Shortly after the New Year, I ran into an article on The Compact (I cannot for the life of me find the article, though...sorry). Anyway, something about the concept really struck a chord with me. First of all, my husband and I are actually quite good about the 3 R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle). The one thing we are still guilty of, however, is too much shopping. That sounds horrible now that I have read it again. Let me clarify- we love to bargain hunt. If, for instance, I see a great looking skirt for $5, I am prone to buy it even though I have 20 other $5 skirts hanging in my closet. It was a bargain people...don’t you get it?
Well, we have decided that we will give the Compact our best effort in 2007. In part, it will help us to become less cluttered. In part, it will help us to save some money. And, in part, it will help us to become less stressed (because of the two aforementioned parts). Overall, I see it as a win-win.
The first hurdle of 2007 was finding a toddler bed for Gabriel. Yes, he is only 20 months old, but he tried out the toddler bed at A’s parents’ house and he LOVED it. So, I scoured the used listings around the net, including an awesome one called Freecycle. Tons of locations have freecyclers, and a few have more than one. Essentially, the concept is that people can post available items and items wanted. The main rule is that no money can be exchanged. So, you give your things away to someone that needs them and, in turn, you get what you need from another giving their things. Anyway, after a week of scouring I hit paydirt. We picked up the bed on Wednesday, and because it was freecycled there was no cost. I am, of course, posting my stuff that someone else might need. I really like the community sharing concept and it will definitely help with the “reduce clutter” goal above.
I like this resolution much better than a diet, don’t you?
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3 comments:
I can't get past the first one -- reduce. I am so very bad at not being able to get rid of things. I keep thinking that I need a bigger house, but what I need is less stuff! I've heard about freecycle; what a concept!
Sounds like an admirable plan. Before I clicked out to read more in the link, I immediately thought it would tie in with the architect S.Susanka's concept of the 'not so big house'. Basically she says that we don't need the square footage if we make the best possible use of what we've got.
abogada- I, too, have far too much stuff. Therefore, I am approaching "reduce" from two angles- buy less and get rid of more. When we combined households six years ago, we were floored by how much each of us had. We are gradually (and I mean *gradually*) reducing the quantity...it is difficult.
tinker- I'll have to check out that architect's work. I agree with the philosopy (although I do, in reality, have a rather large house because I live in a region with a decent cost of living).
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