2022 Goals

It feels like I should just cut and paste last years goals here. Not much movement was made on them and so they will remain mostly the same. There are subtle differences and andvancements to be tweaked and added.

Having to physically wrote them out seems important though. Perhaps goals were not accomplished, fell to the way side, or were over looked bc not enough time and energy was devoted to them. I did not cast my eye on to them in 2021, and this could be why they fell from my consciousness,

In 2022, I want to concentrate on slow living, sustainability, creativity, and forging a path that will lead me to a more tranquil and fulfilled life in the coming years. Societal norms and traditional means of income, working for others, expected gatherings, and timetables are some of the things that are no longer serving me. In my goals for the coming year, I hope to turn myself to a life more aligned with my priorities and pleasures. By writing and rewriting them, I hope to keep my goals foremost in mind and intentions.

Creation over Consumption
This is the goal I make every year and every year the definition changes ever so slightly. Creativity has many meanings in my world. Creative art, content making, living differently than most by living as self sufficiently as I can, creating a life that aligns and parallels my ideals and priorities. I want to live a more artistic life. Dare I say it? A more romantic life. To me, that means, consuming less media (yes, even booktube!), buying less, consuming less ideas of a “normal” life, and creating instead the life I seek.

Less electronic media (internet, news, instagram, booktube).
More art, both making and viewing.
More cooking to balance outside consumption.
More making (videos, blogs, photos, and thoughts. Although reading is consumption, I find that it falls more in this category: an inspiration).

Become more Self Sufficient
This is another multi facieted goal, needing more than just physical tasks to accomplish it. Not being able to love “normally” for nearly two years by of the global pandemic has not made me long for the “old days”, but made me anxious to usher in a new normal, a life full of art and romance and care for the larger world, but lived in a more susinct way. Truer to myself and my ideals.

Continue to grow towards zero waste and a plastic free lifestyle
Cut down on cheese, other factory and processed foods, and eating out.
Shop local, shop small.
Cook more, grow more food, preserve and less food waste.
Reduce clutter and use up.

Health
We’re not getting any younger! Regular checkups, better eating and exercise, and mental heath are going to become increasingly important this year. In youth we can coast through but it’s time to buckle down and create healthy routines.

Cat health.
Docs and regular check ups. Taking care of any issues we currently have.
Self healing techniques (including cooking more at home, walks for metal health, supplements and nutrition).
Exercise and stretching.

Home improvements
We love our house and we are happy that the pandemic has provided us more time to spend there. But after 7 years, there is maintenance that needs to get done, and improvements to be made. Not to mention all the projects we had meant to get to and didn’t (yes, our kitchen has been under construction for 5 years). And we have a few dream projects that can always linger on the list in hopes of one day coming true.

Finish kitchen.
Bathroom redo.
Wallpaper and paint.
New doors.
Organize and utilize the basement.
Maintenance on appliances.
Wood stove.
Piano.

Reading and Content
Although many things in my life and current goals are geared for staying off the computer, away from social media and out of the mainstream news, this blog, instagram and now my BookTube channel are important creative outlets for me. Reading is involved in all those things and an outlet for my mental health.

Read more (at least 75 books in 2022).
Consistent content on blog and booktube.
Find a way to post and view insta without app on phone. (I love to see my life recorded there, but the platform’s other functions no longer serve me).
More creative content.

Career
I don’t usually have a career section, but I plan to make a 3 year plan and my career is an important factor. Although, I love to work, my career is not fulfilling me the way that it used to. Partly that Is due to the pandemic, partly my age and disposition, and there are so many other factors as well! Part of my idea of a self sufficient life includes a job unbeholden to others, a way to raise up workers I see around me and create community. I don’t know how to accomplish this just yet, but 2022 is the year to figure it out.

3 year map and plan for life and work.
Budget.
Creative income (I’m not fully sure what this means or entails just yet, but I know I want some of my income to be generated by creative means).

That seems like quite a lot, but these are small steps to a larger path. I think by writing, seeing, rewriting, and working on reviewing these goals, I can make big strides towards a life more inline with myself.

What are you goals for 2022?

Mad Cat Capsule | Buying Pants and Finding a New Style

One of the reasons that I started a capsule wardobe, many years ago, was bc I felt I had lost touch with my style. I wasn’t sure what my personal style was anymore. I wanted to find a style that worked for me without constantly buying clothes and buying into trends.

All these years later, I find myself on a parallell journey. I’m still staying away from trendy things, but I have fallen into a trend of sorts.

I’m sick of wearing jeans.

It took a long time in the pandemic to get to this point for me. But I really only want to wear comfortable pants. Ideally somehting as close to pajamas as possible. You know, “going out pajamas”.

