Compass & Coffee Spoons

Cleaning Out E-Trash

 

I managed to make a dent in my purge pile this week. Not completely gone, but it'll get there. I sold 4 books on Amazon (That was $23 I didn't have!). I also took 2 big bags of "stuff" to Goodwill and gave the 5 flower pots and potting mix that I've had for a few years stored beside my clothes drier to a Freecycler. Next on my list is my once-used drill sander, my VCR and VHS tapes, and more books! These are all "in process/"

One thing I have put off getting rid of for awhile are a bunch of old electronics and media, not because I wanted to keep it, but because I didn't know what to do with it. I found several resources to begin to thin them out. I'll list those below for you. For my part, I took a bunch of old data CDs and videotapes to the DC E-cycling drop off (though the guys kinda laughed at the tiny bag I brought--most people were off-loading monitors).

The major things I have are my old nonworking laptop, nonworking digital camera, and cell phone. Of course, all of these items have corresponding batteries which cannot be disposed of safely in a landfill. I am contemplating trying to sell the camera and laptop for parts on ebay. They may also end up going the way of the e-cycling center. Here are some of the resources I found. This is by no means a comprehensive list.More can be found at www.earth911.com.

Printer Cartridges--Staples accepts most if not all brands, and gives credit on its Staples Reward card. Some (if not all...) post offices also have a place you can drop off spent cartridges and cell phones. HP will send mailers to customers to return its own brand of cartridges.

Various--DC has its own e-cycling at the Benning Road Transfer Station (3200 Benning Rd NE...not for the faint of heart...the place is kind of scary) or at the Fort Totten Transfer Station every Saturday 8 am to 3 pm. They accept cds, dvds, most computer equipment, household chemicals, etc...check the web site, and check your own community's public works department for what they may collect. 

CD Jewel Cases--List these on Freecycle, Craigslist, or try your local library. My library was more than happy to accept them!

CDs and DVDs--if they have data, recycle. If it isn't sensitive, offer on Freecycle or free on Craigslist. You never know what someone may want them for...art, reuse. If they are media, sell on Amazon/Half.com or offer for free on one of the previously mentioned sites. Online services such as Greendisk offer recycling. Having never used them, I can't vouch for what they do, but it's an option to try.

Batteries--Aside from public collections such as DC's, many electronics manufacturers and retailers accept rechargeable batteries for recycling. Also, Radio Shack accepts many types of batteries (lithium ion and that sort, not alkaline) at their stores.

Photo by Maciej Bliziński from Dublin, Ireland on Wikimedia Commons, under the CreativeCommonsShareAlike2.0 license.

 

I mean, it's free...

They say there's no such thing as a free lunch, and that's true but there IS such a thing as free paint, furniture, wood, and just about anything people want rid of. Of course, scavengers and dumpster divers have always known this. But, in the digital age, fortunately for us, there's Freecycle.

Freecycle is an online place to offer and request just about anything (though no medications, illegal stuff, or pets!). It's locally based but you can find yours at Freecycle.org. It's philosophical aim is to keep stuff out of landfills.

I've mostly listed things as offers (though I have gotten stuff too...like my microwave and a Swiffer handle when mine broke). This brings me to the whole point of this post...I managed to offload a few things yesterday including makeup sponges and bug spray that I didn't need. Someone is supposed to pick up makeup today (part of a set, too dark). Small items, yes, but in a small apartment little things make a big difference!

What never ceases to amaze me, however, is how people--to whom you are giving FREE things, i.e. something for nothing, will blow you off. It's ridiculous. I have a zero tolerance policy... If someone blows me off, I give it to someone else!

Anyway I'm making a dent in my mountain of discards. I expect this weekend to see vastly more!

Organizational Therapy

For some reason, starting 2 weeks ago when I hurt my back, I started to organize and clean out like crazy. Every so often, I become afflicted with purge fever, and feel the need to clean out, organize, and reorganize.

My back was injured during the linen closet clean-out. And, because I couldn't actually complete that, I think that fueled the fire. I had to look at the incomplete project with stuff spilling out into my bedroom. Sure way to make me nuts. The only therapy? More organizing!

