Living a more environmentally sound life is a wonderful thing. It benefits you, your family, your neighbors and helps put a few more tokens in the machine, so to speak, to keep this planet running.
But, is there a downside to going green? On a larger scale, the benefits of repurposing and reusing certainly come out on top, but beware: there are some pitfalls.
Pitfalls to repurposing – Know them, avoid them
Creating clutter. Is your repurposing habit turning into a hoarding habit? When every last inch of your cabinets and closets is filled with empty jars, butter tubs, bottle caps and wine corks, scraps of cardboard, holey socks and — what, you mean there’s more?? If this sounds like your house, it’s time to put a method to your madness.
- Find a designated spot to store items marked for reuse. When this spot is full, that’s it!
- Put a time limit on how long to keep things. If you haven’t found a new use for the toilet paper rolls, empty pasta boxes or baby food jars in 6 months or 10 months (please, no longer than a year), it’s time to recycle or freecycle.
Forgetting to reduce. “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” isn’t just a catchy phrase, it’s an ordered set of instructions. If your household is constantly overrun with excess stuff, it’s time to reduce the amount of waste you create. Here are a few simple ideas you can put into practice today:
- Buy in bulk. It reduces packaging waste and saves time and money.
- Avoid convenience-sized anything. Resist the temptation to buy cute little snack packs! Not only are they more expensive, but they create an excessive amount of paper and plastic waste. Buy larger bags/boxes and portion out snacks in reusable containers.
- Buy used. If you’ve never stepped foot in a thrift or consignment store, now is the time to start. Thrift stores house hidden treasures of high quality clothing and household items. The next time you need something, check out a couple of local thrift stores before visiting your regular retail shops. Want some tips? Check out these helpful articles.
- Invest in your purchases. When possible, spend a little more money on items like clothing, appliances and furniture. Higher quality items last longer, which saves you money and reduces waste.
Repurposing too soon. You wouldn’t dump out a full jar of pickles just because you needed the jar. Likewise, don’t cut up your spouse’s favorite pair of jeans just so you can make a cool new craft. If the item in question is still being used for its original purpose, leave it be.
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.”
–Albert Einstein
Repurposing is meant to be a method to simplify your life and reduce your impact on the environment. If going green is making you blue, don’t get discouraged; take a few moments to rethink and reorganize to make it work for you.
Photos by lisabatty and maistora.
How do you keep repurposing simple in your house?
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What a great blog – just popped over from Mrs Green’s site. And what fantastic tips. My thing at the mo, is collecting jam jars ready for the summer. Most other things end up in my children’s craft box. Anyway am off to add you to my list of Garbloggers right now, as I’m sure my blog readers will also find this a fabulous resource.
thank you for writing this post and I think it rings true and needs to be adheard to more often. RRR should be the goal in that order…thanks for the reminder.
[...] When is “green” too much of a good thing? — from Repurposeful [...]
[...] be sorted later and never getting around to it. Cara at Repurposeful has a great article about the pitfalls of going green. In it, she talks about “creating clutter”, “forgetting to reduce” and [...]
Thanks for the link love! Glad you like my site. Jars holding food are perfect to reuse as… jars for food! So simple & smart!
I agree, we ALL need the reminder. It’s easy to get caught up with the day-to-day and forget the priority. Thanks!
I have a bag in the bottom of my wardrobe into which gets put any items of clothing which although clean cannot be used as rags etc. DS2′s school has a collection at least twice a year for http://www.bags2school.co.uk and they get paid by weight.
I also have the usual box of empty jam jars etc waiting for “jam season”.
And stacks of marg tubs on top of the freezer for using as freezer storage.
Yogurt pots if we have any go into school for use as glue or paint pots.
Egg boxes/trays go back to the farm where I buy my eggs for continued re-use.
I love rummaging in charity shops(thrift stores) for things.
Sorry that should be
http://www.bag2school.com .
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[...] May 22, 2009 by Cara (repurposeful) I’m at the point where I’ve collected too many jars. How do you know when you have too many? When you open the cabinet and one of your [...]