NYR

So officially 17 days into the start of the New Year and I have yet to blog about my Lagom NYR. In all the excitement of getting new stuff for free I overlooked the fact that I need to work out how to achieve my NYR- which incase you haven’t seen it in the several previous posts was to ‘Get organised so the whole family can live a more sustainable life.’ In Live Lagom terms being more sustainable seems to mean using less energy, minimising general wastage (both energy and food), sending as little as possible to general landfill and can also include cycling more and being more active.

I have picked out of this the bits that apply best to me, areas  I know I can improve upon. I am not going to give a list of the things that we were already doing right- because quite frankly it would bore me… (and probably you) and probably come across as a big, smug list of self congratulation. I am however, going to list what we are actively focussing on to achieve the NYR.

 

1.Recycle more– this is an easy one, the lovely SORTERA bins are in place and labelled, and when they get fill up things are taken to be recycled. Makes me feel good and keeps the house (and garden) tidy.

2. Use less energy -one way we are using less energy is by using LED lightbulbs.October to December usage for 2015 was 881 kwh, October to December usage for 2016 was 735 kwh. There are far too many variables to draw valid conclusions from this, but you have to admit this looks good (especially considering the amount of TV and xbox time the children sneaked in over Christmas…).

The children have been helping the Lagom life by remembering to close curtains when they get back from school and turning off lights they are not using. The GLASNAVA curtain at our back door is helping stop some heat loss, I am planning on hemming the other one we got and putting it by the door to the porch. Oh, and I have turned down the heating thermostat by one degree.

3.       No more half loads in the washing machine– with the aid of BLASKA washing baskets I now have space to store dirty clothes until there is enough for a full load- and the MULIG clothes airer means I can hang it all up to dry even on the wettest days outside.

4. More sustainable shopping– this one is tricky, and is where Lagom principles of finding the right balance for my family really get tested. If  I was just shopping for sustainability I would buy organic fruit and veg, visit farmers markets and farm shops and would never set foot in a supermarket again. Unfortunately, we can’t afford to live like that. So I do go to supermarket, the aim is just to go once a week; I plan meals in advance and  I try and consider the packaging that the products are in. I am not actively considering food miles and how things are grown when I shop.

A big change has been avoiding the special offers and sales, usually by now I would  have bought at least a  dozen items of bargain,reduced price stationery to go in the children’s stockings (pillowcases) at Christmas. These are normally opened, looked at, pens used once, books scribbled in once (just enough so you couldn’t ever give it away) and then put away (lost) in their bedrooms. This year I have resisted;  I will probably regret this nearer to Christmas but right now I feel good about not having bought unnecessary things.

Another big shopping change is that I have re-started ordering meat in bulk from the butchers. It means I do not have lots of silly plastic trays that you get from supermarkets. I  now always have meat in the freezer and only have the plastic bags it is packed in to dispose of. It does mean being a bit more organised as I have to order a day in advance, plan when I can pick it up and be aware of how much freezer space I really have.

5. Grow more vegetables– this is another easy one, last year I grew two pods of peas, and three radishes. I think I can do better this year. I have bought a VAXER nursery and have started some lettuce and herb seeds growing. I have moved the compost bin from the concrete onto the corner of my veg patch. It needs a bit of clearing up from last years half hearted attempt.

 

After people sharing their growing on the facebook page I have only started a few seeds, as I do not have much growing on space.

6. Get rid of some stuff– I suppose declutter is the correct term. We have lots of stuff, we keep getting new stuff. We need to have less stuff. This one is going to be hard- but very necessary. I am hoping that sorting everything out will help us to use what we already  have (like pens and notebooks used only once) and help the house work better. I am planning on a fairly gentle declutter  as I will keep things because ‘they might be useful one day’ – they often are. However, I am pretty sure we will be able to live quite happily without a good proportion of the things just lying around in our house.

So a very longwinded account of how I plan to achieve my NYR. Some changes are already taking place. My daughter had a science lesson on reducing heat loss from a home yesterday, she came home and told me about the  poster she had done: ‘I wrote Live Lagom on it, because it was all the stuff we do anyway.’  (She is looking forward to the cosy homes workshop.)

Looks like I might actually have sent myself a NYR that I can achieve.

Keep living Lagom !

 

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Finished

This is how it all looks now, with coat hooks up for cycle helmets and a shelf to store all those things I don’t use all that often- in my case the box on the shelf contains flower vases, no one ever buys me flowers anymore… (I suppose that cut flowers aren’t very Lagom anyway…)

I think the space needs a bit of explaining, behind the curtain in the middle picture is the back door to my house, this area is a small corridor that leads straight into the kitchen. There is a sliding glass panelled door between the kitchen and this corridor but we never slide it all the way across as it often gets stuck. The back door is a bit draughty and the kitchen always feels cold in the winter- it has a very low insulated flat roof- the addition of the curtain should make the kitchen bit warmer.

I am really pleased with how the small changes have made this space go from this mess:

 

to this:

The addition of the curtain means we will keep the space cosier.

The baskets for clothes mean I can wait for a full load before I use the washing machine- so uses less energy.

The recycle bins mean I can recycle more things as they are all organised together- it also forces me to actually recycle stuff when they get filled up.

The cycle helmet hooks are a constant reminder to us that we have bikes, and really, really should use them more often…

So I am all prepared now to start my lagom journey, to get more organised so my family and I can live more sustainably.