Home Truth

Anyone familiar with primary education will recognise this process. My four year old is totally au fait with it! She loves to tell me what she decided in ‘planning’.
PLAN:
Anyway, I felt I could do with a bit of the same. This blog is mainly the planning (and pontificating, ranting, rambling etc) and leads on to SOME of the doing. But now for the review (when you and I see how much ‘doing’ has REALLY gone on!).

DO the REVIEW:
Here goes…a review of my first ten BLOG entries.
The Electrisave (original blog) is now gathering dust on the Welsh dresser, unless a visitor to the house notices it and requires an explanation or my son wants to take it into school for Year 6 Science. He was less keen when he found out it had to be connected to the meter and felt the Headteacher would have a problem with that!
BUT we have all been much better at switching off electrical appliances.
I now use the shower and hairdryer at the gym daily, which cuts our home energy consumption but not my personal carbon footprint, I fear.
We have lived without a microwave since it died on the first day of Lent after nearly fifteen years. We aimed to give up microwaving for Lent, but have made it to way beyond then and cannot get beyond the first question of any major purchasing plan - “Do we REALLY need one?” My very own eco-man who cycles to work most days and is late home always/often/sometimes/never (delete as you wish - depends who you ask!) is having to get used to tepid teas that he can no longer reheat, but his complaints are not persistent or loud enough yet to justify the purchase.
We still give loads of ’stuff’ away and are avoiding the shops….
YET we still have mountains of mess everywhere!
We HAVE switched to using recycled toilet rolls.
I HAVE NOT written to the school about the quantity of letters I receive but I have started refusing to take some at the classroom door (which is pointless really as they are already printed and at least I always recycle them!)
Talking of recycling, I HAVE taken two loads to the recycling plant with my friend and have another trip planned for next week.
I HAVE bought SOME energy-saving light bulbs.
I HAVE NOT revisited Marks and Spencers in my search for organic fair trade cotton.

CONCLUSION:
Not bad, I feel. Certainly more progress than if I had not been thinking and reading and writing about these ethical issues regularly. What I have no way of monitoring is if Hometruth is making a difference to anyone else. I hope so. Let me know.

Filed under: Reduce, recycling, simpler lifestyle on May 18th, 2007