How do you manage living mindfully?

[Nikki98]

Living mindfully requires effort, (sometimes the effort can seem overwhelming), maintaing a clean non toxic home, eating well, keeping up with input and output from the home, etc.

I know I would like to be more mindful, but at times I'm just too tired- I sometimes use paper plates: and other convenience items because it helps my sanity. So I am curious about you all who have been doing this for awhile. How do you make it manageable? TIA.

[sabrinat]

Originally Posted by Nikki98

Living mindfully requires effort, (sometimes the effort can seem overwhelming), maintaing a clean non toxic home, eating well, keeping up with input and output from the home, etc.

I know I would like to be more mindful, but at times I'm just too tired- I sometimes use paper plates: and other convenience items because it helps my sanity. So I am curious about you all who have been doing this for awhile. How do you make it manageable? TIA.

I'm probably not the best one to answer this, because I will never be uber nfl . For me it's about personal balance and doing what feels right to me. I like to have as close to a nontoxic home as possible, i use cd's (but still buy a box of disposies/month for when dh isn't feeling it and never feel guilty about it since we're doing the best that we can for us), I like to cook and eat well, but I'm not willing to pay extra for all organics so I try to do fresh and whole...but not organic (again it's what is right for me and my family). I generally try to reuse and recycle. I don't use alot of paper products other than tp.
I guess the short answer is try to find the balance and what works for you. No one really has the right to judge how you're living so do what works for you and release the preconceived ideal of what you should be doing.

[cilantromapuche]

I haven't been doing this for a while but it has been a slow gradual effort. I try to start with one thing and make it a habit and then move on to something else. It does require planning. DH isn't really on board and he is the SAHP, so that makes me crazy but I do the best and sometimes we eat McD's because it's that or my sanity.

[KariM]

I think going slowly and building habits (like the PP mentioned) is key. Most of us weren't born into families that practiced mindful home management and we have to acquire the knowledge/skills/habits to do so.

For me it's been a long (17 years so far) gradual move. Each season we add more changes to our lifestyles to bring us closer to *our* ideal.

[EnviroBecca]

What most motivates me is the joy of feeling what I've accomplished. For example, after cooking and eating a healthy meal, I've seen my careful shopping turn into delicious food, I've had the pleasure of doing physical work to reach a tangible goal (my paid job is very intellectual and produces mostly long-term results), I know exactly what's in my family's food, it's seasoned just the way we like it, my body feels good absorbing the nutrients, I'm grateful that my child and partner enjoy healthy foods and will (God willing) be with me a long time because of it, and now I can pack up the leftovers and feel a comfortable sense of preparedness for future meals!

Gradual change and realistic standards are important, too. If 10 years ago I had tried to change to my current lifestyle all at once, it would've been difficult to accept so many changes, and I would've felt like it was unreasonably hard to do all this "extra" work. But by changing gradually, I've incorporated the work so that it "disappears" into my lifestyle...and I've found that the more natural choices are so much more comfortable and pleasant that the "convenience" products don't seem so great anymore!

[Abarat]

Take baby steps!!! I started when my son was born 16 months ago and am just now getting to what I think is a respectable point. We've eliminated all paper products, hang all laundry out (I'm hoping for a particular washer so I can do them by hand in the near future), make everything from scratch including laundry soap, cloth household items, presents to give, etc., use non-toxic and simple cleaning agents, etc.
You can't change it all overnight, even if you wanted to! It takes some experimentation and building of habits. Before you know it one habit will be second nature, then two, then three! And slipping a little now and again is okay, it's better than never trying!
Just pick one thing that's most important for you, whether it's for environmental or frugal reasons and start there. Once that's under your belt start something else.
Once you're really on a roll you'll find a simpler life because of it, really!

[MommyErin]

Lots of good stuff here ... start with one thing and let it snowball naturally. We all have our little things that we let "slip" so to speak. Mindful home management in our fast paced, hectic society is difficult, especially 'cause we're going against the norm and the marketing we're bombarded with. My first thing was cleaning products. I've moved on to other stuff but that's where it started. Sure, we still eat out sometimes and I don't always hang my clothes on the line but we do the best we can without going nuts. That's the key. Besides, if you feel good about what you can do and accept what you can't, who cares what the rest of us think?

[EnglishRose]

We began by eliminating television. (That was a huge thing for us - almost everyone else we know has a telly, and not having one is seen as a little odd! : )

By eliminating the television, we eliminated 99% of the advertising coming into our home. It's a lot easier to do things "your way" when you're not being constantly bombarded by people (read: big market advertising execs) telling you how things "should" be done.

[mossimo12]

"By eliminating the television, we eliminated 99% of the advertising coming into our home."

:

Sarah

[ahdoula]

I just eliminated the temptaion! I can't use paper towles if I don't buy them. I can't use paper plates if they arn't in the home, I can't use a disposable diaper if there isn't one around, get the idea? I keep a ziplock bag of kleenex hidden away for guests but it is in a spot that makes reaching for the nearby hankies easier for the rest of us. I do keep TP in the bathroom for guests and we use that in emergacies if I didn't refill the family cloth in time, that's about our only cheat in our current implimented systems. I did take baby steps, I don't take on a new green living challange until I am comfortable with my last completed one. For example I am still working to prefect some of my health and beauty care home recipes and I'm not going to take on feeding my cats raw pet food until I am happy with my face soap! When I am walking through the store and find myself in awe at the latest product display I stop and ask myself "why I am attracted to this?" now. I realize the traps of advertising and packaging and I walk away proud that they didn't trick ME!

[starry_mama]

One thing we do to avoid "I feel lazy so I'm going to use paper plates and paper towels" (which I feel a lot lately) is to have lots and lots and lots of dishes. And lots and lots of rags. That way, I can not do dishes for 2 or 3 days and still have plates. Same goes for laundry. We have a TON of baby wipes, a TON of kitchen wipes, a TON of family cloth. And that doesn't even have to be expensive, we use old towels and cut them up, or old teeshirts. We buy tableware and silverware at yard sales. We even have a TON of diapers (we use prefolds so its easy to have a lot, since they are much cheaper than other types of CDs). Right now I'm looking at my sink, which is full of dishes, but I know that we have plates and bowls in the cupboard in case I decide not to do the dishes before dinner.

Also, get a crockpot! Crockpots are great for making really yummy, healthy meals without doing basically any work.