May 27, 2010
Quite the pile of stuff has left my house this week. I’m rather proud of us.
- First, three bags of donations that had accumulated in our laundry room, plus two large toys my 5 year old decided he did not need anymore. (He is really good at that!)
- In addition, I finally repaired the sleeping bag waiting in a basket in my laundry room. I needed to determine if I could repair it, or if it required professional assistance. And then I would have had to determine if it was worth the $20 repair bill, or if I should just let it go. But I fixed it, at least for now, and reclaimed even more space in my laundry room.
- A borrowed tent went back to it’s rightful owner, along with a child’s wagon on loan.
- Next, the pile of electronics I’ve collected from my own house and a few clients’ homes went to the electronics recycling place in a near suburb. Whew! My garage looks much better!
- Three boxes shipped off to Cartridges for Kids. CFK sends money back to schools who submit specific items for recycling. Our school had a recycling drive, so I am sending all items collected plus the stuff I collect from clients. The FedEx will be picking up those large boxes today.
- A large box of flattened cardboard boxes went to the Green Recycling bin (another money maker for the kids) at school. I had collected the boxes to use for the Recycling Drive, but I can let them go now that it is over. I will not be storing these until Fall! I’ll just get more if I need them. Either our local printer or hardware store will help me out again, I am sure!
- 4 bags of paper recycling, and 2 bags of plastic recycling out at the curb with the trash.
- A freezer bag of household batteries went to my friend Pat behind the camera counter at my local Walgreen’s for recycling.
- Oh, and we released the 5 Painted Lady butterflies we raised from larva back to nature today.
You may now be saying, good for you Coll, what is your point? So here it is:
- Just as we have a routine for things to enter our home (we call this shopping), we have to have a routine for things to leave our homes, too. A basket in the laundry room for cast-offs, or taking advantage of trash day as an external motivator to have us clear out our papers and trash.
- Return borrowed items, and keep your own stuff moving out once you realize you no longer need it.
- Recycling helps everyone. It’s not always the easiest option, but it the right thing to do, and it reaps rewards.
- We can let things go without fear. If we really need something again, someone else will probably have what we need and we can borrow it from them. IT’s not as deep and philosophical as the circle of life, It’s just the circle of stuff.
Thank you for starting up your blog, Colleen. It will be helpful for me to learn your strategy and tactics for paring down and getting organized. Goodness knows that I need all the advice that I can get!
Do you have any leads for disposing of medicines? I think Walgreens has a small envelope for $5.99. However, I have a whole shopping bag of rejection meds, steroids and others. I just can not throw them in the garbage. They saved my hussband’s life – I just can not risk hurting others with careless disposal.
Thanks for your question, and for such a great sentiment – these meds saved your husband, you are passing on the good deed!
I called around to my local pharmacies, and they were kind but not too helpful. They referred me to my local police department, to find out if the police department will have a safe collection event (I know Chicago had one of those over the summer). Other suggestions I have received are to contact local hospice organizations or funeral homes, and find out what they suggest to their clients. You could also contact Illinois Poison Control, http://www.mchc.org/ipc/ and see what they suggest on the topic. I wish I had more info for you, this is an important subject! Let me know if you do find out more, and I will share it with all my readers.