One Small Change, March Wrap up and April Aspiration

My One Small Change for March was to mend and darn the pile of clothing that sat glaring at me from the laundry basket. Mending and Darning are ways of extending the life of our clothing, meaning that we consume less, and waste less. I am pleased to say that his has been a great month.

I darned 5 pairs of socks, repaired 1 pair of pants, 1 pair of PJ bottoms. I repurposed a skirt for spring. I had a big pile of old cargo work pants that hubby was culling from his dresser. Many of these were really yucky and beyond repair. But I was able to salvage all of the buttons and fasteners from them. I cut many of them into rags. There are still some garments in the bottom of the basket but the habit has been established and I think we will have it all whittled down soon.And I do mean "We" because one of the added benefits to the challenge this month was teaching the teen how to mend his own clothing. We also extended this fix-it, can -do spirit and repaired an old garden rake, repurposed old Moo Milk Cartons for starting seeds.

I thought for the last month of the Challenge, I would really challenge myself by buying nothing except food and basic necessities and, in case hubby is reading this, needed car parts for basic repairs that he does. Through the last three months of the challenge I have found that with a little creativity, thoughtful planning, and make-do spirit that I have consumed less, used less resources to meet the needs of my family and saved money. So a buy nothing month would help to extend the life of these changes we have made and allow us to really look at what we really need as opposed to what we really want. We have been very thoughtful about this since the beginning of the year as we have been saving money for our move but with our recent news we need to be even more diligent. I also think that having a buy nothing month will help me to more conscious of what we really need. I have several bins of clothing for the wee one in larger sizes that was give to us or found at thrift stores. So I will be sorting through that before I start looking for more spring and summer clothing for him. I will also extend this to crafting. I have several projects yet to finish and plenty of stash to work from so I will continue to work on these projects without purchasing any more yarn or fabric to complete them. As for food, we have eaten through most of our food storage from last year but when I do buy food I will try to make it as local as possible; which has been difficult in the region of the state that we live in as the local foods culture is not as strong as other regions of the state. But April is here and we should be able to get to a farmer's market this month. Yippee! We are going to Portland during April and May for teens metal smithing class, so what we are not able find to close to home we may be able to find down there.

I look forward to this month change. What is your One Small Change this month?