Saving Green by Moving Green

     In my effort to live my life more simply, I am consciously aware of my carbon footprint, and what we are consuming on a daily basis.

    Nothing makes your consumption more evident that making a move. (By the way, you have no idea how truly dirty your house is until you move.....I really think people should be forced to move every five years purely for sanitation purposes- I thought my home was relatively clean: not!)

   During our latest home move, we were fortunate to be able to take our time moving, which helped the process go much greener than we thought.

   Our last move was an out of state move.  I hired a moving company, and decided to let the moving company pack the kitchen for me. With little kids, this made sense: I could use my kitchen right up to the move, which freed me up to pack the rest of the house. I was horrified when I was unpacking the new house, and  found the movers had used a whole box filled with paper to pack one serving platter. I was also horrified to find they packed my trash!!! Yup, I opened a box to find my garbage had moved across state lines with us!

   This move was different. I hired a local moving company to move the furniture only. I was able to save money by using a smaller truck, and I used a company that charged by the hour.   Everything else has been moved over with laundry baskets. I didn't buy a single box, packing tape, or packing papers. Since we are still readying our old house for sale, every trip I make, I pack up the car. Laundry baskets go back and forth with me. I use old bath towels to cushion anything breakable. No boxes, no tissue paper, just my laundry baskets and my own sweat equity.

   It doesn't sound very simple- it sounds like a lot of trips back and forth and a lot of gas, right? I'm making the trips anyway; in between cleaning both houses & driving the children to their activities, I haven't been doing any extra driving.  Plus a bonus, as I empty the laundry baskets in the new house, I put things away as I go- virtually eliminating packing or unpacking. I can see what is going to work in the new house, and what is going directly to yard sale. Double bonus: the kitchen was all set up before we even officially moved in!

The Key To My Simple Valentine's Day

In our house, Valentine's Day is a non- holiday.....a holiday invented by the greeting card companies that only makes singles feel bad about being single, and couples feel pressure to create that "perfect romantic evening".
I have long ago banned my husband from buying me overpriced flowers: I'd rather get surprised one day in June.  We may meet for lunch, but never go out for dinner where the menu has been inflated and the wait is too long. The expectations for the day are too high- and too many people are disappointed in the end.  We have long ago made a pact to only do cards or small tokens of affection. No pressure, no expectations, no disappointments.The same goes for the kids- who love waking up to a small surprise left on the kitchen table.

This year, we have just moved into a new home, so I decided to give the kids one of those decorative house keys you see at the big-box-do-it-yourself store.   Then it segued in my mind...the keys to our home- the keys to my heart. A quick Google search led me to printable Subway Art- I literally jumped on this train!

I found two printables "The Key To My Heart" for the girls, and a printable I fell in love with that I decided to print out for my husband. A trip to Walmart for discount frames and heart-shaped key-chains and I was almost done. This simple, inexpensive, gift was a hit! Top it off with chocolate croissants for breakfast, it almost made me believe in Valentine's Day.

                                                                   Google Image

                                                   Just Devine Style link "Key to my Heart"

                                                                   Subway Art printable

                                           Chocolate Croissants: refrigerated croissants rolled up
                                           with chocolate chips and sprinkled with powdered
                                           sugar- Yum!