Friday Five: De-cluttering edition
With Jo, Jon and Chris all moving to college and University accommodation there has been a big clear up going on in the Coleman household. We have been sorting and trying hard not just to junk stuff, but actually to get it to where it can be useful. On a brighter note we have used Freecycle ( check it out) to provide the twins with pots and pans etc that other folk were clearing out.
Making the most of our resources is important, I have been challenged this week by the amount of stuff we accumulate, I'd love to live a simpler lifestyle, it would be good for me, and for the environment I think...
With that in mind I bring you this Friday 5;
1. Are you a hoarder or a minimalist? I want to be a minimalist, but have to admit to some amount of hoarding. However, compared to my husband, minimalist would be an understatement. When we got married, I brought my clothes and a few boxes of books. He brought more stuff than I ever thought possible for one person to own, and 85% of that is books. I would love to own less stuff - it all just seems rather wasteful to me, especially when I'm dusting it!
2. Name one important object ( could be an heirloom) that you will never part with. My husband :). Seriously, I'm not quite sure. When I think through all my stuff, there are certainly some things that I would rather not have to part with, but nothing that jumps out at me as so important that I will never part with it. Almost everything can be replaced, or at least will always be in my memory. Most of my pictures are digitally saved. Hmmm, I'm not sure I could part with my computer, or at least most of the data on it :). I'm surprised that this is such a tough question for me.
3. What is the oldest item in your closet? Does it still fit??? I think the oldest thing is my bathrobe that I bought my freshman year in college, in 1991. It does still fit, though that's not saying much - it's a bathrobe, you know, one size fits most. The next oldest thing I can think of is a concert dress that I wore in my senior recital in 1995. That dress has been worn many times, for many concerts, in many places. I got my moneys worth out of that one. It has gone through many stages of fit and unfit. Currently it's a little loose on me. There have been times though that I couldn't get my big toe into it.
4.Yard sales- love 'em or hate 'em ? I've only done a couple in my life time. I kinda have mixed feelings about them. It's fun to go through the house and pick out stuff to get rid of, know that they'll get used some more and not thrown away just yet. But, it's also a whole lot of work, and I always seem to have lots of stuff left over.
5. Name a recycling habit you really want to get into. Well, I've recently joined Freecycle. Sally is right - you should check it out. It's amazing what people will take. I'd love to rig my house for water recycling. Instead of watering my lawn and plants with potable water, I'd save all the gray water and rain water for that purpose. I've even seen some really elaborate systems that take all the gray water and re-filter and clean it so you can use it again. That would be really cool.
And for a bonus- well anything you want to add.... I think recycling, using less stuff, and other ecologically minded activities can be a spiritual discipline, and one more way we can live out our baptisms. Our society's current consumeristic mindset is rather antithetical to the command to love our neighbor. Oooh, and it's so hard to buck against that trend. It's so much easier to drive my car 3 miles to church instead of ride my bike, even though I'm perfectly capable, have the luxury of owning a nice bike, and have a safe route to take. It's so much easier to just throw away leftovers and buy more food, instead of eating what I have, or at least composting what's gone bad. The list could go on.
Here are two websites that I've found that you might like to know about. One of them is a community of people striving to live generously and sharing their ideas and actions with one another: A Year of Living Generously. The other site doesn't have enough information on it, in my opinion - you have to purchase the book to get the rest. I have not purchased the book, yet. But the information about certain major companies business practices helps me make wiser choices about where I want to shop and who I want to give my money to: Better World Shopper.
Making the most of our resources is important, I have been challenged this week by the amount of stuff we accumulate, I'd love to live a simpler lifestyle, it would be good for me, and for the environment I think...
With that in mind I bring you this Friday 5;
1. Are you a hoarder or a minimalist? I want to be a minimalist, but have to admit to some amount of hoarding. However, compared to my husband, minimalist would be an understatement. When we got married, I brought my clothes and a few boxes of books. He brought more stuff than I ever thought possible for one person to own, and 85% of that is books. I would love to own less stuff - it all just seems rather wasteful to me, especially when I'm dusting it!
2. Name one important object ( could be an heirloom) that you will never part with. My husband :). Seriously, I'm not quite sure. When I think through all my stuff, there are certainly some things that I would rather not have to part with, but nothing that jumps out at me as so important that I will never part with it. Almost everything can be replaced, or at least will always be in my memory. Most of my pictures are digitally saved. Hmmm, I'm not sure I could part with my computer, or at least most of the data on it :). I'm surprised that this is such a tough question for me.
3. What is the oldest item in your closet? Does it still fit??? I think the oldest thing is my bathrobe that I bought my freshman year in college, in 1991. It does still fit, though that's not saying much - it's a bathrobe, you know, one size fits most. The next oldest thing I can think of is a concert dress that I wore in my senior recital in 1995. That dress has been worn many times, for many concerts, in many places. I got my moneys worth out of that one. It has gone through many stages of fit and unfit. Currently it's a little loose on me. There have been times though that I couldn't get my big toe into it.
4.Yard sales- love 'em or hate 'em ? I've only done a couple in my life time. I kinda have mixed feelings about them. It's fun to go through the house and pick out stuff to get rid of, know that they'll get used some more and not thrown away just yet. But, it's also a whole lot of work, and I always seem to have lots of stuff left over.
5. Name a recycling habit you really want to get into. Well, I've recently joined Freecycle. Sally is right - you should check it out. It's amazing what people will take. I'd love to rig my house for water recycling. Instead of watering my lawn and plants with potable water, I'd save all the gray water and rain water for that purpose. I've even seen some really elaborate systems that take all the gray water and re-filter and clean it so you can use it again. That would be really cool.
And for a bonus- well anything you want to add.... I think recycling, using less stuff, and other ecologically minded activities can be a spiritual discipline, and one more way we can live out our baptisms. Our society's current consumeristic mindset is rather antithetical to the command to love our neighbor. Oooh, and it's so hard to buck against that trend. It's so much easier to drive my car 3 miles to church instead of ride my bike, even though I'm perfectly capable, have the luxury of owning a nice bike, and have a safe route to take. It's so much easier to just throw away leftovers and buy more food, instead of eating what I have, or at least composting what's gone bad. The list could go on.
Here are two websites that I've found that you might like to know about. One of them is a community of people striving to live generously and sharing their ideas and actions with one another: A Year of Living Generously. The other site doesn't have enough information on it, in my opinion - you have to purchase the book to get the rest. I have not purchased the book, yet. But the information about certain major companies business practices helps me make wiser choices about where I want to shop and who I want to give my money to: Better World Shopper.
posted by Amy Stewart at 6:51 AM
3 Comments:
I like you comment about your husband (I made the same one)... and I like the idea about recycling water. We've actually talked about how to do this in the retirement house-to-be... but I didn't think of it until you shared your dreams. Great play!
Nice play! We do compost, but I'm really interested in the grey-water thing too. My parents do that (of course, they live in Seattle, so there's lots of water to collect).
We must be exactly the same age: I was a college freshman in 1991 too. :)
Great play! I noticed that a neighbour up the street from us has an elaborate water recycling system set up. Great idea!
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