More Challenge begins! - Week 1 - Household Paper Products - Saving Money

This week's tip is to help save some money so we can get some MORE sleep and MORE dreaming.

One of my pet peeves, as I go down the grocery aisle, is seeing every kind of household paper product you can buy to make your life better.  Really?  
Years ago I stopped buying paper napkins and paper towels.  Instead, I use cloth napkins and kitchen towels.   

Guests sometimes feel out of sorts when they receive a cloth napkin at dinner.  It is easy.  There is no waste, nothing to throw out, and it is less expensive in the long run!  Long ago I was staying with a family in France.  At the dining table each person had a cloth pouch and in that pouch was your napkin.  For each meal you removed your napkin and returned it to the pouch after the meal.  No fuss, no muss.  

As to paper towels.... I found this quote a while ago and it stuck with me. "13 billion pounds of paper towels are used each year. That's over 45 pounds of paper towels per person, per year. Talk about wasteful! If every American reduced the number of paper towels they use by just one per day, we would divert 571,230,000 pounds of paper waste each year."  https://www.theenergy.coop/community/blog/banish-paper-towel .

Time to do the math.  One roll of paper towels weighs about 8 oz and therefore about 2 rolls equals a pound.  45 pounds would equal 90 rolls of paper towels per person per year. That is kinda scary.  A roll of paper towels is approximately $1.00.  A family of four, if they're an average paper towel user, would spend $360 just on paper towels.  I could be losing sleep over this one.

Since I'm not using paper towels any longer, some family is taking up my slack!  Oh, the roll in the picture, that roll belongs to my late cat.  She would have those 'cat events' and a paper towel worked best in cleaning up the mess.

as we called it back then, was the only choice.  My gram and mom would wear one over their shoulder  or tucked into the waistband of their apron.  Those were the days.  I still find myself, when at my mom's house, taking the dish cloth and throwing it over my shoulder while helping in the kitchen.  

My solution to the paper towels are cotton, lint free, kitchen towels. My favorite ones come from IKEA  - called Elly, four per pack costing $3.99 per pack.  Yes I have a whole stack of them, about 24 in use at any one time.  I generally put out one-two each day or so and I'm set.  The soiled towels are put in the laundry area and when a white wash is going in, they are put in and voila.

For this week's MORE Challenge -- If you are already doing this bravo, you are enjoying the savings today and helping keep our earth!  Not yet ?  Consider trying it, then you'll be saving some money, sleeping  better and dreaming about what you can do with your savings.  

More Challenge! Are You Ready?

Happy New Year to everyone!  Welcome to the MORE Challenge.

What's the More Challenge you ask?  See the list on the left.   There is one 'more' on the list for each week of the first quarter of 2017! 

Just imagine how you would feel and the change in your life, if, by the end of March, you did each one of those 'mores'?

First - there are the excuses why you can not do all these 'mores'.  I looked to those excuses to find the underlying reasons (not all of them as I'm not a psychic) why we don't get to do MORE.

There are two excuses that seem to resonate on a regular basis -  'don't have the time' and 'don't have the money'.  Really?  If all these items were to be eliminated from life forever in the next 13 weeks, would you change what you are living life right now?  

Here is the MORE Challenge.  Join with me to explore as I share with you some hints and techniques that you can do to eliminate these two excuses. You'll be changed and possibly be richer in the end.  Let's enjoy the 'mores' that will enhance your life, your family and friends around you.

Exactly three months ago I wrote on unfinished projects.  Today, there are still some left, that will probably be the way life goes.

On other fronts - The spirit of this season hasn't hit yet.  I've decorated up the house and it looks great.

Love the glow of the tree when lit and the the lights in the entry way as they illuminate my crocheted snowflakes.  I've played a few Christmas carols, watched some good old Christmas movies and attended a bunch of gatherings.  Nothing really is sparking the spirit.

Clearing the decks is something that is still going on.  I don't spend much concentrated time on that and need to get back to eliminating the stuff in my life.  Stuff takes energy, doesn't give back, and really it needs to be someone else's treasure!

So to the basement I went - I took out the decorations from storage and found I had lots of half empty boxes of stuff.  Oh yeah - I began emptying them.  The shelving is clear!  The boxes to put those current decorations are ready to accept those items placed around my home.  There is a good group of ornaments to give away.    I did find a box, not opened yet, with some other ornaments.  That will have to wait for another day.

The picture above is a sample of the glass ornament I had from either Mom's house or from my maternal gram's tree.  There were a bunch of them - I haven't used them in years. Then it dawned on me - why not cover them with some crochet lace?  In about 4 hours - I had covered six balls!  What a sense of accomplishment.  Of course the "likes" and comments from FB friends were so welcomed.

They will go in a box and become a gift!

Another gift came to mind - I've done lots of snowflakes - mostly for my snowflake display in my entryway.  I get to thinking - some of my nieces and nephews are graduated from college, in college, and the last two are in high school.  They all want money - so I tuck some bucks into an envelope and that's it.  Hmmmm, maybe I'll begin a tradition this Christmas.  Stay tuned for future developments. LOL I know it is only a few days away!

UFO's - UnFinished Objects

What are they......

Here's some random thoughts I have had about my UFO's 

I'll say IT IS MY Choice. Sometimes projects had a great calling to my creative spirit when it was started. There was a challenge, new pattern, stitch, colors, etc. It waned and became a UFO.

About a year ago I ventured on a 30 day Minimalism Challenge (more on my blog). What a difference it made. I organized the UFOs by level of completeness. Then looked at my life and whom would receive the finished item today. Great questions to ask.

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Before I knew it, some projects were re-claimed (torn down to reuse the thread) , some were cut off and added to my 'sample' book, others were tenderly put back for another day (emotional ties).

I gave up on a dozen or so UFOs since that time. I now feel free, I have not lamented over the early terminated projects. I paid a sweet homage to them as those projects were part of my journey. They were holding me back from completing the projects I wanted to do.
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It was almost two years ago that I wrote those words.  Since then I've enter the BIG E twice.  I've moved my studio to a different room and consolidated some items.  Not enough yet, and the new space isn't really working for me yet.  Nonetheless, I've got it in better shape, just missing a few more "ah ha" moments to get it in the shape I need it to be in.

I've been brazen in eliminating unfinished projects.  After conquering the technique or the puzzling pattern, lately written in russian, italian, or spanish, I cut it off and move on! 

 

This year I've entered a Motif challenge at Annual Tatted Lace Motif Challenge on FaceBook.  This challenge has helped me to finish the various little motifs I've tried in tatting.  I'm still having technical challenges with their website, though I'm working at it and the Admin helped me some today.

For today -- it is consolidating more of the ideas, patterns, threads, etc.  I've got to pack for the BIG E...  my volunteer day is Wednesday! I get to demonstrate making lace, see the fair, and enjoy a great day away.

Enjoy the day...............  More Lace!