Eco Chic Lifestyle Change Week 5: Final Weekly Review & Overall Project Reflection

This Past Week 
  Well, it is the final week of my Eco Chic Lifestyle Change. To remind everyone what my SMART goal was, here it is below...
       "I will use a cloth napkin for 2 out of the 3 meals I eat daily in my home for the next 10 weeks."

  This past week I did GREAT in achieving my SMART goal and did not use any paper napkins in my apartment at all. This was a very hard challenge to meet, and I did struggle a few times, like when I spilled my glass of water at lunch and paper napkins were also close to me. But I did end up going for towels so I did not use the paper napkins, and I still used my cloth napkin for the meal. I kept cloth napkins on the table before I even started my meals, and that really helped me accomplish my goal.

  Through this all, I learned that if you have cloth napkins at the ready, you will use them. I also learned to perservere even in rough situations. I also plan to continue this goal as long as I am able since it is very helpful to the environment and economically convientinet also.


The Entire Process
   So throughout this entire time period, my SMART goal has remained the same ("I will use a cloth napkin for 2 out of the 3 meals I eat daily in my home for the next 10 weeks."). My goal was acievable by me doing certain things to help myself, such as putting cloth napkins in convenient places (such as on the kitchen table), or not putting any paper napkins in an easy-to-reach spot.
    Some things did get in my way, though. These things included me not having any clean cloth napkins, not having one near me in an "emergency" when I spilled a liquid, or things such as that. To fix these issues in the future, I will always have cloth napkins out at the ready on my kitchen table.

   This goal for me was great: it made me feel good about my impact on the environment as well as feeling better about my kitchen since the coth napkins looked so spiffy on it. By not buying paper napkins, I cut back on my material waste, helped save trees, and lessened my environmental impact.Because of all these positive impacts of my SMART goal, I will definitely continue to use cloth napkins in the future and will give cloth napkins as presents so that others can also use them and help reduce their own environmental footprint.

                                                                   http://www.kaboodle.com


 

Eco Chic Lifestyle Change Week 4: Weekly Update

To remind you guys, my Eco Chic SMART Goal was 

              "I will use a cloth napkin for 2 out of the 3 meals I eat daily in my home fro the next 10 weeks."

                                  http://cloud9design.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/ds2.jpg

I did good this past week with keeping up my goal, but like always, had one slip up. I had spaghetti for dinner one night, which turned out to be very messy, and also spilled the saucepan on the table, and my paper napkins were the closest thing in a fast reach. Although I always keep cloth napkins on the table, making my goal very easy, I did not have any on the table at this meal, which was a big mustake since it was spaghetti haha. I put more cloth napkins out right after this, though, and it has been going great. I put cloth napkins at my boyfriends apartment also, which did not work out, and niether him nor his roommates use them. 

For next week I will continue as is and keep cloth napkins readily available on my kitchen table at all times in hopes that I do not use a single paper napkin in my home. This I beleive is an achievable goal.

Eco Chic Lifestyle Change Week 3:Weekly Update

  To remind everyone again, my SMART Goal for my Eco Chic Lifestyle change is: 

"I will use a cloth napkin for 2 out of the 3 meals i eat daily in my home for the next 10 weeks." 

  This goal is Eco-Chic because it reduces waste from paper napkins that you use for one drop of a spill and throw away. We as a society use way too many paper napkins, and they add up to so much waste! This is why cloth napkins are so good: they do not contribute to waste. You use one, wash it, and use it again, and they last for years. My grandmother has multiple sets of cloth napkins and she has had them for over 20 years. They are very environmentally friendly. 

  This past week has gone GREAT! I have not used a single paper napkin, and have used cloth napkins quite a lot. It really helped me to have one already sitting at the kitchen table so I remembered it was there and actually used it. The only challenge was going places where they did not have cloth napkins, and I worked hard not to spill my food as to not use any paper napkins at all. It made me feel really good to not use paper napkins; I felt accomplished and like I was really helping the environment. I learned that if you have them in plain site, you (and others) will use them instead of searching high and low for paper ones. I plan to keep more available on my kitchen table for this coming week as to help my roommates start using them too. If you want more information on how to have an eco-friendly kitchen, click here to go to Best Green Home Tips website. Below is a picture of cloth napkins from their website.