I look forward to Friday every week. But probably not for the reason you're thinking. Friday is trash day! It's the day that so much stuff is purged from our home. It's kind of amazing how much trash we generate each week. Luckily we have more recycling than trash, but it's still a lot. I want to work on reducing it this year. We have a composter in our yard, we're just not using it. Considering the fact that I hate worms, I don't know if I'll personally take on that task or not. I know by living more frugally & focusing on only buying things we really need, the trash should be reduced as well. I am always eager to get rid of excess packaging. It's amazing how much extra cardboard or paper products are involved in household goods. I just can't stand it though - it takes up so much extra space! As soon as I get stuff home from the store, I usually shed the packaging, unless it's an item I am seriously considering returning if it doesn't work out. Some goods like freezer goods from Costco we have to shed packaging right away, otherwise it wouldn't fit in our freezer! But I also find that shedding packaging of other stuff helps to take up less room, and I can more easily organize. For example, I like to have 2 tubes of toothpaste in reserve for my husband & I. I bought some toothpaste (with coupons) the other day & immediately opened the boxes up, put them in the recycling bin & put the toothpaste tubes in our bathroom drawer. They take up so much less space that way. On Thursdays I love scanning the house in search for what else I can get rid of. I have to be careful not to fall into the "but I might use this one day" trap. Ah how I hate clutter, but I also hate things going to waste. Sometimes though I just decide to ditch the thing, even if it means money went down the drain. It is very rare that I have thought "darn, I wish I hadn't thrown that thing away." In fact, I cannot even think of an example of that. This week I really want to challenge myself to seek out things we are really not using & ditching them or find someone who can use the item. As I sit here now, I know of one item I need to just toss - an anti-fungal toenail treatment. This is a little embarrassing to admit, but this example demonstrates a point. A few months ago I started having pain on my big toes. I thought I may have some type of fungal thing considering my toenails were yellowish - turns out it was just from constant nail polish wear & I had ingrown nails, which required an entirely different treatment regimen. (On a completely unrelated topic, I am now "detoxing" my toenails - not polishing them & just working on them myself to get them back to their beautiful more natural state & saving money on pedicures!) I had spent $14.99 on this fungal treatment that I didn't even need. I had never needed this stuff previously in my life either. It's just not a health issue I deal with or could foresee myself dealing with in the future. But there it is, sitting on my medicine cabinet shelf. I look at it every time I open my medicine cabinet - which is at least twice a day when I do my night & morning routines. It's not an item I can pass on to someone else who would use it. I mean, what am I going to do, advertise on Facebook to my family & friends saying - hi does anyone need any foot treatment I used once? Yuck! So right now I am just going to toss the darn thing. There, I got up & threw it in the wastebasket. Does wasting $14.99 hurt? Yes indeed. But in order to have an uncluttered life, we sometimes have to just cut our losses & let go. I can think of some cleaning products we have as well I just need to get rid of, which no longer fit my desire to use more natural cleaning products. There they are taking up space in my cabinet because "I might use them one day" and "I'm wasting money if I throw them away." They haven't been used, nor do they align with the healthier way I want to keep my home clean for my family. So out they go! I challenge you to do a similar scan & shed each week in your home the day before trash day. It's a great way to fight the clutter battle on a weekly basis, and feel the freedom of having less.
I need to get one of these compost waste collectors! That way we have an easy way to collect kitchen waste & carry it to the yard. Getting over my fear of worms has to start somewhere :).
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