For the past several years, I've celebrated Earth Day by adding a new environmentally sound venture to my life. It all started with clearing out the chemicals and cleaning with only non-toxic products. I slowly added growing my own food, reducing energy use in the home, adding local foods to our diet, and reducing our carbon footprint as we travel. I really felt like I was making a huge difference in the treatment of our planet and in the way our family views our responsibilities. I've done my research and I've shared what I can with others. What next?
Yesterday was Earth Day 2010. My goal for last year was to take on buying local any foods and products that I can...and we are still in the progress of this goal. So, what to do for 2010? In spite of my "smart consumer" efforts, I felt something was still not right. Over the past winter, I began to really look around me. Literally. My house is FULL of stuff. More stuff that we need. More stuff than I WANT! I made a plan to start simplifying our stuff. We've been going through it, weeding out the fluff and getting it ready to give away or sell. And somehow, I still didn't quite get it.
I'm don't remember when the real epiphany came. But, when it did, it was one of the biggest revelations I've had. And it truly was DUH moment. How in the world could I not have seen how much I was still feeding into the destruction of all that I'm trying to heal. I was a consumer of non-essential goods. So, I set about to make a change. I started to really think about every purchase before it was made. Do I need this? Where will it go when I am done with it? Is it just going to live a short life and then become part of a landfill in a once beautiful land? And also, how much is it really worth to me to have it?
My husband asked me this week if I had spent a lot of money on my garden expansion. I defended my purchase, just as I always do, by reminding him how much less I was really buying these days. And then I wondered...am I really buying less than I used to? How am I really doing? Luckily, I have a very simple budgeting account (mint.com for anyone who is curious) that lays all my purchases and income out in one place. I pulled up the account, and was pleasantly surprised to find that I've actually worked a small miracle in my spending habits. There were a couple of books that I purchased: one on sewing and one on homemaking, two charges for gardening supplies and seeds that I ordered back in late winter, and the mulch/compost haul from my questioned purchase. Most of my grocery spending was in local markets and my weekly spending at the foodshed. Of course, I'm not perfect. I also found a $15 charge at Target that I can't trace back in my memory. There were also the $20 training wheels for the $10 bicycle that we bought for Kira off of Craig's List. But, for the most part, I am simply trying not to buy. And, if it is something I really feel would benefit our life, I try to buy used. It has only been a few weeks since I declared a war on all things consumed. I challenged myself to only buy things I could not make or produce on my own. What I found wasn't just that I could make or produce many things, but that we really never needed many of those things to begin with.
Just as an organic treat is still a treat, an organic purchase is still a purchase. If I don't need a new shirt, why do I need to buy a 100% organic cotton shirt? If I have a stack of unread magazines, do I really need to add to that stack? Just because a product can be recycled when I'm done with it doesn't justify its purchase if I never needed it to begin with.
What to see more ideas on where my thoughts are coming from? Check out the video I watched online about the problems with consumerism as it is now...
http://www.storyofstuff.com/
Happy Earth Day!
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