This blog is named Creative Light Less, because that is how my family has always tried to live; creatively, more lightly on earth (and with an outlook of lightness and positivity), and with less impact. M and I have long been frugal, sometimes from necessity, sometimes due to principles. We have been DIYers, blending together different skills and interests, and we grew up in an area long known for its environmental and earth loving, crunchy roots.
As social media has taken hold and in the changing climate (environmentally, politically, and socially) of our country and world right now, I am seeing more people striving to have low buy, low waste goals heading in 2025. Many of the tips I am seeing are long established patterns in our household (thanks to parents and grandparents for leading the way), but I am here for it and in support of anyone striving to care for our resources and each other better.
As we head into 2025, I have been considering what I can do to push back against the patterns of social unkindness, mass consumption, and environmental damage, and I have decided that I need to focus back in on what I am good at, what comes naturally to me, intentionally recommit to what I have drifted from, and draw my family in to live a Creative Light Less year (and longer), with intention, as a method of harm reduction and gentle rebellion.
So that is what I am calling this year; our Creative Light Less year. This will look like us leaning back into buying less, acquiring used if we must, strengthening and building community, choosing environmentally friendly options, spending less money, putting our money behind our social and political beliefs, and all those other crunchy sorts of things. It will look like continuing to make a lot ourselves, grow some of our own, conserve water, use renewable energy when we can, drive less, be creative, and more.
I don't think I will be one of those people on social media giving all the tips and I won't even promise to pick blogging back up more (although maybe I will re-post some oldies), but I have lots of knowledge to share and know when to say "I don't know" if I don't, so ask. I want to navigate the year in community.
Used books for our home library from the library bookstore Pizza, homemade by a teen
Here is a post from early January 2010, posted on my former blog, reflecting on a year of "not buying new" in 2009. I may share more posts from that year and challenge along the way, but I am sharing the end of that challenge, first, because it is from there that the years have flowed and we find ourselves where we are now.
with each new year, my biggest wish is that it be better than the last.
january first is such a marker of how quickly time moves and how
important it is to be conscious of the moments, good and bad, as they
pass.
last year, our goals for 2009
included #4, a no-buying-new year. this has been an amazing eco-eco
living challenge. can one live economically and ecologically? we
reported on successes and failures each month as they passed, but wanted to share about our journey on the whole, a text heavy post i hope you read in its entirety.
the
end of this month marks one year since we began, in earnest, our
challenge to buy nothing new. while not perfect, we have done remarkably
well, perhaps because the concept of used was not new to us. it did not
take long before seeking used alternatives became habit, we began
planning ahead for needs, we chose to do without, and many of the
difficulties of the challenge faded away.
one area that provided us the greatest challenge and often broke
our goals,
were home repair materials. much of what we needed was either not
available used or not available used in a form that gave confidence in
the quality/integrity of the materials. and in buying new, it was
difficult to always support the local hardware store. in my mind,
shopping at the big box hardware store was one of our biggest flubs.
thinking on this, i find it interesting that our continued shopping at
costco does not invoke the same feeling of failure.
what
i didn't anticipate, though, was that so many other environmental,
parenting, and health choices would feel woven into this process and
change or be questioned during this year. as with frugal living,
environmentally friendly living is something we have always practiced.
while we do not live in a thrifty area of the country, we do live in one
of the eco-living hubs, and in fact, grew up here, recycling and doing
other "green" activities from an early age. i have always considered
mike and myself to be healthy, earth-aware individuals and i was
startled at how much i felt these fundamental self-beliefs were
challenged this past year.
in the past two
years, too many people i know have been affected by cancer. perhaps
diagnosis of this disease has improved due to technology, but as a
scientist (yes, that is my background), i feel certain that cancer is on
the rise due to environmental factors. it is my job to do all i can, no
matter how seemingly insignificant, to keep our environment and our
physical health as "clean" as we can. we thought of our children in our
environment often this year and the changes in choices we have made have
often been centered around them.
