Removing clutter
An important aspect of simplicity inside your house has to be lack of clutter. To de-clutter a house may take a long time, but is worth the effort and, once you have opened up some space you will reap the benefits. Many people get attached to objects, but many others are reluctant to get rid of things because they paid good money for them in the first place, this is a mindset that you have to get away from, if you paid a lot of money for something that now has to go then that is it? Avoid selling things, it causes more problems than it solves, the easy way to get rid of unwanted things is to give them to charity, small items can be donated to charity shops or community jumble sales and bigger items of furniture and electrical goods can often be removed from your house and redistributed to needy families. Above all, don’t throw things away if they can be recycled or reused by others, waste is never a simple solution to any problem, it just moves the problem elsewhere.
What to get rid of
Two years is a long time, if you have things that you have not used for two years, then chances are you can do without them. All those things that ‘might come in handy one day’ probably won’t, get rid of them. If you have more than the necessary number of items in your house, three televisions, two toasters, fifteen egg cups etc. then reduce the number to reflect your needs. If you have things in your house that were given to you as gifts and you don’t need or like them, then give them away. If you have collections of things that were once a prospective hobby decide if this was a passing fad, if it was then give them away. If you ‘attract’ items like ball-point pens, coat hangers, notebooks or keys that no longer fit any lock, then give it all away. If your children have grown out of equipment, toys and games give them away, don’t do this behind your children’s back, and involve them fully in the de-cluttering process. If you are friendly with a family with children just a bit younger than yours, then why not pass clothing and other items to them.
Recycling
For anybody truly wishing to lead a simple life, given our knowledge of finite world resources and pollution, you have a duty to recycle whatever you can. Don’t throw anything away that can possibly be recycled. Your local authority will have the means to collect together for recycling, paper, glass, plastic and metal they will also make safe and recycle used batteries and broken light bulbs. Most authorities also do a splendid job on taking electrical equipment and stripping out the recyclable materials. Charities collect any number of objects and materials including clothing, shoes, curtains, books, CDs, DVDs and spectacles, some also take used postage stamps and ‘brick-a-brack'. (You may consider CDs and DVDs redundant technology, but many still collect them.)
Don’t assume that what you give away has to be in good condition, charity shops generally ‘sell on’ unusable clothing to make industrial cleaning cloths or even blankets. Make sure that your house has recycling bins on each floor and make sure that everyone in the family uses them, sorting the recycling gives useful lessons to younger members of the family.
Reusing
Get in the habit of reusing objects and materials in useful ways, used jars and bottles can be used for bottling (called canning in North America) your produce, containers can be used for storage and waste wood can be used for burning in wood-burning stoves (if you don’t have one give your wood to someone who has). Unwanted CDs and DVDs, especially those given away as promotional material, can be used to help scare birds away from your growing crops. Worn jeans can be turned into shorts in seconds by using a pair of scissors and the removed legs can be stuffed and made into draft excluders for the gaps under closed doors. Knitters will be able to unpick unwanted garments and remake them into something more appropriate. The Amish use old shirts, dresses and petticoats to make those astounding quilts, if you can use a sewing machine, or can sew well by hand, you can make good use of much unwanted clothing.
(C) Ray Lovegrove 2016 , 2022
See Also;
Radically Change how you Dress
No comments:
Post a Comment