Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.

Some thoughts I've had lately about these 3 little words. REDUCE: Reducing our consumption (and not just recycling after we consume) is one of the most important things we can do to make a difference. It takes self-control, but once you start to work on mastering your consumer-driven desires, it gets easier.

We've been living in the RV just over 2 weeks, and I am keenly aware of my obsession with reducing. If there is something that is not serving an immediate purpose, it's gone. Nothing is safe! :) We've done two more downsizing sessions since we moved in. The first one consisted of mostly clothes and the second of household items. It feels so good to see open space in my cupboards and to have room to move my clothes around in the closet.

I am also very aware of what is coming into the RV. Even when we lived in the apartment, if I brought some new stuff home, I could just toss it in the closet and deal with it later. Now, I have to deal with it immediately, because if I put it on the couch, where will we sit?! :) I rarely even have the desire to go to stores, or garage sales anymore...because I know that if I end up finding something I "need", I will have to come back and find a place for it. Which, when everything already has a place and there is not a lot of empty space, is a little difficult. So I am content to make do with what I already have and when a need arises, I am better able to determine if it is truly a need.

REUSE: I love Klean Kanteens. We all have our own and we use them everyday, all day. In fact, most of the time, we don't even use cups at meals...just our water bottles! Because we can just re-fill over and over without washing, it reduces the number of dishes. This is a good thing. :) I take it with me everywhere and I will fill it up at random drinking fountains and in public restrooms. When we go to somewhere to eat...for example, Subway, I take it and fill it up with their water instead of taking their disposable cup.

Bottled water is super popular among RV'ers because many people don't trust their tank water. We have a Pur water filter on the faucet and as long as we filled up our tank from a tested source...we drink it. But if you have access to safe filtered tap water at home and on the town...drink it! Well, unless you live in Iowa which probably has the most contaminated water in the nation from all of the pig farms (check out this map!). The tap water/bottled water scandals have been all over the news lately. Here are some interesting tidbits on the topic from Colin at No Impact Man.

There are many coffeeshops switching to biodegradable cups in an effort to be more earth-friendly. I was pleasantly surprised to see one of my favorite spots in Bozeman put out a recycling bin for all of their plastic cups. But even though it's a step in the right direction...it doesn't solve the problem...the waste is still there. On my last trip to the Ecopolitan in Minneapolis, I was excited to see that they were requiring the purchase of a glass jar when you bought a smoothie to-go. You had to pay $1 for the jar/cup and you could either keep it, or bring it back in for a credit. It's ideas like this that need to stick...they may seem radical to the general public, but until we start to realize how much disposable junk we use everyday, the landfills will just continue to grow.

RECYCLE: It's been a little more difficult to recycle while traveling, because I'm never sure where the next drop-off site will be. But it's working good so far. Whenever I am flattening a box or washing out a can to recycle...I am usually thinking "did I really need that in the first place?". And the answer most often is no. Again, along the lines of REDUCING before even getting to this step, I want to buy products with less packaging, boxes, plastic, etc. on them. If you must buy something in plastic, try to remember to check the recycle number BEFORE you buy it. I'm always annoyed when I get something home and realize that it's a #5 plastic, which is not recycled in a lot of areas.

I'm soooo far from perfect in all of these areas...but try hard to be mindful of my actions and how they effect others, and if I mess up...I just start fresh the next day.

What are some of your own thoughts about these 3 little words?

Stuff

STUFF. It's amazing to me how much stuff we managed to fit in our cozy little apartment in Bozeman. Even after we had taken all of the important and beloved items to the RV, we were still left with what you see in the above photo. This photo was taken right before we loaded up the truck to get rid of it all. We sold all of the furniture and higher priced items and gave everything else away. Well, almost everything. We kept the little munchkin hiding in the piles. It's like Where's Waldo :) Do you see her?

It was very freeing to downsize again...this time was much more drastic than any of our moves before. We ended up keeping only the stack of green totes behind Bella. The funny thing is...I don't miss any of it. But I do think about "stuff" a lot. Not how to get it, but rather how I can get rid of it! I still go through the RV and make piles of stuff to give away. As we were packing, I started wondering how it all got into my possession in the first place. So...let's discuss. How DOES all of this stuff get into our homes?