So lately I went on a thrifting quest. To find some comfy pants that are not jeans and are not skinny legged. And are high wasted, and have pockets (front and back). Is that really asking too much?

Oh, and also, they have to fit my style. But what is my style when it comes to pants like that? I guess I’ve got to find out, now.

I bought about 10-12 pairs of pants but swiftly whittled it down to only a few. Even some of those I might not end up keeping. Many of the thrifted pants simply didn’t fit. Some were not the leg I was after, or were too cropped (not a huge fan of that), some were the wrong material or didn’t have enough pockets.

When thrifting, I don’t tend to try things on in the store. The prices are cheap enough, and I usually know my style well enough, that I can pick out with out trying on and know I will get about 80% accuracy. I don’t mind supporting local thrift shops and I don’t mind donating back what I don’t end up using. But clearly when trying to find a new style my level of accuracy goes way down. I only got about 20% accurate with this venture. For this outing I felt lost, and I lost sight of some of the details I usually make sure to always check (the fabric, the pockets, etc….).

Finding new pants will be an ongoing journey. I have a few now that I like and are in a new style. I have to wear them, see what I like and what I don’t, learn about this new aspect of my style. I’ll let you know what I find out!

1 More Month of Zero Waste | Food Scraps and Compost | April 2021

Each month we do a easy and free challenge to become better at a zero waste lifestyle 1 more month at a time. The challenges can be modified for all levels of zero wasters, from beginner to advanced. Every month, you can also choose how much you want to participate. You can do the challenge every day of the month, you can do one task, or you can take only what you need.

One thread that runs through all the challenges is to be more mindful and aware about the waste we create with each monthly challenge. If you only take a new awareness of what waste you create each month, you are succeeding in these challenges!

In April we are talking about food scraps and learning how to compost! Composting at it’s simplest definition is letting food scraps, yard scraps, and other organic waste rot and turn back into dirt. Home composts are most often kept in a container orpile kept in the back yard or garden, and allowed and encouraged to rot down into a nutreient rich siol, then used in the yard, garden or house plsnts. There is also industrial comoposting which is a whole other story. For this challenge we are mainly concerned with our home or community compost systems.

Step one to starting your own compost pile is to assess what food waste you are creating and reduce it.
Next is to research what is the best avenue of compost for you. Do you have a space in your yard for a pile or a compost container? If not, how else can you compost? can you put a bucket on the stoop or fire escape? Can you save your food waste and drop it off at the local farmers market? Does your city or town have a compost pick up program?

After you have figured out where to compost, you can start saving scraps and composting!

Do you have a compost pile? Do you use one of the other methods for keeping your food waste out of the landfill?

2021 Quarterly Goals | Q2 (April, May June)

Here we are in Q2 of 2021. It was a little hard to not just keep all the same goals from Q1. Partly bc I feel like almost none of them were 100% completed, but also, it was kinda nice to just work on those goals for three solid months. Would it also have been nice to keep working on them? That might be a good goals experiment for another year.

But here were are, needing new goals for a new quarter. This is what I’m thinking.

10K steps (but really tho)
This is a carry over goal. What’s frustrating about this goal, is that it is one that I had made into routine, but fell out of. I have to get back to it.

cleaning schedule
This is also a carry over goals and it’s not quite going as I planned. So far this goal is helping me keep a cleaning schedule in mind even if i’m not 100% getting it right yet.

yoga/stretching/exercise 15 min a day
The last carry over goal is to take only a little bit og time to improve my physical health.

tiktok and reels
Last quarter I wanted to get better at posting on instagram, which I feel like I’ve gotten marginally better at. For this quarter, I want to continue to get better at instagram, but to focus on figuring out how to create reels. Along with this, I want to give tiktok a go.

be outside more
This will be easier now that it’s springtime. It also goes along with several of my other goals.

eat better/lose weight
Another goals in line with several others above. I don’t want to sat the D word, but I need to reign in some of my bad eating habits and get back to eating better.

We’ll check in over the next three months and see how these goals manifest. What are your quarterly goals?

A Bloggish Problem

I seem to have a reoccurring bloggish problem. Each month, towards the end of the month (sometimes even in the middle), I get off track with blog posts and It becomes very hard to get back on track. I out this up to a few issues: I have been busy trying to get on a schedule for my booktube (which is not more important to me than I blog but a bit more exciting at the moment), and then there is just life and productivity in general. Putting my efforts to making videos has left me with less inspiration (not to mention time) for writing. Life generally is always in flux, it seems.

