Simple Living Tips - Go Local

I am stay at home mother who has recently converted to living as simply as possible. For years I was a shopaholic, fast food lover, and non-recycler. I have come to the realization that we only have one earth, and we must do whatever we can to protect it.

With this in mind I have taken to living simply.

Living simply incorporates the growing trend of sustainable living. This concept promotes living your life as locally as possible. It is an effort to support local businesses and local initiatives. It is supporting your local community.

When planning my meals for my family I make an effort to use as much produce as possible from our local farmers market. I believe that by supporting local farmers I am improving my carbon footprint. I am saving fuel by not buying items at traditional grocery stores.

I still do get the vast majority of my groceries from the traditional grocery store, but when I can buy zucchini from a local farmer I am supporting my community. I am giving my hard earned dollars back to the farmer who lives down the road and drives his produce to the market every Saturday. I am not giving money to a store that imports vegetables from far away places. It saves on fuel.

I also make all my own baby food. Most of the time I puree the fruits and vegetables I get from the weekly farmers market. This saves in so many ways. It gives me a sense of pride that I am able to provide my child with the freshest fruits and vegetables, often times picked the day of the market. It also reduces the carbon footprint because this food does not come from a factory, reducing electricity. This food also is not packaged in glass or plastic containers. Yes these things could be recycled, but even easier for the environment would be to save the environment by never needing them in the first place.

Now I know I sound like an idealistic hippie, but the irony of this is that I am not. I just want to do what I can to keep the our earth up and running as long as possible. I want to be able to be proud that 70% of the waste we produce in our household goes into a recycle bin.

When buying produce I try to use as much as possible, but let's face it, a tomato will turn bad before you get around to using it every once and a while. My husband has constructed a simple chicken wire composting bin that we put all of our egg shells, grass clippings, and rotten tomatoes in. We flip this on a regular basis, and every May, when we are preparing our garden we put a years worth of compost on the topsoil and rotor-till it in.

I still have a long way to go when it comes to simple living. I want to join a community shares program, cut down on the amount of time I spend in a car, and bike more. I believe that with baby steps I will eventually get to a point where I can say I am truly and completely living the sustainable lifestyle, but until then I will keep on finding new ways to create a sustainable household.