Where does it all come from? Well, Target of course! Isn't that where all STUFF originates from?! If it's not Target, it's another store that tells you that last season's style is now out of style. When I think back to my college days of credit cards and endless spending...it was usually when Target changed seasons that I went berserk. All of those cool new things in new colors! Calling my name! Ooooh! It didn't matter if I had something just like it at home already...whatever the thing was, the new one was better. Then, when I brought it home...the other item that I didn't want anymore would just get put in a cupboard, a drawer, or the basement....and voila! Follow that sequence enough and CLUTTER IS BORN.

Our dissatisfaction with our current state of possessions is mostly driven by advertising. It's practically unavoidable. The mall and television are the main culprits...but even without a television and with trying to avoiding the mall, I am still prone to being sucked in by banner ads for natural products or emails from companies I have bought from in the past sending me sale notices, etc. But, I know my weaknesses and I have started to unsubscribe from all of these tempting offers.

Speaking of knowing weaknesses...thrifting, garage sale-ing, ebaying. I'm sure there are many who read this blog who have a love of any or all of those things. But too much love for those things, and clutter will find you too! It used to be very hard for me to even go into a thrift store or to a garage sale without finding all kinds of things that would be "perfect"! When I had a larger living space, it was way too easy to find space to put all of it. But now, I have no extra space. I can tell myself "no" because I can't imagine where it will go!

So we've established that stuff comes from stores...new or used. It also comes from the stuff-giving people in your life. If you have someone in your life who is constantly buying you things, it can be very difficult to handle if you are trying to downsize. Lucky for me, I can just say "sorry...we don't have any more room in the RV!". But that isn't the case for most! :) My philosophy is to ALWAYS graciously accept whatever it is that someone is giving you. They have obviously given some thought into the matter and it's important to them that you have it. If you decide later that you just don't want to keep it, you can give it away, re-gift it to someone else, or if you're broke...you could sell it! Hey! It's practical. Some of you may have a problem with my suggestions, but when you're downsizing...sometimes you have to be brutal. I'm not going to keep a dust-gathering figurine just because someone else thought I should have it in my house. If you have someone close to you who is consistently giving you things against your wishes, it would be wise to sit down and have a heart to heart about your values and goals for your home. You could give them some ideas of things that would be really useful gifts for you...or you can also ask them to give you gifts of their TIME instead. They could have you over for dinner or take the kids so you can have some alone time.

What is "enough"? This is a question that only you can answer. I often get people asking me how much clothing they should keep or how many toys their child should have. It really just depends on what your priorities are. What works for one person would never work for another. Everyone one will have some types of possessions that will look like "excess" to someone else. The line between necessity and luxury is different for each person/family. You might be surprised at how little you actually need to live. I'm not saying that everyone would be happy selling it all and moving into an RV :). But it's a really good exercise to truly examine what things are important for you to keep and what things are just taking up time and energy. Ask the hard questions of yourself. Why do you "need" a certain item? Could you live without it and still have the same quality of life? Some of you might have never considered living without a car. You might be surprised at how much stress it relieves! For others, living without a car would actually create more stress.

If you have the special gift of hospitality and you love to open your home to others and serve them...you probably don't want to get rid of all of your extra dishes. On the other hand, if you have 25 cute coffee mugs, but you have never had more than 2 people over at one time for coffee...you might want to consider downsizing your collection. If you have a home with 2 spare bedrooms, but you only use them one weekend out of the year...you would probably benefit by downsizing your home. If you have people staying with you all the time and you love being able to open your home to traveling guests...then keep the bigger house!

Clothing is a great place to start your downsizing journey because nearly everyone has too many clothes! However, it can be a hard one because there tends to be a lot of emotions there. But they are just clothes, and they don't make you who you are! If you have a piece of clothing you're holding onto for sentimental reasons, consider making a throw pillow out of it or frame a piece of it like art. That way you can re-claim the space in your closet and make your memory functional.

If you haven't been able to fit in those five pairs great jeans for 2 years...it's probably time to give them away and enjoy the extra space in your closet. If you don't love how you feel when you where it, it shouldn't be there. If it stains easily, is hard to wash, or is not practical...it shouldn't be there. If you haven't worn it in a year...it's gone! There are a couple of exceptions of course. If you have a job that requires a certain type of dress code, you will obviously need to keep clothes for work. And if you don't have laundry on-site, it's often easier to keep a few more clothes than you think you will need so that you have some available even if you can't make it to the laundromat.

