Goals and Rules and Needs, Oh My!

“First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.” - Aristotle

We've done some short and long term goal setting, as well as come up with some rules for our 100 Thing Challenge which are pretty much modified from David Bruno's original rules for himself. We also did some needs/wants listing for our eventual tiny/small house. Here's what we came up with...

Goals: We came up with some short-term and long-term goals for living more sustainable so we have intermediate steps we can take to get us toward the bigger goals. Admittedly some of these are wishy-washy and need to be more definite, especially the goals that say "set this goal."

Short Term Goals

• Develop rules for our 100 Thing Challenge and follow through. Reduce to 100 things each by January 1, 2011 and live with 100 things until January 1, 2012.
• Get bikes with bike trailer(s).
• Reuse as much as possible (use the waste stream as a resource).
• Buy or make a composter.
• Set specific weight loss goals for the winter and determine the dietary and fitness means to accomplish them.
• Pay off the truck.
• Reduce our dishes and cookware to as minimal as possible.

Long Term Goal

• Live in a small house or apartment (250 - 350 square feet).
• Live within bike/walk distance of work, school, food, etc.
• Become locavores: shop locally for locally grown/made food, clothing, shoes, etc.
• Lose weight and get in shape. Goal weight 150-180 pounds.
• Get a very fuel efficient vehicle or have no car at all.

 100 Thing Challenge: We decided for the most part to each follow David Bruno's original 100TC rules with some modifications.

• We would also count one library of books as one item, but we would be specific in deciding on one bookcase to keep and that is the library for books, magazines, photo albums, and physical media of music and movies.
• Memorabilia would count as one item if it could fit into one small bin.
• Certain items for hygiene and/or convenience sake must be grouped into single items. Underwear and bras are one item. Socks and hosiery are one item. I will allow myself to use my travel makeup kit to hold enough makeup for regular use and count it as one item. A set of regularly used personal hygiene items will count as one item (toothbrush, hair brush, nail clippers, etc). I will reduce my tools to the bare essentials and what I can fit into a small or moderate sized tool box is one item.

We decided that handling gifts and new items would work as in David Bruno's original rules.

Tiny Home Wants/Needs: This is still distant thinking, but if we're going to start planning for a long-term goal of living in a tiny/small home, we have to figure out what we want and need from our home. These lists are still in the works, but what we have so far...

Wants

• Composting toilet
• Greywater recycling system
• Solar and/or wind power
• Solar hot water

Needs

• Ian's own private space
• Kitchen
• Bathroom
• Sleeping space
• Common living space