Join me on a journey towards a simple, sustainable and meaningful life. Throughout November we will be exploring each category of the A-Z guide to a simple, sustainable and meaningful life. Today we’re looking at T… Transform.

This guide has been written from the point of view of someone living with chronic illness but the topics and concepts discussed are relevant to everyone and anyone.

T is for Transform

I’m sure you’ve all heard of the 3 R’s of waste management – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Bea Johnson from the Zero Waste Home talks about 5 R’s adding Refuse at the beginning and Rot at the end.

The 5 R’s are a great way to reduce waste in your home and live a simpler and more sustainable life.

You may be wondering why I’m talking about the 5 R’s when the word of the day is Transform. Transforming is one way of reusing items and reducing the amount of new items you need to bring into your life.

I love the idea of transforming an old unneeded item into something meaningful and useful for you.

Old clothes and sheets can be transformed into new clothes (dress to a skirt for example), other items (t-shirts to bags, patchwork quilts), or rags.

To transform is to make a marked change in appearance, form or nature of something.

Given this definition we could also say the whole journey we are on is one of transformation.

We are moving ourselves towards a different lifestyle than the one we had to start with. Transforming ourselves and our lives into something simple, sustainable and meaningful.