This weekend saw much much cleaning out. I dragged out the box of "techno trash" I've had in my closet for awhile--an old laptop (inoperable), an old digital camera (also inoperable), old VCR "blank" tapes with TV shows taped on them, my old cell phone, and who knows what else. I also have a bag of rags (basically clothes that are too worn to be donated), a bag with some random housewares and other items.

This weekend, I finally admitted to myself that I probably haven't used my VCR or associated tapes in well over a year. (and probably multiple years--how can I confirm this? See photo.

 

It's hard to let go sometimes. Even when you know that you have absolutely NO use for something. I have walked myself through some of these difficult choices by telling myself that it's nice to release the unimportant things to make ROOM for the things AND the experiences that ARE important.

I'm also working on thinning out some of my books. Books are much harder to let go of than VCR tapes for me. Having books around gives me a sense of comfort. But sometimes, comfort isn't comfortable. I'd say 98% of the books I own I rarely touch let alone read. I think it's OK for some of them--most of my poetry books are nice to have around to pick up every once in awhile, and some have sentimental value to some degree, but for others, there's just no reason. It would be one thing if I had a library in my house, but I don't. I have this:

An ugly second bookcase that cost me $19 at Ikea. I would LOVE to get rid of it to give my apartment some breathing room. I've managed to weed out some books. For now, they're piled on this case awaiting their final fate.

Right now, it looks like I'm getting ready to move (and I'm not!). This is a good thing--I haven't had moving as a motivator for 4 years!  I've piled things in the corner of my bedroom. Next step: finding a place for all my junk!

Christine's Weekend Miscellany

You'll have to excuse me if I'm all over the place. My mind tends to be all over the place these days, which is acceptable since my back has me firmly in one place. I did something (yet to be determined by xrays taken last Thursday) to throw my back out. This has limited my ability to do much. In typical Christine fashion, I not only injure myself but then remain persistent in finishing whatever I was doing. I'm impatient. The back thing happened while I was--surprise!--organizing my linen closet last Sunday. I did stop organizing, but persisted in making steak and potatoes and chickpea-mushroom-brown rice burgers. I have no pictures of the burgers, but I give you chickpeas, which I soaked and cooked the day before the fateful incident.

 

The burgers can only be described as "meh." Need more spice. But, they sustained me all week, and there's something about making stuff from dried beans that makes you feel very frugal.

The burgers must have appealed to someone, because I got home on Wednesday to a bunch of little visitors. Ants. The smallest ants I've ever seen. I put out some Terro liquid (best ant killer EVER), and they went to town.

 

They are now mostly gone. I haven't seen one since Friday. I felt kind of bad as they started to disappear. The remaining ones looked confused, like, "where did our friends go?" Yeah, that remorse lasted about 2 seconds. This reminded me of a thought I had once before when I was ant-killing. I was thinking "Stupid, ants, look at them, can't get enough of that stuff...even though it's going to kill them!" I think I was probably sticking a doughnut in my mouth at this point, and that drove the lesson home quicker than you can say Aesop. We humans put a lot of crap in our bodies that isn't good for us. Something to think about...

So, this weekend, was mostly relaxing and waiting for the back to heal. I did make it to Eastern Market this morning, and bought some pickles. Bread and butter slices!

Because of my back, I resisted getting too much produce, but did buy some blueberries, cucumbers, and peaches to supplement my grocery order set to arrive from Peapod tonight. I had to skip the "eat local" thing today--carrying groceries didn't seem prudent!

Because I was waiting for Eric to come for brunch, I had some time to kill, and found myself ducking in out of the rain and into Hill's Kitchen, a great kitchen store/demonstration kitchen with lessons by Eastern Market. I bought a great cookbook, "The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever." ($25) I plan on trying some recipes out of that soon. I LOVE casseroles--because I can basically cook once and eat all week! And, typically, casseroles tend to be things that reheat well. I rationalized my purchase by saying "Well, if I have a great cookbook, I'll eat at home more!" :)

 

I'll let you know if I find any goodies! Have a great start to the week!