I'm sure that you have some things in your life that bring you extreme joy when you use them. For me it's tea, pillows, cookbooks, and photos. Those are things that I will occasionally downsize, but I know that it's ok for me to have what may look like excess to other people... because I LOVE them. Just know yourself...know WHY you are keeping something around. Only you can decide what works and what doesn't.

Getting Rid of Stuff The best way to start your downsizing journey is to JUST START. When I have stuff I need to go through, I create three boxes. The first box says "KEEP", the second box says, "DONATE", the third box says "SELL". You can also have a fourth box that says "NOT SURE". After you start doing this a lot, you'll find that less and less goes in the "not sure" box because you get better at making decisions about what is important and what isn't. Once you have your boxes set up...get busy! It helps to have a non-biased person helping because they can talk some sense into you when you when you need it. When you are done, put the donate box by the door so you can continue throwing stuff into it every day. When it's full, put it in your car and take it to the Goodwill/Thrift/Salvation Army store that very same day. Don't delay...otherwise it will sit there for 6 months. After 6 months you'll find it and think "ooooh...look at all this fun STUFF!". Just get rid of it fast and don't look back. You won't miss it. Take the sell box and sell those items on Craigslist, eBay, or your local classifieds.

Here are some places to focus your efforts:

• Clothing (as discussed above)
• Books: If you haven't read it and never will, pass it on to someone else, sell it, or donate it to the library. I try to only keep my very favorite books on the shelf.
• Dishes: I like to only keep on hand what I need for my immediate family. One plate, one cup, etc. for each person. The rest goes in storage until we have guests. This also makes doing dishes much more enjoyable.

When you are at a level of possessions that you are happy with...make sure that everything has a place. I cannot stress this enough. When you don't have a place for something, it just goes on the counter. Clutter breeds clutter, so pretty soon you have a little clutter colony there. You should have a place for keys. A place for incoming mail. A place for pens...and so on. It will be so much easier to clean your house when you can put it all away quickly. I also prefer to have a clean counter-top in the kitchen and bathroom. If you have the space to get your appliances and knick-nacks off of the counter and put them into cupboards or closets...do it. You'll be amazed at the difference it makes. Replace those items with a simple bouquet of wildflowers, wipe off your empty counter and SMILE!

If you do live in a small space, it's critical that you de-clutter and put everything away EVERY night. If you let it build up for even one day, it can be overwhelming and get out of control. It's especially true in the RV...I usually go through at least 2-3 times a day and put stuff away, straighten the counters, the bed, etc. I actually love doing it...because when everything has a place, it's a JOY to "keep house"!

A Joy to Keep House?! Yes. When your home is organized and decluttered...you will be a different person. Your outlook on life changes. Situations that seemed out of control and chaotic now seem manageable. When you wake up and walk to the kitchen to make coffee and your counter-top is clean...your day just got that much easier.

The state of your home is in direct proportion to the state of your heart/mind. When you have piles of stuff all over your house, your spirit just gets bogged down with all of it whether you know it or not. When you don't have to worry about moving your STUFF around, cleaning your STUFF, and storing your STUFF...you have a lot more time to spend doing things things that you love and spending time with your family and friends! And that's what life is all about.

One Step

All or nothing. That's me. If I am passionate and excited about something, I jump in and do it without looking back. But even with my personality as it is, the journey that I am on has taken time. All of the changes in my life did not happen overnight. I took one step at a time and eventually it came to equal big changes. I thought it would be fun and encouraging to hear about everyone's journey toward simpler and/or green living. You can write your story in the comments, or write your own blog entry and just leave a comment with the link. I'll kick it off with my own story.

In 2002, I was in Barnes and Noble and came across Mothering Magazine. I was enthralled with everything they said and was excited to get home and check out their online forums. Once I got there, I was hooked. I spent hours on there researching and learning and getting excited about "natural living". This was still two years before I was pregnant with Bella...but I loved reading in the cloth diaper forum :) I knew, even then, that I would use cloth, that I wanted a midwife and homebirth, and that I loved those cool slings. Most of my reading focused on attachment parenting, and natural baby products. I continued to explore all of these things and when I had Bella, I was finally able to put my natural parenting/birth ideas into action. Once I started down that path...I became increasingly more interested in using natural beauty & cleaning products. Research led to more research...and like my friends and I always say, "it's a slippery slope!".

