Today ended the last full week of the school year. In honor of our impending summer vacations, here are a couple things I’ve learned about myself recently.
- I’m averse to throwing things away. Whenever I declutter, I get stuck on things I should throw out. I think about landfills and feel guilty. Even though we recycle diligently and I’ve donated way more than I’ve tossed in the trash, I have a very hard time throwing stuff out. So I’ve decided to add another metric to my stuff in and stuff out count: trash bags. Yesterday I filled a big trash bag and also put 26 items in a donation box. My goal is to fill at least two more bags by the end of the month.
- I’m done decluttering the kitchen. Last month, before my stuff in/stuff out challenge, I agreed to have an online Pampered Chef party and I got a few things at a discount. I felt a little guilty because I didn’t want to buy anything this month. But I chose carefully, replacing a couple things and focusing on items to help me cook healthier meals. When I got the new things I did one more decluttering round. Since I ordered six things, I tried to donate six things. but I didn’t find six things, just a few mugs. I feel like the kitchen still has too much, but I use everything often enough to keep. The room still needs some organizational help but I don’t anticipate getting rid of much more. All I know is that I’m super happy to have a garlic press again because trying to chop garlic by hand is a bitch.
I can’t wait to use my vegetable steamer. Really.
- I manage my time better when I have less of it. I’ve cut back to one job and have wrapped up Emma’s activities and my volunteer commitments, but I don’t really know what I’ve been doing with all my extra time. I’ve realized I’ve lost track of some of the different things for the blog and I haven’t done as much in the house as I wanted. Other than last weekend’s non-stop activity, I realize I went into vacation mode as soon as my schedule lightened up. The end of school will lead to some schedule changes and I need to revisit my goals and think about how I’m going to reach them.
I’m looking forward to a quiet weekend. We’re going to a used book sale tomorrow which is potentially hugely dangerous to my decluttering goals. I promise to fully confess on Monday.
I’m finding you very inspiring! I think I’ll go round with a black bag shortly. I marvel at other people’s kitchens who seem to get by on one wooden spoon and a bowl. I have lots, but I do use them all. My weakness is books, I pick them up all over but in the UK they’re becoming quite hard to pass on. Charity shops are my usual default but people don’t buy them like they used to and they are reluctant to keep spare stock in their backrooms. I fancy your used book sale but I probably couldn’t be trusted either! have a good day.
I know it can be hard throwing things away knowing that they are going to a land fill but it’s got to be a part of the process. Just keep reminding yourself of the end goal: a simpler home with less coming in and, therefore, less going out. That kind of long term success will definitely help diminish your landfill contributions way more than you could possible be adding during the process. You can do it!
I have a hard time throwing things in the landfill. I try to get creative about rehoming things that still might be useful. Three partially used bottles of glitter, some glue sticks and some really old stickers went to the 4H craft group. Old socks with holes went to fabric recycling (do you have the giant red mailboxes for fabric and old shoe donation). Anything that doesn’t have a useful life somewhere else Is trash, though. Whether I store the trash in my house or the landfill, it’s still trash.
We also try to avoid putting things into a landfill, and donate and reuse as much as we can. I found the thing that helped the most in this regard was to stop bringing so much stuff in. Not just big stuff (e.g., new clothes, or whatever), but also buying items without packaging (purchasing mostly goods sold in bulk), or buying items in packaging that can be recycled. We also focused on buying high quality things that will last, and that won’t break and have to be replaced (thus sending the old one to the landfill). When I started focusing on reducing through-put, I found it reduced our amount of garbage tremendously.
While this article focuses on ways to reduce plastic exposure, it will also carry over into ways to reduce through-put (which I should really write a separate article about): http://everydaymindfulliving.com/40-ways-to-reduce-plastic-exposure/
We are the same. I try to buy at the farmers markets and avoid packaging as much as possible.
I love cookbooks and have way too many – I have scaled down from about 600 to under 100. It was never an issue about space though, I have excellent storage and it was always organised. Having said that I feel much lighter having rid myself of the excess.