Each month, I try to buck this growing trend and keep on track. The beginning of the month is always easier for me. I have lots of idea, as well as regular series that are easy to accomplish. I love my regular series but it’s important for me that the blog isn’t just those posts. That being said, if that’s all I can muster, it’s better than nothing.

So here we are at the end of another month where, going into the next, I have fallen off with blog posts. My notes books and drafts are full, but very little writing is getting done. On the horizon is my beginning of the month line up, and I feel good about it as usual. I see several weeks of content lined up and accessible for me to write. I love it. So As with each of the last few months, I will try to start strong and keep the momentum going for April.

How do you combat writing fatigue? Over come over or under-inspiration? Get around writer’s block? Stacy on schedule with creative endeavors without letting them becomes tedious?

Until I find the answers to these as well as many other questions, I’ll just keep trying.

Something New: Meal Plan Stories

For a few weeks now, I’ve been making a meal plan and posting it to my instagram stories.

I pretty much copied this idea from @lindsaystrannigan on instagram and I’ve been loving it! It’s nice to go through the fridge each week to see what needs to be used up and to have a list so if I forget what I was thinking, I can refer back to it. I also find it helpful to have an accountability partner in wanting to post the recap for the week. Since I started, I can see that we have less food waste and don’t buy as many duplicates when shopping!

Do you make a meal plan? Do you use any kind of system? What other tips do you have for cutting down on food waste?

Weekly Video Round Up #14 - 3/8/21 - 3/14/21

3/8 - 1 More Month of Zero Waste | Bag Swap | March 2021 | Easy and Free Zero Waste | Zero Waste Booktuber

Hi, I’m Mo.
Thanks for joining me today! I post videos three times a week. I post about creative simple living: books, cats, zero waste, bullet journaling, beach life, and more!

For our March 1 More Month of Zero Waste challenge we are swapping out bags to be more sustainable. Whether you are a zero waste newbie or a seasoned pro, we can all swap out what we use for a more sustainable option. In this challenge there is no need to buy anything new!! The most sustainable option is often what you already have and can get use of.

What bags can you swap this month?

Some of the bags mentioned:
(most of these are from Mighty Nest. I’m not sponsored but I wish I was bc I love them!!!)
Bee’s Wrap: https://mightynest.com/shop/kitchen/food-storage/bee-s-wrap-assorted-3-pack
Plant based Bee’s Wrap sandwich bag : https://mightynest.com/shop/kitchen/food-storage/wraps-and-covers/plant-based-sandwich-wrap
Silicone bag: https://mightynest.com/shop/kitchen/food-storage/reusable-storage-bags/silicone-food-storage-bag
Produce bag: https://mightynest.com/shop/reusable-bags/organic-cotton-net-produce-bag
Cotton grocery bag: https://www.simpleecology.com/shop/organic-cotton-deluxe-reusable-canvas-grocery-bags

Cats in this video: Martin!

Original music by audionightlight. https://soundcloud.com/anlight/tracks

Blog: http://www.madcatquilts.com/blog
Instagram: http://instagram.com/madcat1
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/120401161-ana-mo-shoshin

Please Like, Comment, and Subscribe!

3/10 - My Physical TBR | all the books I need to read | TBR Shelf | Basement Box Books | Backlist Booktuber

Hi, I’m Mo.
Thanks for joining me today! I post videos three times a week. I post about creative simple living: books, cats, zero waste, bullet journaling, beach life, and more!

Here is my physical TBR. Take a tour of my TBR shelf, my messy basement, and revisit my Booktube Spin list.

Books in this video:
too many!!

Cats in this video: Martin!

Original music by audionightlight. https://soundcloud.com/anlight/tracks

Blog: http://www.madcatquilts.com/blog
Instagram: http://instagram.com/madcat1
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/120401161-ana-mo-shoshin

Please Like, Comment, and Subscribe!

3/15 - I Hate Hauls | Or Do I?!?! | First Thoughts On video | Super rambling and ranty thoughts on hauls

Hi, I’m Mo.
Thanks for joining me today! I post videos three times a week. I post about creative simple living: books, cats, zero waste, bullet journaling, beach life, and more!

This is the start of a series of ramble-y videos about things that I’m not sure how to get in other videos.

How do you feel about hauls? Do you love them or hate them? Do you do do regular book hauls, library hauls, second hand book hauls?

Let’s start a convo!!

Booktube mentioned:
Emma - Drinking by My Shelf: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBv9PyaDIjq_7nnTreH93_A
Book Break: https://www.youtube.com/user/panmacmillanbooks

Original music by audionightlight. https://soundcloud.com/anlight/tracks

Blog: http://www.madcatquilts.com/blog
Instagram: http://instagram.com/madcat1
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/120401161-ana-mo-shoshin

Please Like, Comment, and Subscribe!

