In 2007 I resolve to…

I’m not one to make a lot of New Years resolutions. Despite spending my days helping others with goal setting, time management and organization, I don’t always practice what I preach. I’m well aware that setting SMART (specific, measurable, action-oriented, realistic and time limited) goals will increase the likelihood of attaining those goals. But personally, I just like to put down a few rough “guidelines” for change in an upcoming year. You know, so I don’t feel like a complete failure when I don’t achieve them, because clearly, they were just guidelines to begin with.

Just for kicks, let’s revisit a few resolutions from 2006:

“Be in the moment” more often with the kids. If getting rid of “free” cable TV counts, plus spending more time reading to them and playing outside, then I think I did okay on this one.

Maintain weight. Big fat loser on this one. Inability to zip or button pants will surely drive me back to the gym next week.

For some unknown reason I said I was going to run a 5K in 2006. I think I’d had one too many glasses of champagne when I scribbled that “guideline” down.

Two overnight trips alone with Carter (no kids!). Yeah, right…

Increase net worth. Jury is still out on that one but it looks promising thanks to less buying.

Grow my business by 50%. Check plus! Maybe that’s why I didn’t achieve many of my other goals.

Read more. If reading the New Yorker and Time Magazine counts, then I’m doing okay. If I meant reading an entire book, then I think I’d give myself a B-.

The pledge to stop shopping came up mid-year so was not part of our resolutions for 2006. The end of our “consumer-free” experiment is right around the corner on January 9th. However, we’re considering going beyond that date, but expanding the rules a bit. I think our entire family has benefited from this experiment in ways that I would like to see continue into 2007. Financial, spending more quality time together, learning to question want vs. need, realizing that we’re not being judged by our clothes, house and furniture–well, at least not by the people that we want to surround ourselves with in the first place. And even organizationally–not bringing new stuff into the house makes it a lot easier to maintain the organizational systems we have in place.

So, in 2007, one of our resolutions will be to continue not to shop for unnecessary items. Exceptions will include food, toiletries and pharmaceuticals, and replacements for items that are broken or worn out. We’re all in need of a few clothing items–we continue to get rid of stuff we don’t need, use or love even though we aren’t bringing new stuff in–and to be honest, our closets are looking a little bare. So a few exceptions will have to be made for clothes. We also have a few necessary house projects (e.g. leaky skylight in need of repair) we’d like to work on this year. And I will definitely be purchasing myself a new lip pencil in ‘07.

I’d also like to pledge to change the way we shop in 2007. I’m committed to supporting local stores at University Mall, in downtown Chapel Hill and in Carrboro. But if I must visit a big box, I’m allowing myself to return to the joys of Target.

And, if you can stand it, I’d like to continue to blog about our family’s attempts to live with less, simplify life, and have less of an environmental impact. “Going green” is everywhere these days. I’ll try not to state the obvious or just repeat the headlines–but I do think it’s important for families to engage in this discussion and try to create ways that we can make a difference. Our meager attempts to shop a little less are just our way of doing our part to help our planet stick around a little longer so our kids can enjoy it.

Happy New Year! What are your resolutions for 2007?

Highlights from Christmas 2006

Our kids had a ball on Christmas morning. When it was all said and done, it looked like we had a HUGE Christmas. I’d love to tell you that it only seemed big because we’ve been living the simple life for 5 and a half months. But in all honesty, it was a big ‘ol Christmas-gift-giving-box-ripping-throw down with more than enough presents to go around. Here are a few of the favorite gifts the kiddos received:

5 year old daughter: Emily, her American Girl doll from BiBi, Pogo Moon Hopper from Santa, and Bingo. Baby Alive was never mentioned or missed!

2 year old son: Rocket with a battery (although we removed the explosive kit that was included), Enya CD (“boo-tiful music”), and a Little People Garage that includes a car wash.

This Christmas was far from consumer free. Carter and I even managed to sneak in a few stocking stuffers for each other. And for those who heard me whining last week, he did much better than a few pairs of socks from Dillards for me. We’re back on our pledge to lay off shopping until January 9th. I’m working on my New Years Resolutions and we’re hoping to continue our “buy less” committment beyond the beginning of the year. Hope you and yours had a fantastic holiday.

