Tomorrow I will be back with the before and after of my recent hair cut and more information at the current goings on at the Sustainable house.
Today I thought I would share this post from Re-Nest. I have been going through a pare down kick lately. I think I have gone through my clothes 3 times in the last 6 months. I have been pitching and pitching and pitching. It is fun. You should try it, too. ;) Catch you back here tomorrow!
What You Need
Ingredients
Your Stuff!
Tools
Patience and an Open Mind
Instructions
1. Edit, Edit, Edit If you've participated in the Apartment Therapy Home Cure then you know the importance of evaluating what is important and productive to keeping in you happy and your home comfortable. Stop hanging on to things that don't matter or don't contribute in a productive way. Remind yourself that just because you really love all those mugs, doesn't mean you need 20 of them — let someone else love them. Target your weakness — shoes, clothes, books, plates, etc. — acknowledge it, and deal with it.
2. Consolidate The future is now, and while gadgets may seem like they're piling up, so are a lot of our old technologies. Copy all your books, movies, music and other media on a hard drive and watch as your space clears up in your house. Consider utilizing a shared appliance and equipment resource with your condo, apartment complex or even neighborhood, because not every residence needs their own lawn mower, power tools, vacuums and other space hogging and rarely used equipment.
- Green Tip: Rent Tools, Don’t Buy
- Green Community: The Sharing Solution
- Simple Green Entertaining: Use What You Have, Borrow What You Don’t
3. Simmer On It If you're on the fence about getting rid of something, put it aside and out of sight for 3-6 months. If it hasn't been used, needed or missed then it's time to let go. A simple strategy for clothing is to hang everything facing away from the door, once it's been worn hang it so it's facing the door — everything that's still facing away after 6-12 months is ready to be donated (this method could be revised for most other things).
4. Donate, Recycle or Toss Once you've figured out what will stay and what will go, hopefully very little of the stuff that is to 'go' will get trashed. Ask around if anyone you know can use your stuff — as they say one person's trash is another person's treasure. From there it's really easy to get rid of things on Freecycle, Craigslist and of course thrift and salvage stores, yard and garage sales, anything really other than the garbage dump.
5. Stick to a Schedule For those of us who've had to move on an annual (or even more often) basis, moving with a lot of stuff eventually gets very tiresome. Moving is the perfect time to purge and prioritize and decide what is actually worth carrying up and down another 3 flights of stairs. However, some of us may have settled into homes where keeping extra stuff isn't all that burdensome and we forget the importance of editing. One of the easiest ways to avoid accumulating stuff is to stick to the 1 in, 1 out practice — or even better 1 in, 2 out (and so on and so forth) to ensure that you're never increasing the amount of stuff you own. Another strategy would be to schedule a quarterly Salvation Army (or your salvage method of choice) pick up; or for example, growing up my house would do a once or twice yearly pickup and then one or two yard sales during the summer. Essentially, just make sure your regularly regulating the amount of stuff in your home.
6. Buy Only What You Love and Need Moving forward, change your buying habits to limit the amount of incoming stuff, read Emily's post for some great tips.
Additional Notes: No purging regret! Remember that paring down your stuff is an important part of life, living green and going small, and will contribute to your overall happiness.
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