Little things make us who we are

Have you ever looked at something and said to your self this is probably why I am who I am? Here's my little rant. I clean and water my chickens every morning with our garden hose. Today there is a full bucket of water sitting next to the faucet. I knew it was there before I went out because my son asked if he could dump it. My natural response was no we can water the plants. This morning sitting there looking at the bucket I remembered the buckets we kept in our shower as a kid growing up.
I moved to the Bay Area when I was 1 from Southern California. My earliest memory was a drought when I was very young. Not flushing the toilet unless number two, timers in the bathroom to limit the shower time, dried grass in every yard on the street. The drought didn't last for ever but our behaviors did. My parents collected shower water to water our lawn. We had three five gallon buckets in the shower. We never ran major appliances like the washer, dryer or dishwasher until after 7pm or before 6am. We walked to the grocery store even though we had a car. My mom used cloth even when disposable diapers were available. We patched holes in our clothes.We reused containers like butter tubs and glass mayonnaise jars. This was all normal for me growing up.

I look around my house now and think about how I could live a little cheaper. Well I'm not doing nearly what my parents did when I was growing up. I hardly walk any where. I don't reuse water for plants, I run the appliances all the time. I'm not nearly are Green as they were without ever knowing it.

One of my goals this year was to reduce. I'm failing miserably at it. I read a very inspiring article on a blog I follow called The Zero Waste Home. It was about living Zero waste as an artist and getting rid of things that aren't used inspiring more creativity. We'll my hubs complains all the time about how he can't work at home because it's always a mess. My excuse was always that we have five kids. When in reality I could be a little more ambitious with my goals and get rid of things we never use. OK a lot more ambitious. Five kids in a three bedroom home really is junk busting at the seams. So today I'm feeling a Craiglist giveaway of stuff. It's long over due and time.

Who knows I may just set up a  rain barrel and throw a bucket of two in my shower.