Coming clean about Christmas

Kind of like ripping off a band-aid, I decided to cram all of my Christmas shopping into two quick, consumer-crazy trips. And let me tell you, when I’ve had 3 cups of coffee, I can get a ridiculous amount of shopping done in no time. Truth be told, it felt pretty good visiting the local mall and doing a little buying. I certainly didn’t want to spoil my holiday buzz by feeling all dark and gloomy about my environmental impact. So I pushed my carbon-footprint-calculator out of my head momentarily, and here’s how it all went down…

Santa gifts were purchased from the usual suspects…WalMart, Target (hello, lover…I’ve missed you so), and Barnes & Nobles. However, for all other gifts, since I was sort of cheating by purchasing them, I decided to shop at small, local stores here in Chapel Hill and Carrboro–reducing my need to drive too far and hopefully purchasing gifts that weren’t shipped, trained and trucked over from China (although I’m not even sure it’s possible to avoid that!). I managed to get presents for all of my family from Cameron’s, Wink, The Children’s Store, Southern Season, Fleet Feet, Ali Cat and Wootini. And I wasn’t just buying to have something to wrap. I really thought through each individual gift and found something I’m excited to share.

What I have to avoid now is that last minute urge to grab “just one more gift” before the big day. Perhaps I should freeze my credit card or puncture a tire to keep myself at home…or I could always just stay in my jammies all day and eat Christmas cookies. Are all of your gifts purchased, wrapped and under your tree?

Going green isn’t just for tree huggers anymore

For all of those red blooded Americans who think going green is a bit sissy or “vaguely French,” check out this Tom Friedman clip from earlier this year.

Playroom Organization 101

I just spent my evening cleaning out our playroom in anticipation of all the shiny new stuff that is about to move in. Despite our well-intentioned efforts to scale back and simplify Christmas this year, I know that BiBi has been shopping, and Santa is coming, and there will be gifts from Aunts, Uncles and friends. I wanted to prepare by ridding our home of 7-8 fire trucks that are never played with, a mismatched collection of plastic tchatchkes with no known origin, and a feather boa that does nothing but shed.

Unless you’ve been to our house and know better, you might assume that because I’m an organizer, our playroom looks like one of those adorable Pottery Barn Kids rooms with labeled shelves and a special nook or gingham-lined basket for each toy category. Not even close. But I have a few organizational systems I thought I would share just in case you, too, are cleaning out in anticipation of the big toy throw down that is about to occur at your home in less than two weeks.

1. Keep it simple so your kids can clean up their own mess! I love a label maker as much as the next neat freak, but I’ve found that my kids are unlikely to locate and open a plastic bin to put all of the Barbie shoes back in their labeled sanctuary every evening before bed. I try to keep all doll-like items and their accessories together in a big basket so it’s simple enough for my two year old to put them away. Same goes for blocks, legos, cars, trains and fake food/kitchen goodies. Shoe boxes are great for storing toys. If you really want to get all matchy-matchy, wrap them in cute gift wrap.

2. Toys that don’t fit in a logical category (e.g. rubber monkeys–of which we have at least 3, key chains, old cell phones, golf balls, etc.) are simply divided into “Big Toys” and “Little Toys” and they each have their own bin. This makes it easy for the kids to put them away independently.

3. Toy rotation is an important strategy in the war against boredom. If my kids tell me they’re bored, I usually threaten to take all of their toys away and give them to poor kids. That usually changes their tune. But I also like to take away a few things from time to time, hide them in my closet, then bring them out and pretend it’s Christmas in July. They rarely miss a toy but are always pleased to get reacquainted.

4. Kids’ artwork can take over your home in a matter of days. I have a little display area where I hang the good stuff for a week or a month, then I usually sneak it into the recycling and replace it with something new. I try to keep 4 or 5 masterpieces each year for a scrapbook, but otherwise, I’m pretty tough-love when it comes to scribbles and stick figures. If you’re feeling really clever, you can host a gallery night and hang all of your child’s artwork around the house, serve cheese, crackers and grape juice and take pictures of their work. Then sneak it into the recycling the next day!

5. Teach your children from an early age (two is about right) that cleaning up their toys is their responsibility. We don’t clean up our playroom every single night, because by 8:30am, it’s often as bad, if not worse, than the night before. But at least 3-4 times per week, I like to be able to see the floor and get everything back where it belongs. My daughter now understands that if she puts toys back where she found them, she’ll be able to find them again the next time she wants them. Don’t we all need to remember that one!

One interesting observation I made tonight as I was enjoying my purge-fest: despite buying no new toys for the past 5 months, my kids still have so much stuff! And they probably only play with 1/5 of what they have. Carter was commenting that the fancy-schmancy train table our son received from Santa last year is really just an expensive stand for the $.50 hand-me-down, garage-sale carwash toy he’s obsessed with right now. Sometimes I’d just like to get rid of it all and keep them entertained with a few empty refrigerator boxes and their imaginations. Isn’t that all they really need?

