First comes love, then comes marriage—and somewhere in the midst comes the inevitable move in together. Sometimes couples move in before matrimony, others after, and some way before(insert lesbian/U-Haul joke here). Deborah and I have been dating close to 3 years now, and living together for over a year and a half. However, this past week we finally moved into a place of our own, with no roommates and just us.
At the time of the move, I was reading the Green Bride Guide by Kate Harrison. And as I was perusing through this totally rad book, I just couldn’t focus on the wedding. All of our planning whatnots were already packed, and it was a case of out of sight, out of ridiculously stressed out mind. Yet, I kept finding different wedding ideas applicable to one step of married life—moving.
Wedding Co-Op
The Guide mentions this and so does Off-Beat Bride. It is the idea of a group of folks going in together to purchase those mundane necessities (vases, tablecloths, poofy pretty things) and sharing them to reduce cost and environmental impact. I love this idea! And with many of my friends nearly engaged or already planning a wedding, this is an idea I hope to use.
During our move, Deborah and I pitched in to what I can now name a ‘moving co-op’. A close couple of ours had purchased a mass quantity of storage tubs (90% post consumer waste recycled!) last spring in preparation for their move. We reused their tubs, and various friends who helped us move are planning on using them too! The idea of tubs was great—they are super easy to carry, only cost about $5.00 and have no waste at all and can be reused, either for storage or more moving. You can even reuse them during the same move! Instead of using old newspaper (or new newspaper) we wrapped our glasses and plates in t-shirts and pajamas. It worked really well and nothing we have unpacked has been broken!
I think we saved over $100 by using these tubs, when you factor in tape, multiple boxes and bubblewrap. Photo by Me!
Off-Setting Your Footprint
As far the actual moving goes, we had to rent a U-Haul. With a lot of furniture, it was just needed, and probably more efficient and better for the environment than taking one big ol’ 1996 truck to and fro. But, I felt immensely better about using those gas guzzling giant things when I found out that U-Haul has an option to help you off-set your carbon footprint when you check out! Yep! And they also have a ‘give a box, take a box’ recycling center in most of their locations, which is pretty nifty.
One thing I really appreciate from Kate was the idea of ‘Don’t Feel Bad’. So you bought a diamond that may have been from conflicted war zones before you knew about ‘no-conflict’ diamonds. That is okay. Don’t exchange your ring! Your budget won’t allow you to buy those super awesome vegan shoes, and you can’t find any you already own that you love enough to re-use? Don’t feel bad! Find other options to ‘go green’ and if all else fails, off-set your carbon wedding stiletto footprint. Brighter Planet is a super organization that funds local grassroots environmental campaigns, and allows you to off-set your footprint in a variety of ways.
Deborah and I also sold our furniture that was too big through a local community ‘eBay’, and then bought our new furniture from a used furniture store. To be honest, we just did that because it was cheaper, but then after I thought about it—it is a form of recycling too. So then I felt more awesome and less thrifty, and awesome is a welcome mood when in the midst of moving.
I am slowly learning that becoming more environmentally conscious is more than a trend, or pleasing the hippies who attend your wedding (I kid, I kid). It is a conscious effort to examine a lot of things in your life and make some changes for the better of our planet.
*Michelle and several other So You’re EnGAYged bloggers received the Green Bride Guide in honor of our week of blogging about green weddings*
Fantastic article Michelle! I loved hearing about your move and ‘not feeling bad’ is good to remember!