2021 Quarterly Goals | February Check In

In 2021 I have decided to make quarterly goals instead of monthly goals. But I still want to check in monthly so that I can take a look at my progress and be mindful of my goals. Here are the goals I’m working on for Q1 (Jan, Feb, Mar):

get dressed every day
yoga every day
face smoothing
10 k steps
monthly life admin day
cleaning schedule
3 vids per week
6 blog posts per week
instagram

February is always a struggle for me. It’s cold, dark, rainy or snowy, bleak and depressing. It is a month that I try to pack full and keep my mind busy. But classically, historically, it is a month that often falls apart for me, productivity wise. Feb and August are notably the months that my blog drops off, that my goals are not met, and when less gets done than I had hoped. I’ve noticed and know this for years. And yet, somehow each year I’m surprised.

So I should not have been, but was, surprised that February pretty much fell apart for my quarterly goals.

Despite doing terribly on most of these goals in Feb and there being a whole other month to go, there are a few that I can say, can come off my list for Q2. The overall aim of quarterly goals is to get good enough at each and make these goals routine. February has cemented that a few of these have happened. Getting dressed every day has been no problem for two months. Yes, there are a few days here or there that I didn’t get dressed, but these were the exception, not the rule. I also think I can safely take my blog and video goals off my list for Q2. Although I didn’t really keep this goal in Feb, march is going to go much better and I know what needs to be done to meet this goal.

There are a few goals that I want to particularly focus on the last month quarter. Perhaps if I make these a priority, they can also come off the Q2 list. I knowI can instagram consistently as I have done it before, so I feel if I make a last push to get it in line with all the other things I want to schedule. One challenge is getting started with reels, but I feel like if I get my posting sorted, that could be a small challenge for the next quarter. I have been making some strides in my cleaning schedule, especially now that I’m not as focused on other things on my list. Hopefully, I can take March to really get this into a routine. The last middling goal, that I might be able to really incorporate is Face Smoothing. I’m like half and half on this one. I manager to do it a few times a week, but not everyday as I would like.

That leaves 10k steps, yoga and monthly life admin days most likely staying on my Q2 goals. I find this especially frustrating bc 2 of these things that I have made routine in the past. I’ve always had a mental block about yoga, who knows why.

Are you already thinking of your next goals? What goals are you crushing? What goals still need work?

2021 Quarterly Goals | January Check In

In 2021 I have decided to make quarterly goals instead of monthly goals. But I still want to check in monthly so that I can take a look at my progress and be mindful of my goals. Here are the goals I’m working on for Q1 (Jan, Feb, Mar):

get dressed every day
yoga every day
face smoothing
10 k steps
monthly life admin day
cleaning schedule
3 vids per week
6 blog posts per week
instagram

The goals that I have been crushing are getting dressed every day (surprising but true! This goals has been easier than I thought it would be), 3 vids per week (in Jan I think a slipped a little but over all very happy with how I’m doing on this goal), 6 blog posts per week (in the end of Jan is when this started to slip a little, and feb is … not so great, so far). Even those these are my best kept goals, I still slip sometimes and that’s ok. The overall aim is to get good enough and make these goals routine.

The goals I’m pretty much failing are 10K steps (the weather and not working every day has pretty much tanked this goal. Feeling like I will get back on the horse in March?), instagram (oooph, where is my inspiration?), cleaning schedule (I feel pretty good about the cleaning I have done but there’s no schedule in sight), and a real fail was that I did not have my Jan Life Admin Day.

Middle of the road are yoga (I did really well at this a handful of weeks but was not consistent) and face smoothing (i see real benefits from this but again struggle with consistently working it into my routines).

So far in Feb, these goals have not gone well, but there is time to turn it around and I am thankful to have multiple months to work on these goals. So far, I’m liking having quarterly goals.

Do you make weekly or quarterly goals? How are your goals working so far?

One More Month to Zero Waste | February 2021 (Like Feb 2019)

Over the last two years, Mad Cat Quilts did a 6 More Months to Zero Waste project. In 2021, we are taking what we learned from that project and reenforcing it 1 More Month at a time. We will be looking at the orininal challenges and recreating them so that we can get better at zero waste. This project is happening at my youtube channel.

Learning to become more zero waste will always be an ongoing practice. One will never be truly zero waste. But that very fact is why we must strive towards that final outcome and refresh our practice continually. Each time we tackle a challenge we will learn something new, or get closer to our goal.