Final stretch…

We’re entering our final month of consumer-free living. I’ve spent a lot of time lately asking myself “what’s next?” Will I return to the old Perri on January 10th? Will I shop till I drop? Will I emerge on the other side forever altered…wiser, richer, greener, five pounds heavier? Stay tuned to find out how we transition back into the “real world” of spending, shopping, and consuming. For now, it’s time to check in and run the numbers:

Q: Have we saved money?
A: Damn that trip to Old Navy. And feeding 4 extra people for 4 days at Thanksgiving, and starting to shop for Santa. Not such a good month on the wallet.

Q: Will we create less garbage?
A: We’re still maintaining–creating roughly 2 bags of garbage each week. Although talk to me after we open Christmas presents and I’m sure we’ll be singing a different tune. Did you realize that American’s create 25% more garbage between Thanksgiving and New Years? And that the amount of ribbon used to wrap gifts at Christmas could stretch around the entire globe? I don’t plan to wrap Christmas gifts in the Sunday funny papers, but I’m seeking out some better alternatives to traditional giftwrap.

Q: Will the kids learn from this experiment (and more importantly, did I purchase Baby Alive)?
A: I’m really proud of my kids this year. Their “Dear Santa” list was quite reasonable. My two year old only wants a rocket ship with batteries, some cleaning supplies and an Enya CD (this from the kid who was a fan for Halloween…what can I say, he’s one of a kind). My five year old wants an Easy Bake Oven, a Pogo Moon Hopper, and a Cabbage Patch Kid. I was able to convince her that cleaning up Baby Alive poop wasn’t going to be such a fun way to spend her Christmas vacation. Crisis averted.

Q: Will we cheat?
A: Again, damn that Old Navy. And so far I’ve only purchased Santa gifts, but I’ve decided that in addition to Greendimes, I want to purchase a few additional gifts for my family. This was not part of the initial plan, so officially, it’s cheating. I’m trying to be reasonable and put a lot of thought into the gifts…but at the end of the day, I’m still buying stuff.

Q: Will we feel free?
A: I still find myself wrestling with a lot of “I want…” or “If we only had…” or “Wouldn’t it be nice if we, too, could buy…” and I’m spending a lot of time wondering “When is Oprah going to call?”. There are times when I think back to the stuff I wanted early on (e.g. the black cashmere turtleneck, the minivan, the overhaul of our master bathroom) and I realize that, although I still want them, I don’t want them quite as badly.

We’re in the final stretch with the holidays ahead of us. Thanks for reading and keeping us honest!

Buddha on the Brain

In the midst of the Christmas craziness, my friend Gretchen gave me a book called “100 Ways to Keep Your Soul Alive” and in it, I happened upon this:

“Great trouble comes from not knowing what is enough. Great conflict arises from wanting too much. When we know when enough is enough, There will always be enough.”(Tao 46)

Lao Tzu quoted in The Tao of Peace

Enough is Enough is becoming my mantra as the list for the kids keeps growing and I haven’t even started to shop!

Shopping for a good cause

My friend Victoria called me today and said she was full of the holiday spirit and wanted to help some needy people in Durham. She found a charity that provides warm coats to low income individuals in need (and given that the high today was 39 degrees…everyone needs a warm coat!). In addition to making her own generous contribution, she called friends and family whose numbers were in her cell phone and asked if they wanted to help. She took the money she raised simply by calling a few people (almost $1000 at the end of the day) and went to Belks, armed with loads of coupons and a desire to shop for bargains.

When it was all said and done, she purchased 32 coats and over 150 items of clothing (a $4600 value, but given her bargain shopping stamina and the help of a very sweet sales guy, she spent just under $1000). Amazing! I was happy to participate by writing a check without having to deal with the mall and the bargain shopping headaches. Thanks, Victoria, for sharing some holiday cheer and making a difference for a lot of people! That’s the kind of shopping I can live with.

Old Navy, you had me at hello

Time for a true confession. I went to Old Navy to purchase gloves and hats for the kids for our upcoming Helms Family Holiday gathering in Blowing Rock (the trip that is supposed to replace the over-the-top, four + hours of package ripping, box tossing, gift exchanging frenzy that we call Christmas with my family). Thirty minutes, and $116 later, I walked out of Old Navy with matching pajamas for all of the moms (don’t even ask what this is about…but it seemed like a good idea at the time), shirts for the girls, hats for the boys, and oh yeah, a new pair of slippers for little ol’ me. It was like some kind of pent up shopping spirit took over my body, my wallet, and my good sense and I couldn’t stop myself. Not only did I shop, but I shopped at Old Navy (not really the most exciting place to throw down $100!) and I left without buying the stuff I really, truly needed–stuff to keep my kids warm while in the mountains!

I promised to be honest and report any cheating, so there it is. Did I need this stuff? Love it? Think I looked fabulous in it? No. No. and No. Perhaps the photo op of all the moms in leopard print jammies and pink camis will make this slip-up worthwhile!