What can you do?

People around us know that we are environmentally committed folks. We really try to live our lives in an increasingly sustainable manner. I know this is important, I know that it is better for myself and the earth and I know that it takes more thought and many times it isn't the "easy way out". But, we are more than willing to make small sacrifices. We used to have our recycling picked up curbside in Atlanta - wow - that was convenient! It also got many people to recycle who normally didn't because it was so easy. Well, now we drive our recycling to the recycling place. Is it a little more of a pain in the butt? Well yeah. But it is important enough to us that we do it.

But we found THIS. It really drives home about WHY we need to live in a more sustainable manner. Our current system IS. NOT. WORKING and it will never, ever work. Consumerism is king. This video is about 15 minutes long but it is really well done, educational and explains why we need to change the way we do things. It also explains how we have gotten away from LIVING our lives! We spend so much time working - it's nuts.

So, in light of this video - what can YOU do to help drive your own life to a more sustainable place? Many of you probably already do a lot but pick one or two more little things that you are willing to change in your own life or teach someone else about. Tell me about some things that you already do too! I always like getting more ideas. Here is our list.

What we already do:
- Recycle everything we can
- Reuse instead of buy (from ourselves or via others)
- Try and fix things instead of just going out and buying new things
- Build things out of recycled, recycleable and/or non-toxic materials
- Take care of our little piece of land by not polluting it and keeping our water sources clean
- Use almost no chemicals for cleaning our home - mostly vinegar based things
- Conserve energy - put on a sweatshirt instead of turning up the heat, turn out lights, use CFLs
- Try to buy locally and American (especially fresh foods)
- Use recycled material (shredded paper from newspaper/junkmail/etc.) as packing material for our products
- Buy our supplies from American companies that are committed to buying locally and/or fair trade practices as much as possible
- Grow our own stuff - I would love to get to the point where at every meal we can say that 75% of what is on our plate - we grew ourselves
- Compost
- We are conscious about chemicals/hormones/junk that are so prevalent in today's food sources and we try to avoid those as much as possible - really, read the labels - it's amazing what we put into our bodies!!

What I am committed to start doing:
- Making our own laundry soap
- Start planning for solar energy for our home (we have the PERFECT set up for this)
- Start planning an aquaponics garden
- Continue to find more eco-friendly products to carry in our business
- EDUCATE others - I would love to get involved with teaching others about simple things they can do to make their own life, other's lives and the earth healthier
- Keep knitting and spinning!!! I love that I can make things for us that keeps us from buying something commercially and will help keep us warmer to lower energy costs!
- Spend more time in the evening reading or doing other projects around the house

It is MLK day today. Martin Luther King Jr. was committed to a life of service to his community. We are all a part of many different communities in our daily lives. I also want to be better about remembering that I am a part of a community and find some ways to spend more time contributing to that community.