how
does this all tie together? so many of the blogs, websites, and
materials i have read (and continue to read) about our environment
incorporate physical health, and often parenting. these aren't separate
paths for a young family. they are very much intertwined.
on
several occasions, i had to make the decision between used or new, a
direct challenge to our goal of purchasing only used items.
used
items are less expensive. they save items from the landfill. they can
be repurposed into useful things when no longer useful in their original
state. they are sometimes better made than similar new items. but in
some cases, the appropriate item was hard to find used or was made of a
questionable material.
new items can be
purchased to spec. they can be bought sustainably and humanely. they can
be safe materials. but they use new production resources and are
expensive, particularly when the most eco-friendly versions are
purchased.
and, of course, there were many times that we chose to
do away with an item and simply not replace it or figured out a way to
use something else instead.
this year has been such an introspective journey for me. what started for one reason wound down to this one year marker for so very many
reasons. so many of them fundamental to who i/we have always been and
the way i/we have always preferred things, but with so much more
knowledge of products, resources, communities, practices, and so many
more fundamental pieces that make up what we use and eat, how they are
made, and where they come from.
this journey has tangled tightly
with a journey into more informed and conscious parenting and more
natural, mindful eating practices. the focal point spread from frugality
to a holistic approach that suits our family.
so many times i read and learned and felt startled and displaced with
feelings of uncertainty about beliefs i have previously felt so certain
of. i started the year thinking i was ahead of the masses in my
environmental beliefs and now feel like i still have so much to learn.
but i remain steadfast in my belief that each family has to come to their own place on their own terms,
with no judgment. i know most of you will agree with that, but too many
times over, i read directed opinions in various places or heard
criticisms with my own ears. too many times during this past year, i
felt self-conscious, criticized, or blatantly told what to do or what is
right. (and yes, i realize that may have been as much my own self-doubt
as it was the way the informant was expressing themselves.) it is my hope that in verbalizing our journey, i don't unintentionally make anyone else feel insecure of theirs.
although
i love all natural materials, i have come to a balance that works for
our family and our finances. i will still choose used first, because i
have come to realize just how many natural items are available used, if
one just has the patience to wait for them to become available and the
organization to know what one really needs. and i have found
informational resources that make me feel a little more comfortable
about the non-natural materials we are still using.
as
my friend genevieve recently put it...the truth is, despite our need to
live frugally, our family is by no means poor. if we really feel we need something (and in most cases if we really want something), our frugal habits allow us to simply buy those items. it is because
we are careful, pick and choose, and (in the grand scheme of american
materialism) we don't buy much, that makes this flexibility possible.
if we had been 100% true to our goals, we would not have been as frugal
(we would have paid a huge amount for some new, handmade, local items),
so there would be far less of this financial flexibility. it is for
this reason that i do not feel too badly about continuing to use costco for some bulk food and eco goods.
so it is with this first year behind us (and i say first,
because, although we have concluded the 12 months we set out to do, we
are by no means returning to where we were at the beginning) that we
enter our second year with an acceptance (and honestly, an understood
appreciation for) some of the plastics, chemicals, and other non-natural
materials in our lives. it is as we start this year that i say this is where we are right now. one thing i already knew about myself is that i am open to changing my opinion and believe in learning every single day.
Our "backyard," for which we strive to be good stewards.
we
are still working on reducing...our consumption, our clutter, our
spending, and our use of environmentally unsafe products. one of the
biggest ingredients in my cleaning bucket is baking soda. there are more uses than you can count for baking soda. there are entire books about it. yesterday, i whipped up a
new batch of homemade laundry powder (mine is a 4:3 ratio of soda and
borax, where half the soda is washing soda and half is baking soda). i
put half of the batch in an empty (now recycled) animal cracker
container for the laundry, and the other half in this adorable IKEA jar,
for use as dishwasher powder. yes, i discovered the same homemade
powder works great for both. while i was at it, i cleared a slow tub
drain by dumping a cup of baking soda down, followed by a cup of
vinegar. when that finished sizzling, i poured a kettle full of boiling
water after it. drain clear. next...find a replacement for my less
healthy shout and zout stain removers.
