Running a more efficient home

Home is where the heart is for many reasons: we are in charge of how our homes look, what we accept in them, what goes on in them, and of course how it operates.  If you are anything like me, you'll want to ensure that your home is as efficient as possible in all the ways it can be, including when it comes to your energy usage. Here are some ways I do that. 

Consider your carbon footprint  

The average household has more gadgets than they used to, which means that our energy usage and the carbon footprints that we leave behind is higher than ever. I am a long time plugger inner who is now an unplugger. 

If you're interested in what's pulling electricity, smart meters tell you how much energy you use as a household and where it is being used the most. I think the electric company might still come and read too? Anyway knowing what is pulling the most electric in your house can help you narrow down where to focus your energy saving efforts.  

When in doubt, unplug if you can. 

Think about community solar panels 

I've dreamed of solar panels since they became a thing, as they are a great alternative to at least supplement our current electrical energy. They are a cleaner energy source that is effective and costs less to use, which gives us the best of both worlds. 

The only trouble with this is that installing solar panels on your home isn’t always something everyone can do due to installation costs. We have absolutely balked at that. So that's where the idea of community solar panels, which you can sign up for here, can come in. These are installed into a community and can be used by various households without being installed onto one house. Pretty cool. 

Get clever with mealtimes 

The price of food is up up freaking up. That combined with intense hatred of food waste has me even more focused on maximizing the efficiency of the food I buy. I'm back to thinking more and being more intentional with the meals I cook so I'm getting maximum value and nutrition and not wasting any food. Anything not used that I've planned to I will attempt to freeze.   

There are plenty of apps that can help you plan your meals and ensure that you use the food you buy as effectively as possible. Doing this means that you can cut down on your food waste and ensure that you save as much money as possible when food shopping. 

All aboard 

If only one person in a more than one person household is interested in making changes to maximize household efficiency, efforts are going to fall flat. For any changes to stick and have an impact on efficiency, everyone needs to be on board. Even if they have to be drug there, kicking and screaming. 

Find a way to make changes work for everyone so it's something you're doing together. 

In what ways do you maximize efficiency in your home? 

My Meal Prep Tips for an Easier Life

Meal prepping, or weekly food prep as I typically refer to it, is a fantastic way to prepare for the week ahead and make sure you have tasty and nutritious food ready. Instead of being too tired to cook anything healthy during the week, you know you already have your meals ready to go. I love using my spare time at the weekend to prepare my breakfasts and lunches, as well as some dinners. I know the thought of meal prepping can be intimidating, especially if cooking just one meal feels like a lot of effort. But there are things that you can do to make it easier.

Get Your Groceries Delivered

If you've decided that you want to start meal prepping, you need to get good at making shopping lists and checking what food you already have in the house. One way to make this easier is to shop online and get your groceries delivered. It means you can easily double check if you already have something that you need, and you get a clear idea of how much you're spending before you reach the checkout. You can even find specialist places to shop like Crab Dynasty so you can get super fresh ingredients. With the ingredients you need coming to your door, there's less to stress about. Almost everyone is in the grocery delivery game these days. I've personally used Peapod (Giant - this link is a personal referral code), ShopRite, Whole Foods via Instacart, Target via Shipt, and AmazonFresh when it was available in my area (still not over that loss). If you have any questions, hit me up. I lived by this but now only do it on occasion, doing most of my grocery shopping in person at Aldi, Redner's, or Target depending on what I need and what I'll be closest to during the week to maximize my efficiency.

Choose a Meal Prep Day

Meal prepping saves you time throughout the week, but you have to be willing and able to give up some of your time elsewhere. Fortunately, if you're preparing your meals at home, you can usually get other stuff done at the same time - you're not just tied to the kitchen. You can pick up the living room, remove your nail polish, cycle laundry, read a book, etc. So pick a day for meal prepping, or maybe two days where you do a couple of batches. Sunday is obviously perfect because you can get ready for the week ahead, but you don't have to choose Sunday. Whenever you have a couple of spare hours can work for you. When the shore house is closed, Sunday is my day. When the shore house is open, it is not. I grab an hour or two on Monday or Tuesday night instead.

Get Good Containers

Once you've prepared your food, you'll want to be able to freeze or refrigerate it to keep it fresh. You can use pretty much any containers for this, but if you're like me and a) don't like your food to touch and b) travel with food to work and want to cut down on the number of containers you have to carry, to have some that will allow you to make up separate portions for each meal. I use glass containers like these that are sectioned up, so there's space for something different in each section. With glass containers, you can easily see what's in them, and you don't have to worry about plastic containing BPA or any other nasty chemicals.

