Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter
The eco-organizer and space
I throw out stuff-a lot of stuff-for a living. That’s the job, and I love my job. But sometimes the garbage gets me down. My husband can tell you that while I was always concerned about the environment, I’ve gotten worse-or better, depending on your perspective. But in the end, a lot of my “eco-consciousness” has as much to do with space as it does with the environment.
Consider the lowly water bottle. We all know how important it is to drink water, and now it is de rigueur for people to stock cases of Poland Spring or Fiji water in their homes. Not me. I have a small kitchen and limited storage capacity. I have five people in my family, so we have five water bottles. Period. Sometime they are in the fridge, sometimes the cabinet, but they use a mere fraction of the space that a case of water would. Better for the earth, better for my budget, way better for my cabinet space.
A lot of people save too many shopping bags. They say, ” Well, the little Papyrus bag is good if I take my lunch.” I own three lunch bags. (My older son thinks he’s too cool to take lunch and my husband manages a restaurant, so they don’t need lunch bags.) Three lunch bags take about as much room as a couple dishtowels.
I rarely take a bag from a store because I have two nifty nylon shopping bags in my purse at all times. If I do need a shopping bag, it doesn’t linger long, because I use them to get rid of hand-me downs, which I do frequently.
I also really loathe disposable plates, cups and cutlery. First, it just so much nicer to eat off of china and drink out of glass, also, the packaging of paper plates and cups make them particularly annoying to store efficiently. We use cloth napkins and real glasses and it is no big deal, especially now that I have a dishwasher. If I do buy paper plates (for an outdoor birthday party, for example) I try to make them a solid color so that if any are left over, they can be used for a big holiday party or a picnic in the park. It’s always so frustrating when a client is trying to save five princess plates, three Mickey Mouse plates (the ears don’t stack!) and four rectangular fire-truck plates. Recycle them and next year tell your child they can choose solid red or solid blue.
Everyone is looking for ways to make life easier. I understand. But does unloading the dishwasher really take longer than your trip to the recycling bin or garbage chute with your paper plates?Consider instead the time and space spent managing where to store the odd leftover plates, the stash of unruly shopping bags of different sizes and other detritus of disposable convenience. So save yourself and save the earth. Buy one lunch bag, one shopping bag and a water bottle and see what time and space you can open up.