Purging Feels Good

As some of you may know, my company has been having a rough time of it with the economy. Last week, we received an email mid-week announcing that "measures" would be announced on Friday, i.e. layoffs, furloughs, and pay cuts. (What book of management is the "announce but don't announce and let people walk on eggshells for 2 days" idea from?) I was the lucky (and I do mean lucky) recipient of an additional pay cut.

However, before I found this out, I really had no idea. So, I set about taking the time during which I would normally be working and cleaned out my office, just in case. I cleared out more than an entire shelf's worth of paper. My normal "filing" procedure is to stuff all project materials into a magazine file and forget about them. I was amazed at how much I could purge.

I feel SO MUCH LIGHTER this week. Mentally. Partially because I know I have a job for now. But, I also like to think it's in part due to the paper purge. Here's a visual:

   

Many of the magazine files are empty. I am going to try to be more conscientious of the paper I keep around. It really does become a burden that weighs on you.

Impromptu Pantry Reorganization

Because this was so impromptu, I don't have befores (that I know of...I'm sure I do somewhere because I seem to take stupid pictures all the time). I reorganized my pantry so that I could fit 2 cans on top of each other on my third shelf. This is how things in my world happen. I go to look for a can of tomatoes, and next thing I know, I'm pulling out all of my stuff and moving shelves.

   

Not quite a Martha Stewart spread, but neater than it was. And roomy--I have so much more space just from moving the bottom shelf down 2 inches.

A few of my favorite pantry things:

Crystallized Ginger

I bought somefrom Penzey's Spices awhile back and this week, decided to eat it as a sweet treat. So good!

Rosti Containers

From Container Store. I think how they fit together is just so sleek and space-saving.

Bionature Strained Tomatoes

From Whole Foods. I think the main reason I like these is that I used to get tomatoes like this when I lived in England in college and pasta was pretty much all I ate. I make my own tomato sauce with it--with just a little garlic, basil, oregano, and a teensy bit of salt and sugar. Much better than the sodium-laden jarred varieties.

Pyrex

 

I love old colored Pyrex. I got this blue refrigerator dish at Goodwill for $4.99, and I knew I'd break it if I used it as an actual refrigerator dish. So, I have stacked my tea bags in sideways as a tea caddy. It makes me very happy to see them in there. Simple thrills for simple minds.

Home Sick

I was home sick this weekend. Sick with AFFluenza. That affliction many of us have with just having too much stuff. It is true: stuff takes time. I continued the clean out I started with the past few weeks (spurred by my shelves) and threw out loads of papers. I hold on to many papers. It's the hardest thing for me to get rid of. I'm not talking healthcare claims forms and utility bills, I'm talking personal things like notebooks, journals, letters, and memorabilia (which is a very loosely defined term for me). I have managed over the years to dispose of much of what I've collected over the years, but not completely. Though it would be tempting to just dump everything in one fell swoop, I don't want to completely rid myself of everything that holds memories. It's just that there's so much of it, and I have a hard time distinguishing between the important and the "yeah, it happened." I wish I haven't been such a collector over the years. The longer you keep something, the harder it is to let go of. What had ZERO significance somehow snowballs into an extremely meaningful bit of your past.

A major coups this weekend for me was disposing of my calendars. Appointment calendars from 2000 to 2006. Nothing fancy. I think I just liked looking back and remembering certain days. I decided to photograph a few pages. Like this event:

 

A pottery sale that I went to with Erin in August of 2000.

This brings me to another topic. You'd think with "going paperless" and with technology, life would be easier, simpler. In some ways it is. But, there's a whole OTHER problem created: techno trash. Another duty I was engaged in today was trying to sort through all my CDs of computer files and deciding what to keep and what else to archive. Between electronic music, documents, pictures...there's just so much info. And, so much trash. I have a bunch of spent CDs, as well as my old computer and other similar techno flotam and jetsam to find a recycling home for. In some ways, having records/cds was easier, because at least then, you wouldn't find yourself with random multiple copies by accident.

