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 Since April marks a national event for "National
Recycling Month," it seems appropriate to focus on the
topic of recycling. After all, it isn't just about
separating our trash to put into recycling bins.
With spring cleaning, it seems to go hand-in-glove to
combine cleaning with de-cluttering, or just cleaning out
our accumulated stuff.
Garage sales also spring up, as a result of our efforts with
cleaning stuff out. We sell, we donate, we hit other
garage sales and buy more. It's an aspect of recycling.
People hold on to things beyond the need to keep them for
different reasons.
-
it had value to them
-
it was useful at one
time
-
it might be used
some day
-
it should be
repaired instead of buying a new one
These, and many other reasons, are the issues people face
when they keep and/or store things away in some forgotten
box beyond its intended or necessary life-cycle.
 A
life-cycle is simply how long something should live in your
possession.
Accounting papers, for example, have a
life-cycle of needing to live with you for a certain amount
of years, based on legal requirements for tax laws.
After that time period has expired, those can be discarded
(destroyed).
Clothing, shoes and accessories have a life-cycle. So
does furniture, home furnishings, decor, you name it.
So, we have the creation of something (or when something
came to be there), the continuation of it (being there), and
its end (when it's no longer useful or needed or valued).
Let's take that inherited antique coffee table from grandma
for another example. When it came to you, this was the start
of its life-cycle with you. But, you didn't use it --
you stored it away in the garage for keepsake purposes.
Only, it continued being there without being used, and
beyond the time it should have been recycled to someone else
who could use it and appreciate its value (which would start
a new life-cycle for the item).
My
advice? If it isn't functional or useful to you any
longer, but you want the memory of it, take a picture of it
and put it in a scrapbook to share with friends and family.
This keeps the heirloom alive and remembered for many years.
Then, donate or sell the piece.
Sorting
through our "goodies"
In a blog post "Our
Own Lost Treasures," it talks about our valuable
keepsakes. Here's an excerpt of this blog commentary:
"In a column by Al Neuharth of USA Today entitled "When
you die, where should 'goodies' go?" he writes of
donating his historical first edition papers and other
valuable keepsakes to the Library of Congress. I admired
his willingness to let go of these and donate them for
others to enjoy before he dies.
While we tend to keep a lot of our treasured keepsakes
in stored boxes among rows of other boxes piled around
each other in hidden storage areas, you have to wonder
what value these really have to you. How is it
appreciated hidden away?
Sorting through our stuff can be a good experience ...
and letting go of it now can be rewarding, as we see
others enjoying those things we've treasured."
Yard
Sales
 "Is
Your Stuff Junk or Just Stuff?" is the topic of another
post. Here's an excerpt of it:
"I've asked
myself if people know that a lot of the stuff
lying around their house or garage is actually
meaningless junk. It's astounding what they determine
their stuff to be once they begin going through it. I'll
ask, "What's this?" and they often reply, "Gee, I don't
know."
If it goes into the sale pile, we only hope that someone
else will be able to determine what it is.
...It's hard to price these meaningless items of junk, too.
How do you put a price on something you can't name? Yet,
it must have had some value because you had it, right?"
In a post,
Recycling Junk - Eco-organizing™
Redefines Recycling,"
it gets into methods to recycle your stuff.
Turning
Scraps Into Art
If you must hang on to all those mailed advertisements and
promotional letters, then read this post, "Turn
Your Keepsake Papers Into Works of Art."
"'It’s
about finding beauty in what people normally would
consider trash, and it’s about finding something new in
what people would consider trash,'
said (Mark) Schultz, now of Tacoma, who’s been creating
the collages for 14 years and has had several solo
shows, most in California."
 In
another post, "Eco-Makeovers™
- Recycling paper in your home," the idea is presented
of recycling paper by creating wallpaper with it (featured
in the Natural Home & Garden magazine):
"One wall
treatment was to take paper grocery bags, crumble and
scrunch pieces of them (to soften them), then tear them
into little pieces. Prime sections of the wall surface
with 2 parts water / 1 part white glue, then apply
pieces of the paper, overlapping them and brushing with
the glue mixture to remove air pockets.
You can also do collage wall treatments
with old phone book yellow pages (although you don't
need to crumble them)."
Stored
Away Stuff
One in eleven percent of Americans rent storage space in a
given year, according to the National Self-Storage
Association. Here's my commentary excerpt of this
post,
Economize Stuff:
"I suppose if a person were to inventory
what they store away, then add up the cost of storage,
one might determine the actual value, or worth of their
belongings. It might be a rude awakening to discover
that all those infant and toddler clothes and toys you
saved in case you have another child, for example, have
now cost you $2000 to hold on to."
In
Conclusion...
 My goodness, it seems like I had a lot to say about this
topic! It's my guess that I'll probably have more to
say about it, as time goes on!
For now, if you'd like to find out more about recycling
(other than what I've already said!), check out this web
site:
http://www.obviously.com/recycle
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