One important step to zero waste is to see what we have. We cannot all be minimalists, so many of us have a lot of things. A good first step is to see what we already have and see what of that we can use up. So this month we are taking time to declutter our homes and lives. Be decluttering, we can assess what we have, what we can use up and where we can cut down.

The thought of decluttering everything might be daunting. To make this challenge easier follow these simple steps:
Make a list of everything that is a priority for you to declutter
Declutter as many things on your list as you can during this month
Finish one area before you move on to the next

Check out the video here.

What are you choosing to declutter this month?

Find other 1 More Month to Zero Waste challenges here:
Jan Blog: http://www.madcatquilts.com/blog/2021/1/8/6-more-months-of-zero-waste-the-end-of-6-more-months
Jan Video: https://youtu.be/Gs2W6Ngdl0s
Jan follow up: https://youtu.be/Eu-k-JlTk8g
Feb Video: https://youtu.be/8RewurP4A-0

Something To Try: Morning Pages

In late 2019 and early 2020, I tried Morning Pages. I know a lot of people swear by these quickly written pages, done first thing in the morning. They are 3 or more pages of pure stream of conciousness writing to clear or organize the mind. Orginated by Julie Cameron in the book The Artist’s Way, Morning pages are meant to be quickly written and then never really looked at again. More a form of meditaion and creative jump start than a journal of thoughts and ideas. Many of the productivity experts I follow think they are part of the key to suceess. So I tried them.

But not having read the book and not having any real clear goal with them, I didn’t really “follow the rules” and I didn’t really keep up with them. Now, in 2021, I am reading The Artist’s Way and I’m giving them another try!

The idea of Morning Pages is extremely simple but people swear by the results. They say productivity and creativity soar after incorporating this daily practice. I’m interested to take this experiment a bit more seriously this go around and see what happens.

Have you utilized this tool? What are your thoughts?

Something Nice

My Read Shelf progression in 2020.

6 More Months of Zero Waste | The End of 6 More Months?

For more than two years Mad Cat Quilts has featured posts called 6 More Moths of Zero Waste. In this challenge series, we take 6 month increments to get started or work towards becoming better at zero waste. Each month for a 6 month block we tackle a zero waste problem and learn how to be more sustainable, more zero waste, become better at being plastic free. We would usually tackle these challenges the 6 months leading up to Plastic Free July and for the 6 month after PFJ.

In those years we have learned what trash we throw away when we did a trash audit, we’ve done meatless Monday, we’ve learned how to shop second hand, we’ve stopped buying bottled water, learned to grow our own food, and how to compost our scraps, we have become more aware of our consumption and waste, we have become better at the low impact movement lifestyle and we have found ways to use less plastic!

We were chugging reight along for those last few yers. But what happened in December of 2020? Well, that’s question that we could ask about every month in 2020. The last installment of the last block of 6 More Months of Zero Waste will happen…. Eventually.

This was a super fun series and it let me and my reader make new roads towards a more zero waste lifestyle.

But now, it’s time to reinforce some of what we learned in all those 6 month block. As we all know, Zere waste is the goal, but it’s a life long on going journey. We will have times where we fall back into bad habits, or get slack on those we keep. IN order to help us move forward, we can revisit the things we learned to make sure that we are still incorporating them in our daily lives. We will call this One More Month to Zero Waste.

If you feel ready for a refresher, you can go back to the beginning of the blog series, or take a look at any of the blog posts to see past month’s challenges. You can start at the beginning, or you can hop around. Over on my youtube channel we’ll be going month to month with small actionable challenges, based on 6 More Months to Zero Waste starting now! There are many ways to follow along and make every month a chance to be better at zero waste!

Did you have a favorite challenge from this series? One that surprised you? One you already did? What challenges do you feel the need to revisit? Leave us a comment!

2021 Quarterly Goals | Q1 (Jan Feb Mar)

Here we are in Jan 2021 and it’s time to get going on our goals!

Previously I had made monthly goals but for 2021, I’m trying out quarterly goals. These are small things to do, to make into habits, that will help me both in my daily life, but also help me work towards my larger yearly goals. Here are the things that I want to work on in the first quarter.

get dressed every day
Sounds like a no brainer, but I this is something that I don’t do if I don’t have to a lot of times. Especially since leaving my job, I think this is going to be a really important goal and eventually habit. I see this as a way to stay productive, and be ready to go where the day leads me.

yoga every day
We should say “yoga” but I wanted to make sure to change this goals language from how I previously thought and wrote about it. I think changing how I view this goal (from stretching to yoga) will help me achieve it. If you’ve been following along, you know I’ve been trying to unlock this goal forever. Hopefully this is the year!

face smoothing
I dabbled in this early in 2020, but I find this habit invigorating and comforting. Overall good self care. But also, vainly, I hope that I can keep my skin feeling and looking a bit young.

