Bar Soap?  Is that the best I can do?

I am barely a month into this journey and I already feel easily discouraged.  I want to make all of these changes over night.  I want them to happen quickly…not one bar of soap at a time. 

However, I am trying to make changes only as I am able to write about them.  Writing paces me and helps me process the impact of each change.  Writing forces me to go slowly even though it may feel frustrating.  I hope a slower pace will allow me to maintain each change.

In the meantime, I thought it would help if I wrote out a list of things I would like to accomplish this year as I learn to live like Grandma.  This is not an exhaustive list but a start.  Yikes!

Adopt a general attitude of “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
Can or freeze and store as much food as possible
Eat seasonally, eat locally
Maintain my garden and prepare for next year
Compost
No eating out or ordering in
Make homemade versions of our favorites - pizza dough, bread, tortillas, etc.
Cloth napkins - no paper towel
Find a coffee percolator
No microwave
Use fewer small appliances in general
Save and reuse as much as possible
Learn to fix broken items
Hang dry my clothes all year
Cloth diapers
No new clothes for me or my hubby
Buy clothes from resale shops for my kids
Use hankies for cold and flu season
Homemade laundry soap
Homemade cleaners
Homemade hair and beauty products
Safety razor or straight razors for shaving
No make-up or less with minimal packaging
No nail polish or other chemical based products
No hair dryer or straight iron
Use less water and use leftover water
Use less toilet paper
Follow the rule, “If it’s yellow, let it mellow, if it’s brown, flush it down.”
Use a Diva cup - not disposable tampons or pads
Gas free lawn care
Paint my walls with low or no VOC paint
No movies or TV (for me)
Choose quiet over the radio
Walk more
Drive less 

Some of you may already do many of the things listed above, some of you may do a few and some may do none at all.  If you already do something, then teach me how to do it, if you want to learn something new, try it with me, and if you are too overwhelmed, think about things you can do in the future.  No judgment here.  This is a movement toward a more sustainable and simple lifestyle.  I do not think I will ever declare that I have arrived.  I hope I will always be moving forward no matter how slow - two steps forward, one step back.

I am reading a book by Anne Lamott called, Bird by Bird.  It is a how-to book on writing but I think the following words really relate to my Grandma journey:

“E.L. Doctorow once said that ‘writing a novel is like driving a car at night.  You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.’ You don’t have to see where you’re going, you don’t have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way.  You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you.  This is right up there with the best advice about writing, or life, I have ever heard.”

And that is how my journey feels.  I feel like I am driving in the dark.  But if I steadily move forward I know I will cover significant distance over the coming year.  I hope I will be surprised at how far I have come when I look back.

Do you have any suggestions?  Is there anything you think I should learn to do like Grandma (or Grandpa)?