We also deal with advancing technology. For example, my VCR and tapes. I removed all my tapes from the boxes I was storing them in. I don't know why there's even a question, but part of me wants to keep them. Yeah, I like the films, but I literally haven't touched them in over a year. Literally.

So, once again, I'm ending a weekend, and I have piles of stuff yet to deal with--like the tapes, like a bag of random stuff from my clean out to donate, like paper and cds that I have to work on consolidating/cleaning.  Sigh.

I see why some people like to just bring in a dumpster and start throwing. I just want it over. I want the stuff to never have happened. Know what I mean?

Lest I feel defeated, I made progress....bags of papers to prove it:

 

We have shelves!

I have been talking forever about putting up shelving in my gaping maw of a living room closet. I mentioned it here. It has always become a huge repository for something that could only be delicately described as crap. Last week, I bought a hang rail, brackets, and standards at Lowes as well as a third shelf. Dad helped trim one I already had (and had been storing in same closet for years...).

 

My only bit of power tools is a battery-operated drill, so I needed Dad's saw. I also got instruction on using my drill. Turns out, I was using the screwdriver bit as a drill bit, hence the difficulty in drilling. Go figure. Anyway, this weekend, I put up 2 shelves. It was to be three, but there was a bit of an issue with the one I bought at Lowes. It wasn't trimmed straight. Lesson learned: I should have let Dad do both!

I appreciated the benefit of power tools putting the 5 holes into the wall to hold the hang bar, but didn't appreciate the dust.

I hit another glitch when I realized that the standards would hit the board holding the existing shelves in when I tried to insert them. Thank GOD I was able to get them to fit in by pounding them in with a hammer. I put the two that fit up, and filled them with things previously jammed in my coat closet. And here's the result!

Lightening the Load

There is a seemingly endless stream of stuff coming in...and then going out of our lives. If you stop to think about the quantity, it really is quite astounding. I had a bag of stuff to take to Goodwill sitting in my living room for a week or so, so I knew I wanted to get that out the door this weekend. I managed to fill 3 more bags with stuff before going.

I've had a list of things I need to thin out for awhile, including:

Craft supplies--I used to buy these compulsively during my drive home from work. I do use some and fortunately, I don't shop much for them anymore (helps that there isn't a Michaels on my way from work!), but I've realized I have lots I don't use.

Candles and knicknacks--I had a rubbermaid box full of these under my bed. I thinned it out considerably.

A bin full of "not sures"--This included an amusing group of stuff that I'd had a hard time letting go of, including some small stuffed animals, a Gumby and Pokey, an assortment of small plastic thingys (for lack of a better word), a Magic 8 Ball...you get the idea. I was proud of myself for putting most (if not all) of these things into the Goodwill bags. It helped that when I turned the Magic 8 Ball over, it said "Yes," which I took as a sign.

Fabric--Like craft supplies, I like fabric, but I don't sew, really, and I've had a pile of fabric--again, in a bin under my bed--for ages.

I still kept some of the little doodads, but I was happy with my progress. I threw in my old featherbed for good measure which cleared out half of a shelf in my linen closet. My next steps of things to do are listing my old PDA and espresso machine on Craigslist or Ebay, finally giving away the bag of paints that weren't picked up from Freecycle, and trying to sell my pile of fabric on Etsy. I also have to find a place to recycle my computer...

It's definitely a great feeling to let go of things. More than physical space, they take up mental space, always thinking about and organizing things, stumbling over them, moving them, and maintaining them. I always feel a lot lighter after donating things.

Lose 40 Pounds Fast!

Good news! I lost over 40 pounds! In one day! What's my secret? I cleaned out my closet! I had to drag out my summer clothing this weekend when temperatures reached 85 degrees on Saturday. So, what better time than the subsequently rainy Sunday to do some cleaning out? I am somewhat obsessive about tracking what I give away, and not because I ever deduct the donations from my taxes. I think I just like knowing. I got the idea for weighing it from Alana at Prairie Home Therapy. I tried weighing it by itself, but my digital scale wouldn't pick it up. I had to hold it and subtract my weight--hence, why I'm not including a shot of the scale!!!