Earth Day serves as an important reminder of the significance of the planet we inhabit. How well have you been treating the Earth over the past year? Have you thought about it at all? I reflect on it every day in everything I do. When you help people purge all day, you think about it a lot. I’m far from perfect and often use items that aren’t the best for the planet. However, acknowledging this is a starting point. By thinking about my impact, I can explore alternatives and find ways to become a better steward of our Earth. That is all I ask of you. Just start thinking about it. You’ll learn there are so many ways to change your habits that are not that difficult.
I started with cleaning/beauty products because they seemed easy for me to change. For example, I buy hand soap from BlueLand, which makes it so convenient! I order supply tablets from BlueLand and keep them on hand. They also sell glass jar dispensers. All I have to do is add water to the tablets, and I have my hand soap ready to use. I no longer buy hand soap at the store. It feels really good not to contribute more plastic to landfills!
I recently started purchasing facial cleanser at a local refill store in my town called Eco-Inspired. I bought a glass container, and whenever I’m running low, I bring it back to the store for refills. As a result, I no longer buy new bottles of facial cleanser. I also began buying laundry detergent there. Now, I refill my laundry detergent as needed. This practice greatly reduces the number of plastic bottles I would otherwise contribute to a landfill if I didn’t change my habits!
Making these small changes feels good, and I have so much more planned. Changing my habits gradually is less overwhelming, allowing me to discover whether I enjoy the changes before fully committing to them. I am progressing at my own pace and making meaningful improvements. Establishing a routine for regular refills has been a challenge, but I’ve found a way to incorporate it into my schedule. Each time I visit the refill store, I learn something new, and I enjoy trying different products!
If you don’t have a refill store near you and you don’t feel you can start buying eco-friendly cleaning/beauty products, there is something you can do (or NOT do). Stop shopping! Ok, hear me out.
The number of items we purchase each year is immense, and unfortunately, this does not benefit our planet. In fact, if we were to gather all the items ever made, sort them, and distribute them among everyone on Earth, I am confident that we would not need to produce anything new ever again. Nevertheless, we continue to manufacture items at an alarming rate. If we reduced our shopping, it could greatly benefit both the planet and our lives.
Shopping is a widely popular activity, but what if we explored alternatives? Instead of shopping, we could hike, swim, exercise, play music, cook, bake, write, or simply spend quality time together. As a professional organizer, I witness firsthand the fate of the items we purchase. Often, we end up not using them, leading us to regret our spending. Many of us donate these items or, worse, throw them away. Imagine how much richer we would all feel if we bought less.
There are three types of items I want to encourage you to stop buying. These items I find in every home I work in. They always end up getting donated or thrown away. They create an immense amount of clutter in our homes and rarely add value to our lives. In fact, they often bring us frustration and guilt.
Home Decor
Home decor is a massive industry, encompassing items like lamps, mass-produced artwork, vases, trinkets, artificial flowers, and plants, among others. Influenced by TV shows, magazines, and the aspiration to live a luxurious lifestyle, we tend to purchase decorative items for our homes at an alarming rate. However, these items can create clutter, increase our cleaning tasks, and once they go out of style, we feel compelled to replace them.
Many home decor items are made of plastic, are cheaply produced, and often break easily. We frequently buy these items without considering where they will fit in our homes. My suggestion is to stop buying these decor items altogether. Try it for a month, two months, or even longer. You will likely find your home less cluttered, and you’ll be helping the planet by reducing unnecessary purchases!
Kids Toys
Kids’ toys can be a burden for many of my clients. Their homes are filled with toys to the point that some rooms become unusable. Most kids’ toys are made of plastic and tend to have a short lifespan, as children grow up quickly and outgrow their toys. This leaves many toys lying around unused.
When it comes to toys, I recommend buying second-hand. I’ve also noticed with my son that he enjoyed the simplest things the most, such as pencil and paper, making forts with blankets or cardboard, building towers with wooden blocks, and playing with bubbles! We have been led to believe that our children need educational toys for them to be smarter, but I don’t buy into that hype. Keeping the toys simple helps them use their imagination.
Craft Supplies
I am an avid crafter, so this topic is particularly relevant to me. I love being creative; it makes me happy to create something from nothing. However, it’s easy to accumulate a large number of craft supplies with the intention of making something amazing, only to find out that the project is too difficult, requires too much time, or simply isn’t as enjoyable as I had hoped. In fact, I clear out more craft supplies from the homes I organize than any other type of item.
Craft supplies tend to pile up, often going unused as we intended, and can be challenging to donate, which means they often end up in landfills. I don’t want to discourage anyone from crafting, but I do encourage you to limit what you buy. This can be difficult because it’s hard to discover your true talent without the right tools.
However, before you buy, consider the craft supplies’ end of life. What will you do with the items you end up not using? Perhaps you can donate them to a local children’s museum, school, or senior living community. Alternatively, do you have a friend who has similar supplies so you can try crafting before making a purchase? You might also consider taking a class first to see if you enjoy it. Rethink your approach to crafting and avoid shopping for supplies unnecessarily.
Let’s do our part to give Mother Earth a breather. She works hard for us. Let’s do the same for her!