Make a Balanced Selection of Food

If you're not sure what to make or you think you might get bored of eating the same things, think about making something that hits the important food groups. You can make yourself some protein, veggies, and a grain or carbohydrate. This will help you to put meals together and also allow you to mix and match if you want to make sure you get to eat something slightly different every day. I can eat the same thing day in and day out but I know not everyone likes doing that.

Plan out not only what you are going to eat but what you will drink too. You may want to create natural juices, smoothies, or liquor such as wine or whiskey. 

Plan all of this ahead of time and make sure that the ingredients, equipment for creating juice as well as Dramson whiskey glasses are ready for use.

Meal prepping doesn't have to be difficult. In fact, it's pretty easy if you know how to make the most of your time. And the more you do it, the easier it gets. I promise.

Are you a weekly food prepper?

Thursday Thoughts - people are people

1. Any questions? A lot of them died this week for no reason. I don't have questions, but I have feelings. I'm tired. I'm sick of trying to think of ways to combat fear and hate. I'm sick of the sudden experts on guns (honestly? everyone shove your guns up your fucking ass and just stop it for a minute) and terrorism and religion and mental illness and a host of other subjects. I'm sick of everyone ripping each other to shreds - newsflash - none of us are the smartest people in the world so let's step down the pontificating on both sides. I'm sick of people hating other people based on gross generalizations. I'm sick of people saying don't politicize this or make it about sexuality - every fucking thing about the lives of LGBTQ people has been politicized, from who they should love to where they can marry to when they can donate blood to where they can pee - you better believe shooting them up in one of their community's safe places is going to be politicized, as it should be...because allowing a hateful society to perpetuate manifests in this way. Mostly I'm sick of us offering thoughts and prayers and going about our days. Thoughts and prayers are beautiful things but they don't change the world. Action does. That requires us to participate in our government, to make phone calls and write letters and demonstrate, to push for what we want. To say ENOUGH. To get our eyes off of screens and turned outward into the world. To remember that life is not to be lived on social media. To have real conversations, hard conversations, with each other. To look each other in the eye and really see each other. To not accept mass shootings as the norm in this country when they are not the norm anywhere else in the civilized world. To respect each other, to be kind when we can be, and most of all to mind our own fucking business when people who live lifestyles different than us but not harmful to themselves or others are living in ways that we don't agree with. To not forget these victims (photos from this album on facebook). To not forget any of the victims because we are so focused on the killer.

2. I actually felt represented as a constituent yesterday with the Senate floor filibuster. Thanks Senator Casey from PA for joining. I feel like these people are working for once.

3.  Why do you do this, HomeGoods? Whyyyy.

4. The most expensive dog of the week award goes to...Mae. Vet visit Tuesday for vomiting all over the house for six days in a row with a scan and bloodwork + dental work with anesthesia on Wednesday. Who wants to hire one of these dogs to do something? They need to start earning money.

5. I worked from home yesterday finishing out a year+ huge project and cleared a bunch of other shit off of my plate with zero interruptions. I love doing that. MFD delivered lunch to me, I got to talk to the vet about Mae, I took a break outside, and I dealt with a dryer that's still not working a month and a half after it was "fixed" and after spending additional money on professional vent cleaning. Next up: sledgehammer.

6. Summer Concert Series #1 Fail: I missed Dolly Parton last night. I had to give my tickets away. Mae's dental surgery was behind so I couldn't pick her up until after 7:45. Rage does not begin to cover it.

7. Instead of going to Dolly last night, I cleaned out my closets and hung clothes to dry all over the basement like a washer woman and listened to the filibuster. Sing it with me: she likes to lead the Glamorous Life

8. I tried Amazon Fresh this week for the first time and loved it. I typically order from Peapod (Giant) or Instacart (Whole Foods) for grocery delivery. I've had more than six issues with Peapod arriving over an hour late, and scheduling ahead of time is important and sometimes I forget to to that. Instacart is good, but they often make substitutions and it can be pricey. Amazon Fresh was priced well, delivered exactly when they said they would, and everything was packaged nicely in reusable totes I return to them next time I get a delivery. The lower delivery rate (what amounts to $4 a week) is easier to swallow too even though you pay it all up front. To me, time is money. I will spend money to save time. If you want to try it, they do a 30 day trial.

9. Don't forget! Tomorrow is the Seasonal Goals linkup with me & Sara from Journey of Doing.

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10. E-card of the week: