Collectively, small lifestyle changes can make a huge impact on the environment–and your life. Looking for happiness and health? What’s good for the environment is also, it turns out, great for you. Here’s a collection of tips from the No Impact community.
Even though we live in a major city suburb, we have been choosing a lifestyle that is gradually becoming like homesteading.
This is now the second winter we have chosen to heat our (2500 sf) home with a wood stove, leaving the central heating off. We offer to take down dead trees from our neighborhood area for the price of keeping the wood, so our wood source is local. When burning, small fans help distribute the heat around our ranch-style house.
An added benefit of using a wood stove is that many styles have a flat top that allow for a pot to be set on top. We often use ours to heat the water to steam our vegetables for dinner.
Maybe the best part is the cold winter evenings when the whole family gathers around it to keep toasty. It’s the highest-quality time our family spends together.
This post was submitted by Ellen.
Hi!
I have started making my holiday cards and gifts. The cards are made from cardboard, leftover paper, giftwrap, magazines, pressed flowers and leaves, catalogues, etc. Corrogated cardboard makes adorable cut out shapes. Okay I already had some glue leftover from before No Impact Week 1 (thank goodness) as well as other craft supplies, so I am stoked. For gift ideas: cover stuff with papier maché: I have these old tupperware, cracked ceramic and take out plastic dishes which I am covering with papier maché and then with a non toxic water-based varnish after doing a cool collage with leftover crepe paper or tissue papers from last years gifts that I got. I also plan on painting a few and varnishing pressed flowers onto them.
Other ideas that have come to me that I plan on trying out:
-glass yogurt cups make into votive candle holders (the tissue paper or pressed leaves with varnish thing looks cool)
- plastic bags can be crocheted, knitted ot woven into very cool looking bags. I’m going to give it a try.
- leftover bits of wool can be made into pom poms, crocheted into flowers, or woven into “crazy” type scarves. I’ll have pictures soon!
- I would LOVE to hook a rug with leftover clothes, made into strip. Braided rugs are gorgeous too, but that might not be ready in time for Christmas!
- hand knitted scarves and hats for friends – I get wool from all sorts of people wanting to get rid of a skein here, a skein there.
- shoe stores in my neighborhood are thrilled to give away the boxes. Sturdy ones covered in a cool holiday colored collage make a great gift box to put homemade goods into.
Hope this gives someone an idea they haven’t had yet, and if they’ve got some for me, please post!!
Barbara
This post was submitted by Barbara Weber.
I’m eating what I have in the pantry before I buy anything new. As I have several boxes of pasta and cans of beans, the meals will be simple. I also discovered the New Leaf Natural Grocery which sells produce boxes from local farmers. I get my first box this week. My project now is to develop recipes so that I don’t waste anything!
This post was submitted by Carol Scally.
when the tube of paste is ‘empty’,then i just cut it in half, and find that a few days’paste is still inside, which I can just reach with my tooth-brush.
This post was submitted by preeta.
Two months ago my husband told me he wanted to do a four month experiment in buying no new plastic. We would start in January, and be as strict as possible. The idea was that we would do a massive cleansing of plastic from our addicted system and then be able to reintroduce it in healthier ways. Beyond going without condoms and baby wipes, we didn’t imagine making huge changes to our life–we still drive, use the lights, etc. We consider ourselves an ordinary family with a careless habit of buying pre-packaged food at Trader Joe’s. At first, I looked at the countdown to January first as a doomsday march. However would we get by? I considered sneaking extra tubes of lip balm and packages of diapers into the shopping cart each week to build up a supply for desperate times. But a funny thing happened. I saw all around me how easy it was to not use plastic. The abundance was startling and intoxicating. It made me want to do more, go further. I mean, have you ever really looked at what is available in the bulk food section of your local co-op? I hadn’t. It’s still two months from our experiments start date, but we’ve already reduced our plastic consumption by 85%. We also joined a CSA for the winter, something I’d never taken seriously before. What’s next, who can say. One thing I know: the good life is here to stay.
This post was submitted by Kyce.