Living LAGOM with Ikea and our New Year's Resolutions

You might remember this post from before Christmas when I introduced the LiveLAGOM project I’m going to be working on for the next 6 months with Ikea. 

The first stage of the project was to identify some resolutions that we could work on over the coming months. I don’t really ‘do’ New Year’s resolutions as I can’t abide the thought of giving something up when the year is at it’s most miserable and grey however, these resolutions are all about positive changes, not denying myself. 

We have a few resolutions as we’ll be working on a couple of different areas around the home.

Energy management – we’re quite good at keeping the central heating down low and only on when necessary and monitor our use closely. However, we have massive windows, and as you can see from the pictures below, despite linings on our curtains, lose a fair amount of heat. 

Before Christmas, M borrowed an infrared camera to find out what was actually going on with those windows of ours: Here are his thoughts:

 

The greatest heat loss appears to be through the metal window frames, rather than the double glazing itself. The front door curtain wasn’t drawn while I was taking these pictures, so there's a large amount of energy loss through the front door area.

At the back of the house there is a large amount of energy being lost through the kitchen door and the bathroom window. We're going to be installing some Ikea blinds in both these rooms to try and minimise this. 

Waste management – we need to ensure that we’re recycling more and minimising our food waste. Which is tricky with a toddler who will eat you out of house and home where sweet potatoes are concerned one week, yet look at them like they've been poisoned the next. My regular meal plans help us stay on track, but I do need to be better at using our leftovers, I'm a terrible one for letting things languish in the fridge, unloved. 

I think that’s the crux of the whole project isn't it – we, like so many people could do better. Be more LAGOM. And that’s what we’re focussing on. Doing better. Like many of our friends, money is tight, we have our little toddler running around and we need to make sure we’re not wasting what we don’t have. We’ve made lots of changes in the last year to ensure we really are working hard to keep everything nice and low, and need to remain focussed. I’m hoping that our extension leads with off switches, thermal curtain linings, blinds, and recycling bins all keep us heading in the right direction.

So, I’ve got the paint out to give the bits of the kitchen that aren’t ‘sunshine yellow’ a freshen up before we put the new lights up, I’ve started decluttering with gusto, and we’ve even begun an early spring clean. Can you call it a Spring clean if it’s still the winter? Our list of things to do around the house this year is HUGE but we’re hoping to continue to work on it, making it our family home.

Because for us, that’s what this is about making our home a family home. Not a work in progress, not a project, a family home. That’s comfy and cosy. That’s welcoming. That doesn’t cost us so much to run we worry. Because you don’t want to spend your precious time as a family worrying because there's not enough. And that's the flip side of LAGOM isn't it, not too much, not too little. Just enough. I feel like I should sign off with Mama Bear.