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Health & Fitness

National Recycling Week: Clear some clutter, Get ready for winter!

National Recycling Week: Simple Recycling solutions to common clutter problems. Get your home ready for a cozy winter by clearing some clutter now!

This week is National Recycling Week. Make a conscious decision to free yourself and home from clutter while benefiting others and the environment. Clear your house for Fall, for the Holidays or just because!

Recycling goes way beyond the bags you put out with the trash every week. It means re-using or re-distributing stuff, and almost everything is recyclable or reusable. If you don’t want it, someone else does. Just Click here for my recycling guide or my Green Resources page on my website for suggestions. Recycling is the right thing to do. It cuts consumption of energy and resources, saves money, keeps stuff out of landfills and toxins out of the water supply. Looking at 5 common clutter challenges, here is how to make Recycling the easy thing to do, too:

Clothes and Donations: I bet you have bags of donation clothes in the closet, by the door, in the laundry room or in your trunk. Cast-off clothes and donations are easy clutter elimination and the ultimate recycling. You may have designated stuff to donate or give to others, but it is still cluttering up your home. Load up your trunk and drop off those bags of clothes, shoes, books, whatever. Then come home, take a breath, appreciate the clearer space, then get back to work!

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Get on the regular pick-up route for organizations like Purple Hearts or AmVets, to move clutter out of your home to be re-used and recycled by others. 

Returns are also a form of recycling since returning items you won’t use keeps stuff in circulation instead of letting it stagnate in your trunk or closet. Take returns back to their stores, put some money back in your pocket, and revel in the clear space. 

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Plastic and Paper Shopping Bags:  Got bags? Under the kitchen sink, in the laundry room, on a hook by the door? Working with a client recently in a small storage space, we ended with six bags of plastic grocery bags to be recycled.  As an organizer, a problem I have with bags in general is that you can’t stack them or see inside, which make them a terrible way to store stuff.

Keep a dozen plastic bags, and maybe 2 dozen if you happen to have a pet and need the bags for dog walks, etc. Take the rest back to your local grocery store for recycling. Re-use plastic bags as packing material or to re-line your messy garbage cans. We use paper bags to wrap mailing packages and to hold our weekly paper recycling. They’re also great for organizing projects – write “trash”, “recycle” and “donate” on 3 with a Sharpie, stand them up, and have the kids fill all three on cleaning day. When they’re full, take action on the stuff in the bags, then fold them up and keep them for the next project!

Get used to carrying your own shopping bags. I always carry one small one in my handbag for most of my shopping stops, and for bigger trips, I keep my reusable bags where I need them, bundled in the car.

Boxes and Cardboard: Take a peek in your garage, attic, basement or hall closet. Recycle those empty cardboard boxes and open up some storage space!

Last week, I cleaned out our basement Holiday closet where we store Halloween and Easter decorations, Halloween costumes, gift wrap and extra shipping boxes, and purchased gifts. It was looking neglected, to say the least! So I put away the Halloween decorations and costumes, purged a dozen extra cardboard boxes, and broke down the keepers to store them flat instead of assembled. There’s lots of space now!

Electronics:  Many towns have E-waste recycling available now, for old computers, TVs, DVD players, etc. Check out my recycling guide for suggestions.  I dropped off a load at the Evergreen Park E-Waste site last week, and cleared up some space in my basement storage room and garage! Win-win!

Junk Drawer Contents: As your professional organizer, I will let you have a junk drawer. JUST one. So, let me guess what is in your junk drawer… Dead batteries, old eyeglasses, dried up pens, broken crayons, pennies, random photos, household tools and repair items, expired coupons and take-out menus, twist ties and rubber bands, empty toner cartridges, scotch tape, old cell phones, pop tabs. Sound familiar?

Dedicate a use for each drawer, like office supplies or couponing or tools and hardware or kid’s crafts, so it is less likely to become a junk drawer. Label it to make it easier to remember and maintain. Almost every item I listed above can be Recycled or re-used. Old batteries to Home Depot or . Eyeglasses to your local Lion’s Club. Call me if you have old toners or cell phones, our school is having a Recycling Drive this month.  Or check my Recycling Guide for a location in your area. Sorting a junk drawer with your kids can be a great teachable moment.  Show them how to sort stuff, toss the trash, and organize what is left. 

Use National Recycling Week to help your home by clearing clutter, and help the planet by doing it responsibly!

This is part of the Nov. 8 edition of Colleen CPO's Blog.

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