLs, which I love...it's a softer light and of course, so much longer lasting. Unfortunately, the recycling fell away sometime last year, as did planting my own food, and there are other areas of our life that could use some work too.

One Small Change by Hip Mountain Mama looks like a nice way to make myself accountable.

January is going to be about purging, paring down the massive detritus that has accumulated in our apartment over the last 11 years. Clothes and other products will go to Goodwill, Salvation Army, or the local thrift stores. We have both Goodwill and Salvation Army thrift stores close by. I will throw away as little as possible in this area, instead making the effort to thrift or freecycle things. The space that results from this purge will allow me to reintroduce recycling into the apartment in February—one of our problems with it last time, was just not having spare room for a bin. Literally, our place is filled with crap...every spare corner or wall is taken up with boxes, furniture, etc. Having the recycling bin in the foyer was inconvenient and messy.

This purge will tie in with the other new tag on this blog, Accomplish Your Dreams. Thanks to One Green Generation for this piece of motivation. I've talked for years about moving out of Florida, but my inability to organize or save well enough, coupled with our credit issues, has kept us in this crazy sauna of a state (this week notwithstanding...man, I'm loving the cold weather!). So I'm making myself accountable for the move here too. So far, it's working...I'm using my planners and reacquainting myself with the concept of to-do lists (which fell off long ago in spite of my Virgo status). I'm thinking hard about the types of jobs I'm going to try for in the Carolinas. I'm also taking steps to attend to my health, which will help us on the road to another dream: parenthood.

Tall orders, but I look ahead with confidence and feel strong.