Apartment Homesteader - 5 Things I Did

1. I tried to cook steak!

Yeah, tried. I mean I didn't catch it on fire or have it explode or anything, but it certainly wasn't great.

2. A no driving challenge!

Whaaaat? I shouldn't really count it, because it didn't last long. I spent Wednesday not driving (I walked to work instead!), and Thursday I walked to my am job, but drove to my pm job. I drove in the pm because the four boxes of donation items were finally loaded into my car and I wanted them GONE. So after work I took them up to the thrift shop, which is outside of walking distance. (The four boxes were also large and HEAVY, so I couldn't have carried them all if I tried.) It seemed like a better use of my time than to walk to work, walk home, then drive the items up. If it wasn't so snowy and slippery out, I would have ridden my bike to work instead.

I know this all probably sounds pretty insignificant, but I have never not had a car of my own (since I was 16 anyway). The tiny place I live in is characterized by several small towns separated by miles of desolate road. It hasn't been until I moved into the actual town last year that walking/biking has even been a remote possibility. It's awesome!

Why did I choose the depths of winter to start this? Well, I have crap tires and have to wait a little longer to get the snows put on. My apartment's driveway is... special... and it's hard to get in and out without sliding everywhere. And the last, best reason is I wanted to prove to myself that I could. There's nothing quite like walking home, alone, in the snow, at 10 o'clock at night!

3. Donated four more boxes of stuff to the local thrift store.

How in the world did I ever own so. much. stuff! You would have thought I had an eight bedroom house or something. If feels so wonderful to get it out. Next up? Finishing the closet clean out and then the trunk of my car and then I am done and I will have gone through and tossed/donated/gotten rid of all the superfluous items in my life! How freeing is that statement? I was brutal to my book collection.

4. Fixed my pants instead of buying new ones.

I tried to buy a new pair of pants, but talked myself out of it because I have five pair of pants already and the only reason I was even thinking of buying a new pair was because my other two black pants have holes. Ugh. I don't know why I didn't just sit down and fix it the night it happened. It takes 10 minutes but I must have put it off for months. Now I can wear them without people seeing my undies!

5. Used almost bad bananas to make my favorite banana & chocolate chip muffins!

I HATE banana bread/muffins with a passion. But chocolate makes them tolerable. :) I like bananas, but they have to be a bit green still.