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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nMy cabinets are plentiful, and I have a large closet, but I\nstill have to think carefully about what I purchase. This morning, I placed my\nfirst grocery order and realized it\u2019s next to impossible to get containers of\ncondiments, dishwashing soap, and butter in the amounts I need them. Travel\nsize is a bit too small for my length of stay, and regular sizes are waaaay too\nbig. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This time, I was shopping at an average chain supermarket\nwhere I expect to find a variety of brands and all the basics. If I had chosen\na wholesale club, the packaging would be even larger. I could have picked a specialty\nmarket with expensive brands in smaller containers, but then I\u2019d have to pay\nmore for everything or shop at multiple stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It seems crazy to me that we can have acres and acres of ground\ncovered by supermarkets and lack right size options in popular brands that\nreduce waste and require less cabinet space. I understand the efficiency and\neconomy of buying more, but if that creates waste on the back end, those are\ndiminished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t know why this surprises me. We are a culture of\nexcess living in an era of increase. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following an energy crisis<\/a> in the 1970s, we didn\u2019t abandon the SUV or ever larger pickup trucks, we shook off our initial panic and filled the roads with them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the past 20 years, our bagels have grown<\/a> from 3 inches to 6 inches and 140 calories to 350 calories. Even turkey sandwiches have doubled in calories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The average American employee spends more hours at work<\/a> than workers in Japan, the UK, and Germany at an average of 37.5 hours per week. And that average is lower than the hours put in by many of my acquaintances for whom a 60-hour work week is not uncommon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It has become a sign of good parenting for children to be\nenrolled in multiple organized extracurricular activities. Without moderation,\nthis leaves little time for sitting still, experiencing the wonder of a sunset,\nor lying in the grass watching the clouds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And we don\u2019t just purchase larger grocery items. Our closets\nare filled. My grandmother had two or three Sunday dresses, one pair of pants\nfor lawn and garden work, and a couple of casual dresses. She didn\u2019t own 5\npairs of shoes, much less 15. I packed more clothes in my RV than my\ngrandmother owned, and it is a tiny fraction of what I have. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I even have two TVs. TWO in just over 100 sq. ft. I wouldn\u2019t\ncall that moderation. And I haven\u2019t even turned them on. Clearly, I don\u2019t need\none, much less two. And yet, the multiples are considered a selling point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The more I look around, the more I observe excess. And it\nhas momentum. There\u2019s a push toward more, longer, faster, bigger. Minimalism pushes\nback but is not winning the culture war in the US. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Surrounding ourselves by excess, doesn\u2019t seem to make us more content. It just leaves me wondering why we don\u2019t do anything in moderation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/my-efficiency-is-killing-me-or-the-importance-of-balance\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m wondering whether the US knows how to do anything in moderation. I\u2019ve temporarily relocated to an RV where I\u2019ll be living for a couple of months. As with all tiny house living, my 100 sq ft of living area mean space is critical. My cabinets are plentiful, and I have a large closet, but … Continue reading “Anything in Moderation?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4582"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4582"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4922,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4582\/revisions\/4922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/c2tblog-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/STC_ad_22_OL.png\")
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