10 k steps
I did soooo well with this goal in early 2020. This is one thaqt I think I will constantly see saw with, but I would love for it to become a part of my life that is automatic.

monthly life admin day
I’m thinking at the end of every moth would be a good time to take one day and really focus on getting the things done that I have been putting off. One pitfall to be careful of is not to just leave things for that day.

cleaning schedule
Another activity that I want to get more scheduled in is cleaning. Whether it be daily, weekly, or monthly, I want to have a more regimented cleaning schedule in order to get more things than just basic cleaning. Dusting, vacuuming and other deep cleaning tasks need a time to get done more often.

3 vids per week
I want to stay consistent and find a schedule that works for me. I want to grow my channel and creat a community there. It just occured to me that I should shanre some more detailed goals about my channel here.

6 blog posts per week
As with the last goal, I wnt to get in the habit of posting more consistantly, and grow this community. If you’ve read this far, let me know some 1 thing you like about this blog and 1 thing you dont?

instagram
And here, I would like to link the last two goals and this one. I want to get my insta back to a place where when I look back on it, I see a diary of the weeks and months. And I also want to incorporate my blog and channel into my insta.

What kind of goals are you setting this year? Big goals that span the who 12 months? Quarterly goals, weekly goals? Daily goals? How are you helping yourself achieve you ambitions, intentions and dreams in 2021?

2021 Goals

When I took some time to look back over the goals I made in 2020, I think I did really well. Only a few of my goals were derailed by the pandemic and, in fact, many were enhanced by it! I decided for 2021 I would take the same format that I used last year to make my goals. One habit I am trying to create is to look at my goals more often, reread and reassess this list at regular time and often in the year. Some of these I explain, but I won’t bore you with super in depth explanations of all of them.

Creation Over Consumption
In 2020 I think my consumption has really changed but the other day I had a realization about how much I’m still consuming. Like suddenly I realized that watching youtube is just watching TV. This might seem like a no brainer, but I always thought of yourtube as teaching me something and therefore not mindless like TV. I also realized basically the same thing about reading. Now, obviously there are levels of consumption, from mindless to imporatnt. And I’m very happy that my consumption has leaned more to the imporant and edulcational this year. But in 2021, I want to make sure that my creation and creativity is at least more balanced, and more of a priorioty.

Be More Self Sustainable
Double down on zero waste - I feel like in some ways I have gotten better at zero waste and in some ways more complacent. In 2021, I want to renew my pledge to the zero waste and low impact lifestyle in dramatic ways.
Live slow
Work more - Usually this goals is flipped but in 2021, I want to work more for MYSELF!
Forage more
Grow more food
Beach more
Spend less

Health
Cook more
Cat health
Find doctors
Walk
Swim
Stretch/yoga
Health and supplements

House Projects
Kitchen
Basement
Woodstove
Roof
Piano
Clean and reduce

Travel and Explore - I’m not convinced there will be a lot of travel this year, but we can explore locally.
Irving in the car
Explore possible vaca home locales

Reading, Booktube, Blog
Read every day (65 books at least for the year)
Build my content creation and community
Be consistent with blogs and videos (schedule, schedule, schedule)
Be creative

Besides my yearly goals, I usually do monthly goals, but this year I’m going to change it up a bit. Keep your eye out for my 2020 Monthly Goals Dec Recap! I want to make sure that I am working towards my larger yearly goals each month and I think this new system is going to help.

How are you feeling about your 2021 goals?

6 More Months of Zero Waste | Find the Hidden Plastic | November

At this point in your Zero Waste Journey you might be getting pretty adept at avoiding the major plastic and waste items. Plastic bags, plastic straws and single use water bottles are among some of the easier, more obvious, single use waste generators to avoid. Some items we have identified, like tetra-paks, to go coffee cups, disposable bathroom items might be less obvious and took us more time to root out of our lives. These items may be harder to give up completely.

Having become used to avoiding these two categories of waste, we have to move on to the next step. Time to level up in our zero waste journey and learn to avoid the more hidden plastic in our day to day lives.

Moving to the next step definitely involves more research and attention to detail. Reading labels, identifying what other names plastic goes by, and making sure to weed out hidden plastic items that we already own will take work.

I’m not much a tea drinker, so it’s taking me a while to get thru these old tea bags. When I use one, I rip it open, put the leaves in the compost and throw away the bag that contains plastic.

Here are some items you might not know contain plastic:

Kraft or paper looking to go containers - similar to to-go cups, these seem like paper, but are lined with plastic cannot be recycled or composted. Don’t be fooled! Bring your own togo container, or choose take out that use non coated containers.

