Five days and counting

Thanks for all the great feedback on this new experiment of mine. (Check the previous post for details. Basically, it’s an attempt to shop for only real, true essentials for a month. Food, minimal gas, medicine, cat food and toilet paper as of now.)

So far, it’s been easy. Probably too easy. I haven’t felt deprived yet because right before the experiment began I placed an order online (an indoor trainer for my bike) that I expect to arrive in a day or two … plus, I had a netflix arrive this weekend. It’s hard to feel deprived with a steady stream of items still flowing in.

It seemed excessive to cancel netflix for the short experiment, but I decided I wouldn’t return the movie to get others until the month is over.

I was reading up on the whole thing and found a couple who wrote a book about a year of their lives spent without shopping. They said they used old T-shirts cut into squares as toilet paper and laundered them every week. All of a sudden I felt so grateful for my toilet paper (though I haven’t and won’t buy paper towels … I also got a question about cleaning supplies. Well, we’re going to find out how well old staples like lemon, vinegar and baking soda really work. I expect either results so brilliant that I’ll wonder why I wasted money on commercial cleaning products for so many years … or results so dingy that I’ll be embarrassed to share just how disgusting my apartment has become without a month of real cleaning … either way I’ll keep you updated.)

So … I’m also about to finish sewing a tote bag for groceries since consuming less also means wasting less, and that includes the millions of plastic bags I probably use every year.