The first week of Eco Challenge 2008 was a great success. My number one goal in participating in this event was to become more aware of my impact on the environment and make adjustments in some of the areas where I consume or use too much. I already take 4-5 min showers and because I have a meal plan for 2 meals a day, I try and eat in so that I'm not throwing out major amounts of paper plates, plastic covers and plastic forks. So far, the biggest challenge has been remembering to turn off lights and appliances that I'm not using at the moment. In the past, I used to leave my computer on indefinitely because I was to lazy to wait the 2min that it takes to boot up. As of last week I made a conscious effort to keep it off when I wasn't using it, and the extra 2min really wasn't unmanageable. Instead of being impatient with it, I would turn it on and do something else in the meantime so that I wasn't wasting time, just using it more efficiently. Another thing that I was already doing was my vacuuming habits. The vacuum that I brought to townhouse D is a rechargeable battery vacuum that flicks the dirt into the compartment with 4 rotating brushes. The photo is of the vacuum, and its a great thing to have because its a space saver and an energy saver. It was great to see that I was already making a difference and didn't even know it, but now I'm starting to become more aware of the little things that are making a big impact.