Most clothing - polyester, acrylic, and nylon, are all plastic fibers. try to avoid them. Check labels, and try to buy only natural fibers. You don’t have to donate or throw away the clothes you love that contain plastic, but get a micro plastic catching bag to wash the plastic items you have already in your wardrobe.

Tea bags - almost all tea bags have plastic in them. Get loose leaf tea to avoid worrying about it!

Tampons and other menstrual products - tampons and pads are mostly made from or packaged in plastic. There are many alternatives, like menstrual cups, period underwear and reusable pads.

Disposable masks - these may seem like cloth but they are actually mostly plastic and will break down to micro plastics that will get into the soil, sea and air. These and other disposable PPE are quickly becoming the fastest growing litter on land and in the ocean. Use reusable cloth mask to protect yourself and others!

These are only a few examples of everyday hidden plastics. Are there others you know of and avoid? Share them in the comments!

I try to avoid take out, but sometimes we do end up getting something to go in a box lined with plastic. I wash these out and reuse them as much as possible.

If you are new to this series, here’s what we are working on for this 6 moth block. Follow along or pick and choose challenges to try:
June 2020- Say NO, Say Yes
PLASTIC FREE JULY
August 2020 - Carry No Disposables
September 2020 - back to school/educate
October 2020 - Beach clean
November 2020 - Hidden plastic
December 2020 - Repair before you replace

We started our tackling new zero waste challenges six months at a time in 2019:
January 2019 - Trash Audit
We separated and looked our trash to see what we are throwing away and what we can reduce.
February 2019- Declutter Everything
We went thru what we have to declutter and reduce.
March 2019- Switch to Paper
This month we moved to paper to get one step closer to reusables.
April 2019- Compost
Composting is an easy way to reduce food waste and prevent it from reaching the landfill.
May 2019- Meatless Monday
One of the best ways to improve the environment is to stop eating factory farmed meat and industrial fish. Small steps lead to big change so this month we gave up meat (or dairy or fish) for at least one day.
June 2019- No Bottled Water
We gave up bottled water as an avenue to give up more disposable plastic in Plastic Free July.
July 2019 - Plastic Free July!
Go plastic free this month!

In late 2019, we continued our journey to becoming more zero waste:
November 2019 - Zero Waste Kit
We created a zero waste kit to help us be more zero waste in our day to day life.
December 2019- No Gifts
We took Dec to give no gifts and get no gifts.
January 2020 - Clothing and Fast Fashion
This month we explored what fast fashion is, and how we can stop buying it forever.
February 2020- Use Mass Transit
The shortest month seemed like a good time to explore alternatives to driving our cars.
March 2020 - Bathroom Make-over
You’ve swapped out a few items to more sustainable choices around the house. It’s time to tackle a full room.
April 2020- Grow Your Own Food
April marks the start of spring in the continental USA, and when we can start growing food easily. But there are many ways and time to grow your some of own food.

Something New: Tracking Your 1/2 Hours

One thing I’m always worried about is not having enough time to do everything I want to do. I find that worrying about this often wastes time! I fear that I can only accomplish a few goals for the day, or that I cannot get to the avocations that fulfill me due to work, obligations, or indecision. I often see people navigating the hours of their day will little to no problems or fear of not getting enough done. They don’t seem as worried about this problem as I do. There could be many reasons for this, but I often envy their organizational skills or ways that they prioritize their time. Where do they find the time?

A friend suggested breaking down my day by the 1/2 hour and seeing what I spend my time on. Perhaps then I can see where it goes!

Thinking it a great idea I started right away. I tracked my half hours for a little over a week. It may not have been an idea week as we were dealing with a lot. Our eldest cat was dying and it took a lot of time and care. Although this fact might have made my week a little more scattered and my priorities slightly different than a “normal” week, I still think marking my 1/2 was super informative!!

I started by finding a physical notepad to write the full day in 1/2 hour increments. You could of course do this digitally as well, but I like to sit down and write and read these sort of experiments. After each day, I would look over what I had done. I added a spot for notes, but never really used this, keeping my notes in my head, instead. I always knew I was a flitter, but this productivity experiment confirmed it. Aside fro work and sleep, almost every half hour was divided with several tasks. Writing and watching youtube, sewing and listening to a book, a little cleaning, a little eating, a little work. I flitted from one thing to another, never really getting into the meat of any project or task. This was heightened by having to give our cat meds, fluids and check on him every few minutes, but only slightly. Although, this wasn’t exactly new info, seeing it this way put it in some kind of new perspective.

