Week One

My three categories were electricity/water, garbage, and food.

So on the morning of the first day, I remembered tohave a bowl of cereal and organic milk for breakfast instead of a breakfast bar so that I wouldn't have to throw away the wrapper. I made sure to turn off the faucet when I was washing my face, and I didn't turn any extra lights on. I thought "You know, this isn't so hard." As I was putting facial toner on a cotton ball, I started to think "All right, I'm doing pretty goo-"
*pause*
"Wait."
I looked in my hand.
And there was the used cotton ball that I was just about to toss into the trash can.

A couple of those instances happened during two days of this first week. Also, when I was trying to compost some items instead of throwing them away, I didn't have time to take it to the garden the first day, and the cleaning lady threw it away the next morning while I was in class! I was sad. :( And one time I made hot chocolate from a packet, so I decided to use the packet as a small piece of scrap paper before throwing it away.

I had some trouble not using napkins at meals, and I really wish I hadn't chosen certain food items from the commons, because I had to eat all of it, even if I didn't like it (although I figured it was forgiveable to throw away a rotting tomato). I also had some trouble with not turning on the lights one day because it was cloudy, so the window didn't give me much light.

The major changes I made were: unplugging the microwave and TV, not using trays or napkins at mealtimes, eating all my food or composting the extra, running on the track instead of using the machines in the gym, and not leaving the shower on to let it heat up. In the end, I wound up throwing away 2 cotton balls, 1 Q-tip, a piece of tape, the sticker from an apple, the compost that the houscleaner took, and a rotten tomato.