Reducing the "footprint"

This year, Chris and I have made the decision to change a lot of things about the way we live.

One of the things we’re going to change is our eating habits.  While I successfully ate a larger amount of fresh fruits and veggies this past year than the year before (as stated in my resolution from 2009), we have set a goal to cook more things from scratch, hopefully completely scratch with as many ingredients from our garden and mixing our own seasonings instead of buying packets full of tasty things with preservatives and hidden sodiums and who knows what else.  We’ve also made a decision to buy more produce organic and/or locally, and will certainly be looking into a CSA, perhaps even sharing the CSA with someone so that the cost and amount of food is more manageable.  I’m also going to learn to bake my own bread and make my own pasta and tortillas.

Not only is this in an attempt to create a healthier lifestyle for ourselves, and any future mini-selves that we might have, but it’s also an attempt at conserving and living a “greener” life.

Another step that I’m going to make, and I’m sure Chris will agree, is to cut down on our waste.  In a given week, we don’t accumulate that much garbage between the two of us.  Most of the time, when trash day comes, there’s usually one or two kitchen bags, and a small bag (courtesy of the cats).  And I feel that this is reasonable.  But, we’re going to buy filters and pitchers instead of buying gallon jugs of filtered water (this is my biggest weakness.  no joke), and I am going to make a very serious effort to utilize my reusable cups at work more than I do.  I will be purchasing some cleaning supplies, like extra towels and things to replace our paper towels for day to day use, and hopefully start using cloth napkins instead of disposables.

We live a very comfortable life, full of conveniences, and when we step back and look at those conveniences, we realize that with a little extra effort, and possibly one more load of laundry every week, we can cut down on our waste, help save the environment in a city that does VERY little to support that cause, and hopefully have a higher quality of life.  Oh, and to also save some monies in the long run.  We will be reevaluating our spending habits in an attempt at living off of one income.  (OMG yikes.)

I wish I could add “drive less” to this list, but with just about everywhere we need to be outside of driving distance, it’s just not feasible at this time.