Friday, January 16, 2009

New Year's Resolutions 2009- Waste Not Edition

Here's our resolutions for lessening our environmental impact, saving money, and wasting less. We made many big improvements on this last year, including building our compost pile, getting glass "tupperware", trading our huge water sucking washer for a used energy efficient front loader, using a push reel mower, etc. Here's a few more goals for this year!

1) Grow a Garden
Not just a flower garden... a VEGETABLE garden. One that we can eat from! I'm envisioning squash and peppers foremost. I'd LOVE tomatoes, but haven't ever had luck with them. We'll go from there!

2) Continue to Use USED Materials Whenever Possible
Pretty self explanatory! We've had good luck so far.

3) Make Insulating Curtains
I'd like to further insulate our windows by adding quilted window shades to keep heat in.

4) Reuse and Repair Everything Possible
From darning socks to re-glazing our windows!

5) Make Homemade...
...hair gel, bread, household cleaners, snacks and cookies, etc

6) Compost EVERYTHING Possible!
Well, except dog poo. We're not going to try that yet. I want to compost most of our waste paper instead of sending it to the recycling and make sure that we don't throw out any food matter this year!

7 comments:

Darija said...

hey there, recently discovered your blog and I'm enjoying it a lot! For your garden this year can I suggest looking into "companion planting" or "intercropping". For example plant tomatoes amongst basil and it helps to repel pests. Good luck.

NV said...

Good for you. this is a healthy list!

Shutters are another good option for windows. We have shutters AND shades and they really help block the cold.

But, when it's nice, we can let in all the light we want -- or control it by adjusting the shutters.

Heather said...

Great resolutions! It was your recap of 2008 house resolutions that got my hubby and I to sit down and put together some house resolutions in addition to our personal ones this year. We have a few environmental aspects to ours but looking at yours, we have room to improve even more. :)

Anonymous said...

You're pretty inspirational, Jennifer. We finally got to 100% recycling this year (and by 100%, I mean everything the county will take).. and you're moving PAST recycling to composting! It'll be hard for us to keep up. Our big resolution this year is to get our basement insulated. We ran out of money mid-this-year and the unfinished project is costing us big time in heating - but I want to do the insulation right... after we get our tax return things are looking up.

Joanne said...

I was actually thinking of composting dog poo this year; I feel guilty throwing it away. There are a few commercial pet waste composters out there, and a couple of sites have instructions for building your own.

Anonymous said...

Great list - right there with you on the vegetable garden and the composting.

Why S? said...

Good for you. You really are an inspiration. I wish I had room (and time) for gardening and composting. I'll probably try a few tomato plants in pots again this year. Last time didn't go so well. Not too tasty but maybe a different variety will work.