Hi there! Welcome back into my weekly diary in which I want to show you how I live a eco-positive lifestyle! The past week I’ve signed up for some new volunteering job, I’ve decluttered some more and invested in solar panels!
Thursday
The food prepping for school is going really well, it helpes me create a lot less waste. Even today, when I left at 6:45. Getting up early is something I used to hate, because it was an everyday thing. Week days meant school, Saturday work and Sunday handball. But now, it isn’t that bad anymore. I have a good sleeping routine and I only have to get up early on Thursday and Saturday.
Friday
Today was an exciting day, I had a meeting at the Voedselbank, to see if I could do an assignment for school there, to help the volunteers improve their health. De Voedselbank is a non-profit organization in the Netherlands who try to gather leftover food (from for instance supermarkets) and give that to the less fortunate people. I follow the course ‘Health and Performance at work’ at school in Nijmegen and I really wanted to do my assignment for a non-profit organization. I want to make the life of volunteers easier, so they’ll be happier. I want to do more volunteering myself, but I just can’t seem to find the time. This way, I’ll be doing some volunteering after all, since I’ll will work there once every 14 days to see how their processes are arranged and to see if I can improve it. In an all ideal situation, I’d like to volunteer at de Voedselbank, de Dierenbescherming (animal protection), Het Goed (a secondhand store) and help people who are in depts (which you can do as a volunteer, but you’ll have to follow a traineeship first of course). And, I am not doing as many clean-ups as I’d like. So, maybe that’ll all be possible in the future, who knows! For now, I am doing what I can and that’s good enough for me.
Saturday
After work at night, some friends came over. My dad always buys us snacks and drinks, which is great! But I do have to admit, it is still hard for me to have no control over our groceries. It’s something I really have to get past, because it’s not my responsibility really. My parents control the groceries, and that’s it. My mom does give me money sometimes to buy some things for myself, those groceries include as little waste as I can manage. For now, that’s okay. If I live by myself I’ll have full control, but now not just yet and I have to accept that. Afterwards we went to play some billiards.
Sunday
Oh what a day! I have the full day off, so I want to make it useful. First, I went to the gym. I work out about 4-5 times a week now, and that’s what I like. During lunchtime I went to grandma and grandpa. My dynamo from my bike wasn’t working fully, so my grandpa took a look at it again! And now it works perfectly! I am generating my own energy while I bike, this is great! Now, I’ll never have to buy batteries again. Great! Also, I had a huge pile of old post stamps in my room. I got it from my grandpa a year ago, to see if I could find anyone who’d like to buy them. I didn’t. So, I decided to give them back. He thinks he knows someone, so they’ll get a good new place and will not be thrown away. Now I have less stuff (and my room is very empty already, yes!) and the stamps will get a new owner, double win! At night, we made pizza. This is a very easy vegan dish, also if you eat with non-vegans. Because you can choose all your topics yourself.
Monday
After work in the morning, I went to my boyfriend by train and bus. I almost always use public transportation and my bike to get somewhere. It is the most sustainable way to travel and, in my opinion, the healthiest option, especially biking. Switching from car to bike for small distances is such an easy switch in my opinion to have a healthier lifestyle. This way you don’t even have to go to the gym if you’ll bike very day (since most people don’t actually like going to the gym). Also, today I invested in solar panels again! Via Zonnepanelendelen you can invest in solar panels on big buildings. I’ve done it before, and the interest is way more than when you save it on a bank account. And of course, the most important reason, we’re generating solar power. Even if you can’t put solar panels on your own roof (we can’t just yet because of some huge trees right behind our house, which will block the sun) you can help in the transition to solar energy, and get money out of it. It’s a dream right? As for us, the trees will probably be remover by our neighbor for a smaller one (yes, I know, cutting trees isn’t my thing either) and then we’ll put solar panels on our rooftops. Also, today I finished a book about the process of aging. It was very interesting, I really love the subject, I don’t know why.
Tuesday
Today was a very sober day. I am at school till 5 and then I’ll be home at 7 and rush to handball training. I don’t eat dinner, because after the training I can’t really eat (I don’t know why, I just don’t like it) and before I have no time. So, during the day I eat a lot. This probably isn’t the healthiest option, that’s why I do meal prepping. This way, you can eat healthy during the day, since I don’t think take away food is healthy. And, you’ll save a lot of money. Double win!
Wednesday
Our neighbors are renovating their house, so I woke up early from all the noises. Good thing, because now I can do a lot in one day (even though, when I wake up I felt a bit angry at first, but I let it go and looked at the positive things). I worked in the garden and harvested the last carrots and some tomatoes. I planted some new cauliflowers, see if that’ll work this time. Last year they died unfortunately. I plant the seeds in old toilet rolls (#reuse). I just fold them up and put some sand in there, and then some seeds. If the plants grow, you can just put the rolls into the ground, very easy. They’ll decompose and feed the soil! Working in the garden has been proven to improve your health. Especially among older people, it helps them stay healthy. I love it and I plan on doing it my entire life. Even though my garden is small now, I can learn for when I’ll have my own place and then expand. I also decluttered a bit. Every time I do it, I am surprised I can still get rid of things. Because, when I started decluttering I had soooo much more stuff. Minimalism really makes me see the important things in life, and that’s why I love it. Today I got rid of a lid from an old piggy bank, the pot itself I used for growing plants, because all my savings are on a bank (or invested haha) and I didn’t need a piggy bank any longer. The lid had been sitting in my room because I thought I might have to use it again someday. Today, I realized I don’t. So, this is going into our plastic trash can, because aluminum can go in there to and it’s made from aluminum. Also, I still had this thing from Bacardi with which you can measure the right amount of liquor for shots and cocktails and a stick to mix it. Both, I got from my dad who got it for free sometime when he bought Bacardi. I have never used it and this’ll go to the secondhand store, to see if they can use it. Because I also got rid of the stamps (which took a lot of room) I now have a whole empty cabin in my room. The only one that was there, all my stuff are now on two shelves on the wall. So, that cabin can go to, I’ll put it on Marktplaats (a website where you can sell your items).
And you? How was your week?
Yours sincerely,
Romee