So, it's been about a week since I started my blog and I thought now would be a good time to write about my difficulties and successes with my 3 strategies. But before I do, I have to mention how I haven't moved yet. The apartment complex I was interested in moving into was completely disorganized and unprofessional. Here's what happened:
My friend Rachel and I drove out to Lakeway to go to the management company I was thinking about renting through. When we got there, I had to fill out paperwork and the lady working there gave me a piece of paper with a building number, and a room number on it, and then she gave me the key. So, Rachel and I drove to Sunset where the apartment was. We found the building and the room fast and we were excited to see the place. We opened the door and it wreaked like smoke, the floors were dirty, and when we pushed the door all the way open, there so much stuff in there. Was someone living here? We shut the door, locked it and sat in the car. Confused about what we saw, we called the management company and told them what happened. Oops, the lady wrote down the wrong building number and key. So, yes someone was actually living there. Weird. It wouldn't have been so bad, if she had said sorry just once. But no, she acted as if it was no big deal at all, almost standard; nothing weird about it. Anyways, so Rachel and I went back to the management company, swapped keys, then drove back to Sunset to look at the right apartment. The first thing I noticed was a knife slash in the door. How scary. But when we got inside Rachel optimistically told me "at least the knife didn't' go through the door." ... The apartment had an unclean smell, the fridge looked like it needed to be bleached clean, the screen on the back door was about to fall off... it's a long list really. So, once I'm searching again for an apartment.
So as far as my footprint goes, the carbon factor hasn't improved at all. My goal to eat more sustainable foods has been surprisingly easier than I thought. I've been eating one peanut butter and jelly sandwich everyday. I've been eating less meat and dairy. To be honest I can't remember the last time I had dairy. Meat is a habit that is a little harder to break. I've cut it down quite a bit though. Instead of having it everyday to every other day. I have it about twice a week. But this is only my first week, so I'll have to try to maintain this rate. It seems doable thus far. My goal about recycling more is really hard to judge in this short amount of time. It is more of a long term goal. However, I've decided to reuse my plastic bags I use for my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Other than that I haven't really changed much. I wasn't that bad before, I just wanted to make sure I was using items as much as a could before trashing or recycling them. I'm not sure yet if my goal is too broad, or just too long term to assess right now. But I'm thinking about adding a
nother goal. Finally, my last goal- to unplug electronics. Sad, it's kind of been a little bit of a bust. I definitely haven't been doing as well with this goal as I thought I would. Honestly, at the start of this, I thought this would be the easiest goal for me to meet. It's interesting that it turned out to be the hardest. The big thing I never unplug my TV or my computer or my alarm clock or my toaster or my... you get the point. It sounds a little elementary, but starting tomorrow I'm going to leave sticky notes by my outlets reminding myself to unplug them. I'm also going to write my goals on my planner so I can look at it every day. Once this becomes a habit, it won't be a problem. Just getting it to become a habit is hard.
My friend Rachel and I drove out to Lakeway to go to the management company I was thinking about renting through. When we got there, I had to fill out paperwork and the lady working there gave me a piece of paper with a building number, and a room number on it, and then she gave me the key. So, Rachel and I drove to Sunset where the apartment was. We found the building and the room fast and we were excited to see the place. We opened the door and it wreaked like smoke, the floors were dirty, and when we pushed the door all the way open, there so much stuff in there. Was someone living here? We shut the door, locked it and sat in the car. Confused about what we saw, we called the management company and told them what happened. Oops, the lady wrote down the wrong building number and key. So, yes someone was actually living there. Weird. It wouldn't have been so bad, if she had said sorry just once. But no, she acted as if it was no big deal at all, almost standard; nothing weird about it. Anyways, so Rachel and I went back to the management company, swapped keys, then drove back to Sunset to look at the right apartment. The first thing I noticed was a knife slash in the door. How scary. But when we got inside Rachel optimistically told me "at least the knife didn't' go through the door." ... The apartment had an unclean smell, the fridge looked like it needed to be bleached clean, the screen on the back door was about to fall off... it's a long list really. So, once I'm searching again for an apartment.
So as far as my footprint goes, the carbon factor hasn't improved at all. My goal to eat more sustainable foods has been surprisingly easier than I thought. I've been eating one peanut butter and jelly sandwich everyday. I've been eating less meat and dairy. To be honest I can't remember the last time I had dairy. Meat is a habit that is a little harder to break. I've cut it down quite a bit though. Instead of having it everyday to every other day. I have it about twice a week. But this is only my first week, so I'll have to try to maintain this rate. It seems doable thus far. My goal about recycling more is really hard to judge in this short amount of time. It is more of a long term goal. However, I've decided to reuse my plastic bags I use for my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Other than that I haven't really changed much. I wasn't that bad before, I just wanted to make sure I was using items as much as a could before trashing or recycling them. I'm not sure yet if my goal is too broad, or just too long term to assess right now. But I'm thinking about adding a
nother goal. Finally, my last goal- to unplug electronics. Sad, it's kind of been a little bit of a bust. I definitely haven't been doing as well with this goal as I thought I would. Honestly, at the start of this, I thought this would be the easiest goal for me to meet. It's interesting that it turned out to be the hardest. The big thing I never unplug my TV or my computer or my alarm clock or my toaster or my... you get the point. It sounds a little elementary, but starting tomorrow I'm going to leave sticky notes by my outlets reminding myself to unplug them. I'm also going to write my goals on my planner so I can look at it every day. Once this becomes a habit, it won't be a problem. Just getting it to become a habit is hard. 
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