Yesterday, Brian and I have been out inside the yard, dealing with the lengthy-not on time undertaking of raking up this autumn's leaves. We allotted most of them during our numerous planting beds?The rhubarb, the asparagus, the bush cherries, and the new flowerbed inside the the front?Wherein they will offer a layer of moisture-keeping mulch and insulation from the cold, which we hope will assist the plants get an earlier begin in spring. The leftover leaves that the beds could not accommodate were given scooped into the compost bin, along with the dried-out remains of remaining 12 months's wildflowers and asparagus, to interrupt down into free, organic fertilizer if you want to supply next twelve months's beds a nutrient enhance without any dangerous chemical substances.
At a few factor at some point of this device, it befell to me?As it every now and then does whilst going about my ecofrugal life?That what we were doing turn out to be no longer ordinary.
What a ordinary character may want to do is find a leaf blower to corral all of the ones leaves, scoop them into leaf bags, and go away them on the lower to be hauled off to the landfill. Then, having stored a lot time and electricity by means of substituting a loud, fuel-burning, carbon-emitting engine for his or her personal muscle electricity, they might hop in their gas-burning, carbon-emitting automobile and go off to an steeply-priced gymnasium to get a few exercising. And on the way home, that that they had probably prevent on the house center to pick out up some luggage of mulch for the flower beds, and probably some fertilizer for subsequent 12 months's lawn.
Moreover, it might simply in no way occur to them that it end up viable to do something else. If they came about, on the identical time as heading out in the automobile, to identify us in our outdoor raking our private leaves?Saving coins and gasoline, and getting a few free, healthful workout further?They might in all likelihood smile pityingly (or in all likelihood smugly) on the ones negative individuals who
But what's really crazy here? Our ecofrugal lifestyle—or the "normal" way of doing things? Are we crazy for doing a simple job with our own hands instead of an expensive, gas-guzzling machine, or is it crazy that we live in a society where that's not considered normal?
Once I had this epiphany—that normal makes no sense—I started seeing more examples everywhere. For instance, when I spotted the stack of holiday gifts in our guest room, all wrapped in reusable gift bags and reused wrapping paper, I realized that, if I were normal, I'd just go out and buy new wrapping paper every year and send it all to the landfill after a single use. (According to this Marketplace story, Americans spend more than $7 billion a year on wrapping paper—$21 for every man, woman, and child in the country—and most of it can't even be recycled.)
I noticed it yet again later in the day, when we stopped off at a Starbucks after doing some holiday shopping and pulled out a deck of cards to play cribbage, instead of each sitting down and staring at a screen like everyone else in the place. (Of course, I realize that some frugal folks would argue stopping at Starbucks at all, and spending $4 on a cup of coffee—even if it's a peppermint mocha—is itself crazy. But at least Starbucks is an eco-friendly business that I'm happy to support, and a cup of coffee from there is no more harmful to the earth than one brewed at home—with the exception of the disposable cup, but come on, it's a special holiday cup that doubles as a coloring book. That's a kind of crazy I'm willing to live with.)
The fact is, a lot of things we ecofrugal folks do are going to come across as weird to society in general. Heck, even an article about frugality on Money Crashers went so far as to attack "the crazy things some people do" to save money, like cutting Post-It notes in half (rather than wasting a whole square to write a single word) or doing the same thing with dryer sheets (thereby spending less money, wasting less material, and halving their exposure to the questionable chemicals these sheets contain). The author, who describes himself as a frugal person, nonetheless says anyone who has "ever thought of doing stuff like that" needs to "take a chill pill" and quit "living like you're an early primate."
This kind of judgmental sneering can sometimes lead us to question our ecofrugal choices and wonder if we really are being unreasonable—perhaps even crazy—for trying to save money and help the environment, instead of living a wasteful, "normal" lifestyle. At times like this, it helps to take a step back and objectively compare what you want to do with what the rest of society is doing, and ask yourself which one makes more sense. Then you can throw your head back and shout along with Suicidal Tendencies, "I'm not crazy! You're the one that's crazy!"
Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I need to get outside and start shoveling the year's first snow off our sidewalks. And if any of our "normal" neighbors show up at the same time with their loud, heavy, expensive snow blowers, we'll have fun seeing if they can actually get the job done any faster.
