As the new #LiveLagom Ambassadors start their journey I thought it was a good opportunity to look back on mine and a chance to look to the future.
Little did I know when I signed up for the project just where it would take me…and still is taking me.
Famous for 5 minutes
As the project started to come to an end last year for me I was photographed, filmed, interviewed for a magazine and questioned about my experience on the Live Lagom project and what had changed. What fun it has been. I now feature in the new Live Lagom brochure, a You Tube video and am off for a press launch tomorrow in London. For me the project was the start I needed to change how we were living as a family…the lightbulb moment to stop buying ‘stuff’ and take stock. I’ve had and am still having such a blast.
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/ideas/live-lagom-living-lagom-with-juliette-1364335845435/
I am far more aware of what we are buying and think more before any purchase…do we really need it…can we make do with using something else we already have…can we declutter/change the room round and do without…or can we upcycle/ make something from other ‘stuff’ we have knocking about?
Upcycle/ Recycle – A good example of this philosophy is recently we bought a new bed (the other one was knackered after 15 years and 4 house moves) this gave us chance to have a reshuffle, declutter and revamp of our bedroom without buying anything new to achieve this. We have two recesses either side of a (filled in) chimney breast that were ideal for making into hanging space for clothes. Luckily for me hubbie is really good at DIY and if I come up with a design he will do his best to build it for me 🙂 A quick check in our garage and we found panels left over from when we fitted the kitchen, MDF from a warehouse clear out and sheer curtains from one of the house moves. All we needed to buy was a hanging rail…Bargain! It looks fab and fits in well.
GYO – I am still growing salad leaves using the Hydroponics kit I was given as part of the project. I have grown seeds into plants, bought ‘Living Salads’ and planted them in the kit to grow on and kitchen scraps from spring onions to leeks to pak choi; they have all flourished and grown well. There is no stopping the Hydroponics and its uses. Brilliant
Here is the Pak Choi I am growing on in the hydroponics kit.
I used the leaves for a stir fry and then ‘planted’ the root in the hydroponics basket and popped it into the hydroponics kit. Hey presto it grew. Fabulous.
I have also been experimenting with growing an avocado stone to see whether I can get any fruit to grow. It is a slow process but so far so good I have a couple of plants growing so may be in the summer I will have some growing.
I think the main message I will take away from this project is that last year was just the start of the journey and now is the real test. My attitude and outlook has definitely changed and I am trying to live a more ‘just enough’ life.
Future
I pass on all I have learnt to my learners and anyone else that will listen and am always promoting the benefits of living a Lagom lifestyle even if it falls on deaf ears with my teens! When I go out walking now I come back with arms full of wood for the wood burner, pine cones to cover in the left overs from candles, for firelighters or foraged food (or rubbish to recycle in my bins).
I will carry on growing on my kitchen scraps, composting my food waste/ cardboard and egg boxes and using it to grow my own veggies.
Why we should all be Composting…
I try and buy food out of plastic containers and have been buying from my local greengrocer and butcher something I didn’t really do before; this means no plastic bags as I can pop fruit and veg straight into a hessian bag and meat into a glass bowl.
I am trying not to buy anything new this year but to shop in charity shops; if this fails and I need to replace something then I will buy new but only after I have decided whether I REALLY need it!
Thank you Hubbub and Ikea for all the help, inspiration, workshops, advice and opportunities I’ve had a ball 🙂
Jx
Eating Green, Living Clean 
I’ve learnt similar lessons from moving abroad! That is one ‘declutter’ I never want to repeat.
I’ve never had much success with growing on kitchen scraps. What did you do with the avocado stone? It’s looking great!
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Removed the brown skin, put the stone into water using a yogurt pot! I cut the bottom out of a yogurt pot as the stone needs to sit in water but off the base as the root will grow straight down. I left it and just kept topping it up with water. The root starts to grow slowly. After about 2 months the stone cracks and a stem appears. It isn’t slow growing but good fun x
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