Declutter (reduce, reuse, recycle)

Well, it’s been a busy week – and I’m working on clearing out some things. After calls to the city, we finally had a recycling pickup. However, our bins are nearly full again as we are trying to get rid of the stuff we’ve been keeping until there is room. I do have to say I appreciate that they came. We were told they’d be there on Friday and they were – at 9 o’clock at night! But they did it and I am happy. I was quite upset someone in my building tossed all the boxes that were filled with cardboard into the dumpster. Very disappointing to say the least as they were not a nuisance and had a lot stuffed into them while awaiting pickup.

I have posted some packing peanuts that a package arrived with, and a quirky little kettle on Craigslist. I’m hoping to keep them out of the landfill. I’ve also thinned out my son’s toys and clothes a little. A few things have been packed up and put away, a few things put aside in case a neighbour would like them for their baby and a few things are in the garage sale box. I’ve also listed a few toys on Craigslist. I packed up some things of mine for ebay and will list them later in the week. I have a bunch of clothes to wash and press to take to the consignment shop in a couple of weeks.

I also took some things to the consignment shop, some things to the thrift store and some stuff to the used bookstore. It’s been a pass it along to the next owner kind of weekend!

I can happily report that when I went to the grocery store I used my own grocery bags! I didn’t use plastic for anything. But on the downside, I was hungry when I shopped and bought an instant soup in a nonrecyclable container. I don’t think it offset the no plastic bags and all the organic produce I bought, but still – not a sound decision. In the future I will plan better.

I’ve also decided to part with my fishtank,stand and accessories and it will be donated to a senior's care facility that my sister works at. A good re-use, I think. And it will make lots of other people happy, while simplifying my life just a little. Hopefully we’ll move that in the next week or so.

My goals this week are to continue in my declutter and to ensure that what leaves the house leaves it in a responsible way - being reused by someone else.