Monday, June 14, 2010

To have and to hoard


I am so messy. Something that has struck me lately is that messiness leads to needless consumption, and waste. Because when I'm messy, I can't find things, and/or I forget that I had them in the first place. So then I end up needing to buy more things - that I wouldn't have had to, if I'd been more neat! This goes for the dismal state of our pantry, to our woeful bathroom cabinet, to the 'stationary drawer' which has somehow turned into a 'stationary room' - in manner of opening door, closing our eyes, and tossing things in that we can't be bothered putting away (now exacerbated by the fact that the state of said room has deteriorated to such a state that we're embarassed to look at it, and wouldn't be able to find the drawer to put things away in it even if we wanted to).
I've come across some really interesting blogs pertaining to sustainability and 'simple living' lately. Some strike a tone of 'thou-shalt-not'-ness which jars a little for me (and I agree with them - imagine the response of those who don't! Hardly receptive, I would think). Anyway, the point is one particular blog I've come across is written by an Australian woman who has vowed not to buy ANY clothes for one year - a 'fashion fast' (see link below). She has also recently committed to not purchase any more pantry items until her cupboards are bare. I like this idea. I think I'll try applying it to my bathroom cabinet, which bears an embarassing excess of various duplicate lotions and potions (I didn't like the smell of this one, that one made my hair frizzy....etc). Its self indulgent really, isn't it? And a waste of money to boot.
I might even clean out that stationary room one of these days too.

1 comment:

  1. hey - i have not tried this myself (nor am i sure about how relevant it is!!) but a friend recommended it, so i thought i would share. i understand that the basic premise is that you get into the habit of small bits of cleaning/tidying so that your house is never more 15 mins away from being perfectly clean and tidy. this friend swears by it! http://www.flylady.net/
    xxx

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