Tiny Choices Survey: Rebecca!
By Jenn (TinyChoices.com) | January 29, 2010
Vital statistics (name, age, location)?
Rebecca, 23, Monterey, CA
How do you reside (apartment or house, roommates)? Are your housing decisions dictated by choice or necessity? Please explain.
We live in military housing - a 3bd 1.5ba duplex that is just about the right size for us. We’d prefer a fenced yard so we could spend more time outside, but we’re only here temporarily. Our housing decisions are dictated mostly by necessity, since we’re military right now. We have two small children and hope to foster and adopt many many more children - mostly sibling groups, teenagers, and other less-likely-to-be-adopted children. Every child deserves a loving home. So eventually we plan on having a much bigger home, but we want to power it as much with reusable energy as possible (wind, hydro, solar, etc) as well as compost and grow/raise most of our own food.
How do you travel (transit, car, etc)? Are your travel decisions dictated by choice or necessity? Please explain.
For close-to-home type things (the park, friends houses, etc) I like to walk and push my kids in the stroller. For long distance or the grocery store we drive, but we try to combine trips as much as possible.
Tell us about a Tiny Choice you’ve made in your life.
I recently stopped using shampoo. I cleanse my hair twice a week with baking soda and water and soften with apple cider vinegar with a little grapefruit essential oil mixed in. On the other days I just scrub my hair under hot water and rinse with cold water. We’re also going to try out soap nuts for all our other “soaping” needs - our first order is in the mail right now! I can’t wait!
What is the one environmental dilemma you personally struggle the most with?
Using too much water and electricity or gas. We used to pay gas and electricity, so we tried to cut down on our usage in that department, but we never paid the water bill, and now we live in a place where we don’t pay for any of our utilities, so it’s a lot easier to use too much water/electricity/gas. It’s easier to cut down on your usage when you know how much you’re using.
What is one Tiny Choice you can make in that direction?
We should just be more conscious of turning off the lights, turning off the water, running the dishwasher and washing machines with full loads, washing our clothes LESS (yes, I realized that I can rewear clothes a few times before they really need to be washed). I also need to try to turn off our power strips more often (the ones hooked up to the TV, computer, etc). Most of our appliances I turn off when not in use, but I could turn off the power strip and cut off even the “standby” electricity.
What is the one environmental Tiny Choice you make that people question (in either a positive educational or a negative hassle way) you the most about?
Probably using cloth diapers. Usually it’s in a positive educational way. People want to know why we use cloth diapers and how it works for us, and how you clean them, etc. It’s really neat to be able to tell people how it works for us.
What is the one environmental Tiny Choice you would like every single person to adopt?
Plant stuff. If we would all grow a few vegetables on our porch or door step, we would put a little less stress on the rest of the world to grow stuff (and transport stuff) to us. It’s not that hard to plant a few tomato plants in some buckets or a bell pepper plant in a pot, or even a head or two of lettuce! Get creative and see what you can grow yourself. Learn to be more self-reliant and less of a consumer. As my grandmother used to say, “Fix it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.” There’s no reason to consume as much stuff as we do, and I think one big way to change that is to provide a little for ourselves.
Do you feel like you make sacrifices for environmentalism? Please explain.
I feel like it’s the other way around. I feel like I am making sacrifices when I am not being environmentally/health conscious. Like when I recently stopped using shampoo, I don’t feel like I’m sacrificing the cleanliness of my hair. But when I think about using shampoo, I feel like I was sacrificing the health of my body, the health of the water going down my drain, the health of the landfills that would hold the packaging from my shampoo, and the health of the air and non-renewable resources used to transport my shampoo to the store. It’s a bigger sacrifice to me NOT to take steps to care for the earth. I love this earth and believe it was given to us to be good stewards over.
Are you generally: optimistic, pessimistic, neutral about environmentalism and the future?
I am optimistic about environmentalism and the future because I am optimistic about people starting to think more outside themselves. I have been watching more and more people around me take responsibility for their actions. That is going to have a great impact not just on the environment, but on the other aspects of our world as well.
“The gifted never stop seeing the world for the first time… the great ones are never forgotten…”
-Jupiter Sunrise, September Girl
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Topics: Surveys | 9 Comments »
9 Comments
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I really liked the way this post was set up. I love hearing right from the mouth of other moms what they are doing to keep the world green while saving money in the short term. Thanks for this. Please do more like these in the future. Thanks! Brooke
Hi Brookie! (& everyone else!)
Glad you like this Tiny Choices Survey- it’s a recurring series we’ve run for the past 2.5 years, and you can read all of the archived Surveys here (click on the orange titles to read more): http://tinychoices.com/category/tc-survey/
But, we need your help- please send us your own survey, so others can read about your awesome selves, too! That’s the only way the Surveys happen… hit us up at: tinychoices AT tinychoices DOT com with your answers to those questions and a photo!
Don’t mean to be a party pooper but a military person not using shampoo isn’t exactly gonna balance out the fact that the U.S. Department of Defense is the planet’s biggest polluter.
I do appreciate your comment, Mickey Z., but there are a lot of reasons why people get involved with the military and it’s probably a group that is harder to change from within than any other organization out there. the fact that Rebecca is living proud and green among a community that (and here is a big assumption) is probably not the greenest is a great way to help others consider the bigger picture. And I dare say the shampoo is an analogy for larger things.
And for what it’s worth, I’m working closely with a number of people in the Army Corp, the Air Force, and the Army, and they’re all working to reduce their infrastructure impacts at home. which is like the DoD’s tiny choice.
Side note: thank you so much for submitting your survey, Rebecca!
You are completely missing the point. The blog is called “Tiny Choices.” It’s about how all of us can do seemingly small things that together over time can make the world the better place. If you’re just going to focus on the Department of Defense — or any large corporation or organization — then why should any of us make any changes? You make things sound completely hopeless and take away the individual’s responsibility to do the right thing despite whatever the prevailing norms are.
Rebecca is doing much more than just not using shampoo, by the way. She is growing her own food, reusing and repairing her belongings so she consumes less, and driving less — all things that do make a difference and serve as a good example to others. That’s a lot more than a lot of people are doing, military or not.
Thanks for the support guys :) That’s what drew me to this blog - the theme of “tiny choices” - it’s really hard for a lot of people to do things differently than they were raised, and MANY of us were not raised making “green” choices. Most of my “green” choices were initially “money-saving” choices, but as I’ve started becoming more aware of what’s around me, I’ve starting making choices based on how it impacts my family’s health and my environment, rather than simply how it impacts my pocketbook.
It was really neat to come across this blog and feel validated in my determination to change and be more eco-conscious, no matter how small the changes I was willing/able to make.
I think Mickey’s answer to the last question in the survey would probably be “pessimistic” ;) (and I say that with light-heartedness and in friendly banter!)
Reading this blog is helping me be more motivated toward changing! I love to read this blog every day! :)
Becca thanks again for the survey. It’s one thing for Jenn and I to rattle on about our choices, but I think hearing from people like you is really important too! PLUS, it really does validate Jenn and I in our determination to change as well - it’s great to know there’s a community of likemindeds out there.
Hey Becca! I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your thoughtful answers. I’m a mother too and I thought your ideas were very inspiring! Thanks!
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