Friday, March 18, 2011

Make it Simple



I just took this survey...
http://simplicityinstitute.org/phpQ/fillsurvey.php?sid=2

My answers weren't as good as I wanted them to be.
I would like to live more simply, but at this point am unwilling to give up my tv or the internet. I also can't give up my car, as it would be very difficult to get all of my tools to and from a different job site every day.
This year I would like to grow and preserve more of my own food. I'm good at the growing so far, not so good at the preserving. I am waiting patiently for all of the fruit trees I have planted over the past years to start producing.
I don't think I will ever be able to produce all of the food we eat, especially since 90% of the gardening duties are mine and mine alone. I would like to produce more foods that we can eat year round.
I do feel like my consumption of "things" is way down from what it was, say, in my twenties. Mostly the things I buy now are books and yarn. And plants. But even my plant budget has gone way down, since I start most of my veggies from seed and most of the big ornamental plants I have gotten lately have been rescues from job sites.
Many things that are included in the above survey are things that I have almost always done and would seem strange not to do...I recycle (admittedly,it is "the law" here.) I grew up pretty poor and worked for many years at an estate auction company, so shopping second hand is nothing new to me. Actually, it is inconceivable to buy many things like furniture new-how does anyone pay those prices?
I don't ever plan on giving up all modern conveniences or moving to the country (not that I haven't thought of it) but I don't think that is necessarily the point of trying to live more simply. Each of us can do just a few things to make life better for everyone.

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