What Do You Really Need?

Homegrown Salad

What do we really need? Sometimes we do things or buy things just because that's the way we've always done it. I challenge you to look at all aspects of your life to find ways to do things better; better for your family, your pocketbook, your quality of life, better for the planet and the environment.

Recently I took out a bag of trash and when I came back in discovered there were no more trash bags. At first I thought I needed to add trash bags to my shopping list. Then I thought "WHY?" Why do I need to spend money on plastic garbage bags? Plastic is not a renewable resource. It is made of petroleum and while there are some things that  are nice to have made of plastic I could not think of one good reason why I should buy something to throw it away on purpose.

My grand parents didn't use plastic trash bags. They reused their paper grocery sacks. Cans and bottles were rinsed and saved if they could be reused around the house. Food scrapings were fed to the birds and the alley cats.

Personally I put out very little garbage in the first place. All food scraps are composted by my earthworms. All yard waste goes into my compost pile to enrich my soil for the next crop. I buy very few consumer goods so have little packaging to throw away. Paper and cardboard are recycled either as fire starters or as compost material. I wear my clothes until they are worn out when they are either used for scrap crafts or rags. I'm growing an ever increasing amount of food that I eat so there is very little food packaging waste in my trash can.

I decided that there was no really good reason that I needed to buy plastic trash bags. Since no food waste goes into my trash can there is little that is smelly or messy. It is just as easy to take the whole can and dump it as to carry a plastic bag. I do end up with a few plastic shopping bags which I recycle in various ways. I decided that if something was really messy I could use one of them to contain it.

I think we all need to take a look at even the small things in our lives and see what we can do better. Unconsciously going with the status quo is not going to improve things at all. In fact, I can see a day when I will not need to have weekly garbage service at all.  When all the waste from my property is either recycled onsite or taken to the recycling center; my goal is to produce zero waste going to the land fill. Good for the earth, good for my pocketbook; I currently pay $240 a year for garbage service, not matter how much or how little I put out. I'll be very happy to spend that money on something else.

How I Named This Blog 'Cottage Economy'

Some wonder why I named this blog Cottage Economy and where did that come from. Well, it comes from a book by the same title, written in 1833 by William Cobbett. Mr. Cobbett concerns himself with how poor laborers families in England and other countries can improve their lot by doing many things for themselves, by conserving their resources and in so doing give themselves a leg up.

In his introduction he gives us this definition of 'economy':

3. ECONOMY means management, and nothing more; and it is generally applied to the affairs of a house and
family, which affairs are an object of the greatest importance, whether as relating to individuals or to a nation.
A nation is made powerful and to be honoured in the world, not so much by the number of its people as by the ability and character of that people; and the ability and character of a people depend, in a great measure, upon the economy of the several families, which, all taken together, make up the nation. There never yet was, and never will be, a nation permanently great, consisting, for the greater part, of wretched and miserable families.

I love this book, so many wise things in it. It's been awhile so I'm going to re-read it. I've just discovered that you can download a free digital edition of it in quite a few different formats here.


But if you would like to own a real paper and board copy of
William Cobbett's Cottage Economy, there are several
different editions available.

Bit by Bit (Time Management)

Well, they say Life is what happens to you when  you are making other plans. Rather I think it's what happens when I get distracted from my goals. After more than 12 month hiatus I am working hard to get things back in shape around here. I'm still working full time, but I have managed to make all of the financial goals I've had and will become debt free around January of 2012.

A few days ago I realized that I had been majorly procrastinating in several areas. So I made up my mind that every day I would spend 15 minutes working on four areas of my life; my kitchen, my garden, decluttering the junk all over the house and my desk, paperwork and business affairs. So far I have mostly accomplished this for 10 days now (I did have a couple days where I didn't get all four done). (edit June 21, 2011 I have now been doing this for 23 days in a row and have begun another blog to chronicle this journey in living color. Come along for the ride at My Journey from CHAOS to Organized)

The result has been remarkable. The kitchen is clean and tidy which makes cooking healthy food and cleaning up after a breeze. The gardens beds are slowly appearing from under a forest of weeds and jungle of rubbish. I vow not to plant too much until I am home from vacation in September. By then things should be quite cleared up and ready to plant. My desk has slowly appeared from under piles of paperwork and filing. I had been slacking a bit about paying bills, losing them in the piles but am back on track now. And slowly boxes and piles are disappearing from the living room and studio.

I can't wait till I've kept it up for two or three months, it will be amazing. On another note, I recently refurbished a resin garden fairy and returned her to greeting duty by the front gate.

Refurbished Garden Fairy

I wrote an article with step by step photos if you'd like to read it go here: Refurbish Your Garden Art