In the Fall of 2004, I was getting increasingly frustrated because we just couldn't afford organic meat. But, I didn't want to buy non-organic meat. So, I just stopped buying meat altogether...and that was the beginning of my vegetarianism. My initial motivator soon morphed into other things, like being appalled at the way animals were treated at factory farms, the pollution from conventional farms, the studies showing how much healthier your body was by consuming less meat. At that same time, I just happened to run into a mom at the farmer's market who had just had a homebirth, was a vegetarian and had all of the same interests as I did. We hit it off and she was kind of my vegetarian "mentor". Denise and I are still close friends today, even though we live far apart! Matt was and always has been supportive of my decision. We don't have meat at home, but he regularly eat meats when we are out. I will occasionally buy him some organic turkey breast or organic beef jerky as a treat at home. :) I'm very blessed to have a flexible husband who loves my cooking. He says as long as he's full...that's all that matters! Eventually, I went fully vegan (no eggs, dairy or any animal product)...although I am not now. And I had a short stint where I ate 100% raw food.

When I started hanging around online with vegans and vegetarians...I learned about so many other things. Most vegetarians tend to be activist minded, thinking kind of people. They are questioning the norm...making a decision to go against the flow. I started to question everything that I thought was "normal" and I made sure that what I was doing aligned with my values. My interest in living a more earth-friendly lifestyle is rooted in my faith. I believe that those who follow Jesus should be the most outspoken environmentalists there are! Christians talk so much about being good stewards of their money, their time, or their body...but being a good steward of the earth He has entrusted to us is just as important. God cannot be pleased when he sees excessive waste, excessive chemicals being poured out into the waters, and excessively nonchalant attitudes among His people. You don't have to be a radical tree hugger to take care of creation. It's just part of stewardship.

In the Summer of 2005, we were staying in a hotel for 4 weeks for business. We had a small suite that had a bedroom and a little kitchen. I realized while we were there that I was EXTREMELY HAPPY living in a smaller space. I liked knowing where Bella was at all times without searching. I liked that cleaning up only took a few minutes instead of an entire afternoon. It just clicked. Matt and I talked about that for a long time and when we returned from our trip, we decided to sell our house (that we had just purchased a few months before)...and downsize everything. We spent entire weekends cleaning out our basement, selling things on eBay and Craigslist. Slowly, we came out from under our self-imposed weight of possessions. In that time, we also had a strict budget and paid off all of our consumer debt (credit cards, cars, etc). It took one year...but by the end of that year, we had paid the debt, sold our house, and moved into a smaller apartment. It was during that time that I discovered the Compact and also many blogs that were discussing simpler/greener living. I loved the freedom I felt in giving things away, helping others, and feeling the wonderful "light" feeling that comes with getting rid of things that you don't need. The group of friends I had in Des Moines were also instrumental in my journey...so many wonderful, thoughtful mamas, encouraging each other to make slow changes.

The jobs that we had during that time (working for my family) were great for the pocketbook, but not so great for keeping sanity. We made the hard decision to resign, move to Bozeman, MT and seek out a slower pace of life. It's been a great time of reflection, rejuvenation, and searching out what God has for our lives.

Before we sold our house, we had purchased a gorgeous VW Westy and we had planned on traveling the country in it. Circumstances arose and we ended up selling it before we moved to Bozeman...but the traveling lifestyle was still calling to us. We were always talking about how we wished that we would have just done it. We decided to follow our hearts. What is the worst that could happen by pursuing our dreams? Failure? No big deal...at least we can say we tried! And in the end, we'll have no regrets.

So, here we are today. We know that God has called us to downsize once again and travel...at least for awhile. He has graciously opened doors and provided wonderful opportunities for us to share our passion about living small and sustainably and sharing our love of Christ. We have dreams of starting our own ministry in the next couple of years, recruiting other young families, and traveling around the U.S...stopping at different camps to do work projects (1-2 months at a time). Matt would love to start doing work related to his true passion, which is leading worship. We hope to incorporate that into our traveling ministry.

So, that's the story. We have taken one step at a time; sometimes they are baby steps...sometimes they are huge leaps of faith. But wherever the road leads, we know that God has our future planned, they are good plans...full of hope! :)

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." -Jeremiah 29:11