Rubbish-free year, week 14

The rubbish free challenge is working out to be a lot easier than we expected.

It has become so normal for us it has kind of gone off our radar. Because of this, we have decided to blog every second week rather than every week.

The ease of the challenge certainly has come as a surprise to us. Who would have imagined that two normal "rubbishy" people could go from a bag a week to a bag a year.

Once we decided we were serious about living rubbish free this year, there certainly was an initial flurry of action.

Actually I would go as far as to call it a quantum leap. Before we even started, we were busy for two months sourcing products, buying baking equipment, sewing bags, researching where and how to re-home things and so on. (Our first couple of blogs talk about this in more detail).

But despite all the preparation there were certain things we didn't start until the start date of the challenge simply because of the enormous power of a habit.

For example, I put off any baking until we started because it was so much easier to buy a packet of biscuits than find a recipe and go and buy all the ingredients.

And despite doing reconnaissance missions to the local butcher, baker, Bin Inn and so on, I still rushed out the door and flew around the aisles of the supermarket while I could, thinking "I'll change my habits next week". Why are habits so powerful? I don't know, but I guess the good side of it all is that now we have new habits - powerful routines that now make living rubbish free seem second nature.

We have also benefited from the accumulated wisdom of all the readers, family and friends who have helped us along the way. Thank you to all who have so far given comments and emails with such great support and encouragement.