goBEYOND

So for the second year in row, I’ve hung a clothesline in my UBC dorm room. It’s all part of the goBEYONDchallenge; I’m working to reduce my energy consumption.

You might think that there’s nothing a person living in a residence can do beyond turning off their lights. In fact, despite the fact you can’t rip open to wall to stuff in more insulation (although you can always lobby for administrators to do so), there are tonnes of things you can do to go beyond!

So getting back to my clothesline. One my main energy consuming activities living in residence is washing and drying my clothes. So I started to think of ways that I could reduce this while still getting what I want (i.e. clean, unsmelly clothes).

But what could I do? Wash them less often? This fails the “unsmelly” test. Not dry them? That would be asking for mould. Start wearing nothing but loin clothes? I’d need to hit the gym first. The solution I hit upon was to return to the days of old: I hung a clothesline in my room!

This was so super easy, I don’t see why everyone hasn’t done it yet. All I do is take my clothes out of the washing machine and sling them over the line. Most weeks, I don’t even fold them and put them in my drawers, saving another my energy too. And I haven’t even started talking about the money I save…

There are actually plenty of things you can do in residence reduce your footprint, and goBEYOND is a fun way to start doing them.