Baby Steps…
If there is one thing that I have learned since I started organizing professionally, is that people have a lot of stuff! Stuff they like the ‘idea’ of owning”. Stuff that represents goals -like smaller clothing sizes, and self-help books, exercise equipment and yoga mats. They have stuff they have outgrown, seasonally, mentally and physically! They have stuff they inherited, stuff they never unpacked and stuff they forgot they bought.
When I met Sue, she was boughed down with lots of stuff. During our initial consultation, she told me how important it was for her to donate things to organizations or directly to people, where she could make the most impact. She wanted to figure out new ways to live. To reduce consumption and consumerism, to repurpose what she had already owned and to recycle responsibly. She was interested in living a zero-waste life.
I was impressed with Sue. She had a vision, and she was ready to put the wheels in motion.
On our first visit, I walked into the kitchen where there was a ton of mail. Junk mail and bills alike. She said it’s exhausting to open, to decide what to do with it and then put it where it belonged. So, she often would leave it for several days or longer to pile up and then address it. I offered some advice; don’t bring junk mail into the house. Recycle it in the bin in the garage, open bills right away, note when they are due and put them in your command center to be paid or better yet go paperless. Mail is a big issue for a lot of people. So, here are some easy steps to reduce and organize.
Stop Junk Mail:
www.dmachoice.org non-profit org $5/10yr
Catalogs:
Stop Credit Card Offers:
1-888-5-OPT-OUT
Cancel Subscriptions that you never get around to reading. Do you get the daily newspaper?
And while you’re at it….
Stop Phone Solicitations:
From that starting point we worked for several sessions on deciding what to keep, how we could reuse things she had or repurpose items that had value. We decided what could be sent to what charities and had boxes for different organizations or people she knew who could use things that she was ready to part with. We had piles for items that needed to be recycled, we researched and found a place for old eyeglasses and batteries, paint, an old iPad and even a mattress.
Here is a list of helpful sites to find out where things should go…
https://www.mwatoday.com/waste-recycling/recycling-disposal-guide/
Old eyeglasses can go to Walmart and Sam's Club vision centers, or Costco.
Best Buy will take back cell phones and many other home electronics for free; they also offer a buyback program for more desired electronics. They accept up to three items per day from each household.
Other places to donate:
Salvation Army, Many Hands Thrift Market, The Free Store, Goodwill, ReStore, DAV Not New Shop, Every Step Giving Tree, Hope Ministries Thrift Store, Joppa Donations Center, St. Vincent de Paul. Some will pick up – some you drop off.
Sue and I had fun reusing shoe boxes for organizing hand towels – Marie Kondo style. We covered them in contact paper and found lots of uses for them in the laundry room and kitchen too. If you look around, you may find little boxes to turn into drawer dividers, egg cartons for refrigerated tube style garlic and ginger etc. We even covered a Kleenex box with contact paper and turned it into a plastic bag holder. Sue loved this newfound way of turning these things into useful containers!
Here's the video on that Kleenex box trick:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bExz5V2kpv4
Sue now takes her reusable cloth bags to the grocery store but uses old plastic ones for her dog and cat waste.
After a brainstorming session, we came up with a few ideas in her home where she could take some baby steps toward zero waste living. Believe me, there are plenty of websites and blogs on the subject, so it’s easy to find. Here’s a few ideas that Sue started using right away.
Laundry: Use laundry sheets or plastic free pods for washing and wool dryer balls to eliminate dryer sheets.
Kitchen: Use Swedish dish towels or cloth dish rags instead of paper towels. Cloth napkins instead of paper.
We made DIY Toxic Free cleaners with Dr. Bonners Castile Soap,
and found a wealth of information on this site:
https://www.lisabronner.com/category/drbronner-products/
Bathroom: Try a Bar shampoo and conditioner
Sue is still taking baby steps towards zero waste living, and she has inspired me personally to do better. I think being aware or reminded of ways to reduce, reuse and recycle can have a big impact!
Until next time,
Jolene
Nice + Neat Pro Organizing, LLC
www.niceandneatpro.com