Garbage Tonight: Some thoughts on Garbage, Recycling and Decluttering

Didn't have to look far for pictures of clutter - lots of before and a few after shots! We all have it. All right, there are a few people without any messy rooms - some in new homes, some in homes with extra rooms and of course, Martha Stewart with several homes. And there would be people just starting out who haven't had enough time to collect "stuff" yet.

After all these years, I can still hear my Dad yelling out,

"GARBAGE, tonight!"

This was a task he seemed to enjoy and he was good at it. He was a pretty organized fellow and liked to keep things in rows and piles.

At this announcement, Mother and I were expected to bring any and all contributions to the central area at the back door to the garden.

That 2-storey, typical Canadian house had two sets of stairs to the basement. The two metal garbage cans were kept in the stairwell on the lower part of the back stairs that had a landing. (For you Texans - some stairways have a few steps, then a small flat area called a landing before the final steps to the lower level.)

So, I would collect my garbage from my room and recreation area (don't really have that here in Texas either) and present it to Dad for disposal.

The whole garbage system back them was archaic compared to the Grey and Blue Barrel System Hubby and I have to work with in East Texas. It was even more archaic compared to what I see when I visit Port Hope, Ontario which is a model of eco-friendliness. A few weeks ago, we were visiting an old neighbor on garbage night and the vision of tiny bags of regular garbage with a little sticker neatly affixed and large recycle bags was foreign to me now. The people of Port Hope really know how to do "Garbage Night"!

Well, as you may have surmised, tonight is garbage night and often that motivates us to sort through a few things and actually toss some things out. Here, our regular garbage is picked up one day and recycle another. The grey barrel is the regular garbage and the blue barrel is recycle. The barrels are faced, opening side to the road and the truck comes along and lifts it up and dumps the contents into the truck.

The barrels have wheels on them and a tidy handle so we can roll them back and forth curbside to behind the Azalea bush by the garage. We have just been given new barrels which are larger! Wow! (Perhaps the blue barrels should have been larger and the grey a little smaller, but who am I to argue with City Hall?

The workers were so kind as to actually walk up our driveway to the azalea bush to replace the grey barrel which was not at curbside. So these are really nice people who work with you if you work with them!

Hubby rolls the barrel (appropriate color) down the driveway to curbside the night before and is every bit as organized as my Dad was about "Garbage Tonight".

The bonus about each Garbage Night is that if there is not too much to do on that day, I am often inspired to do some decluttering.

Every magazine you buy has an article on decluttering. They have lots of ideas - a few of which work. (I want to point out that these magazines with the decluttering articles are contributing to the clutter every big as much as the junk mail!) The bottom line is this: Clutter is stuff that has no home because we have junk and stuff we do not use in the drawers, on the shelves and in the closets designed for it.

It is not exactly that we have stuff we don't need. It is more that we have stuff we have saved and stuff we have forgotten. We have stuff that doesn't fit, doesn't suit. We have stuff we could pack neatly and take to a second-hand shop (non-profit or not) or Goodwill. And of course, we have stuff we don't even remember we have! That is a big oops there!

Then there is stuff that really can be bundled up and put to garbage or recycle.

Please note I have not mentioned Garage Sales. There is a reason for that. Hubby and I really and truly detest Garage Sales. We have tried them and in addition to getting up really early, haggling and only taking in $138.26, we always have stuff left. Our time is more precious to us. Sorry, Garage Sale Buffs!

In fact, this is an endless cycle. But you knew that!

Oh, yes - Happy decluttering! I say that because there is genuine satisfaction in making an area neater, more functional and spacious. The problem as you know, is finding the time and no matter how many times we declutter, we find ourselves hurrying and not straightening and tossing on a regular basis as we should!