Working for other people, commuting to work, getting ready for work took up a lot of time. Seeing all those half hours and knowing that they didn’t even include the time spent each section of the day worrying about work was also not a surprise. Also, not surprising, I spend a lot of time sleeping. The later, I prob won’t change much, but having a more set wake up and nap time would be helpful.

Overall, this exercise made me realize some things about how I work and what I do that I would like to change. I now know that grouping time to do certain tasks would be more productive for me. For instance, taking a solid hour or ore to write, read, clean, etc… would help me for getting things done and having more time for all that I want to do. Now I just have to put that into practice!

Would you try this exercise?

The Joy Of Using Up

The other day I realized that we are almost out of tomato season. It happened quicker this year than last year. But each time we pick tomatoes there are less then the last harvest, more are unripe or rotten before we can get to them and each bush produces less. No more tomatoes and cheese, no more salsa and fresh sauce, no more tomatoes garnishing our salads and pastas. It made me sad.

But then, the weather took a cold spell and I saw a potato. Mmmm, I thought, we haven’t had potato soup in forever!

Part of being as zero waste as possible is eating with the seasons, eating what’s available when it is ripe and fresh. One might think that this is restricting, but really, it’s only the joy of using up. All winter we eat great and hearty winter veg and in the summer, those are set aside to have fresh light summer fruits and vegetables. A perfect balance and nothing is given up.

Why I Buy Secondhand

Last week, I went to a thrift store for the first time since March. That’s 5 months of no thrifting. That’s a long time!! That also means I went 5 months basically not buying anything besides groceries or food. And luckily, I found just want I was looking for! Right in the front of the shop, I found some cute little dishes, perfect for cat bowls.

In recent years, I’ve moved to mostly buying second hand items. The last new thing I bought, that wasn’t food or art, was a frying pan over a year ago. I already loved thrifting, but when zero waste became more important to my lifestyle, thrifting became more important as well. The more I thought about waste, the more I thought about the way things are made. Who makes them, how those people are treated, the waste that goes into production, packaging, mailing, shipping, shopping, and consumerism. And I had a realization: Basically everything I might need already exists.

Think about that for a minute.

The reasons I buy second hand is bc I don’t need to buy new.

Buying second hand reduces waste, gives items a second (or third, or fourth, etc… ) life, and saves money, among many other things.

Next time you need an item, take a minute to see if you can source it second hand! That thing you need is already out there, waiting for you to find it.

Something New: Writing Letters to Companies

A few years ago, I wrote a letter to my favorite pasta company, Bionaturae. They make the best commercial pasta, in my opinion. It’s tasty, easy to cook, and gets perfectly al dente if you cook it correctly. Since I was just starting my zero waste and plastic free journey, I really wanted to find alternatives to using products with so much plastic packaging, but this pasta is something I didn’t want to go without. I wrote and asked if there was any way I could get their products plastic free? Perhaps they sold in bulk? Perhaps I could buy directly from them? The answer I got back was a not-overly-polite “no”. It wasn’t impolite, but it wasn’t enthusiastically polite, either. I had intended to write more companies but this flat no made me a little discouraged. I wrote a few more letters here and there, but largely gave up on the idea.

A few weeks ago, I was buying my favorite pasta again and was so pleased to find out that the are changing the packaging to use less plastic!! I had resigned myself to recycling the bags this pasta came in, but the new packaging is far less plastic and mostly cardboard! Now it will be easier to recycle or even compost parts of my pasta packs.

I don’t really think my letter had anything to do with the change, but maybe it did! Maybe lots of people asked the same thing and that facilitated the change?

Either way, writing letters to your favorite companies asking them a few simple questions couldn’t hurt!

So now, I’m back to writing letters. I recently wrote to one of our favorite bread makers, Martin’s Potato Bread, to ask what ethical practices they use for their workers and in their factories. They are a family run business that is made in the USA, they only use non GMO ingredients, so in my mind they are already showing that they care. I asked if they had any plans to make a vegan version of their products. I would feel way better about buying vegan potato rolls!!

The same day, I wrote to a flip flop company I had purchased from a few years ago. I need a new pair of flops, but I’m just not sure what to get. This company is among several companies often listed for making sustainable flops. They do use sustainable practices for harvesting their rubber, but do they use ethical practices for the people harvesting? They make an interesting point, that recycled flops, often made from spent tires, are only delaying the inevitability of them ending up in landfills and not biodegrading. The rubber they use biodegrades. But since nothing biodegrades naturally in a landfill, I wanted to know if they had other suggestions for disposing of the flops?

I haven’t heard back from either company yet. But hopefully I will! What questions do you have about some of your favorite products? What do you want to know before you buy something new? I encourage you to ask those questions!