Before we can have an honest conversation about how to stop wasting food, we need to look at some statistics. Did you know that just one quarter of all wasted food could feed the 795 million undernourished people around the world who suffer from hunger (source)?? What about the fact that In the USA, 30-40% of the food supply is wasted, equaling more than 20 pounds of food per person per month (source)?
If you have a kid, you’ll need to know this at some point.
Apparently when I was a year old I scribbled all over my dad’s new brand new lazy-boy with a ball point pen. Fortunately, ink is pretty easy to remove if you know how. (My parents still had that chair, and it was ink-less, until I was about 16.)
Deciding what to get rid of is THE HARDEST PART of decluttering. (I am so wishy-washy… if I don’t take that box or bag RIGHT to the thrift store, stuff sneaks back out of it.) Sometimes you just need simple inspiration about what you can get rid of to help you get started and that’s what today is about.
There’s good reasons why the decluttering movement is such a BIG one.
In our current consumer driven age, it’s not hard to find yourself buried in piles of stuff – without even realizing it’s happening!
During any stressful or turbulent time in our lives or when we simply begin to feel overwhelmed by the chaos, it’s natural to look for something we can physically take control of.
You can see that I have, in fact, got an organizational system in place under the bathroom sink. I’ve implemented some of the best and most popular tricks around, like making use of the upward space with shelves and buying cute little baskets from the dollar store (sarcasm? Even I can’t tell…).
And you can see that I have totally ignored that system and piled crap anywhere and everywhere under the sink where crap would fit.
It might seem contradictory that I can claim love for “lazy-girl” cleaning hacks, and still state that I am living on purpose. But I think “living on purpose” can mean that we accept that we can’t do it all. So we choose to do the absolute best that we can, and we prioritize.
I love setting my purse down on the clean counter, and standing there NOT feeling overwhelmed by mess. (Maybe you’ve always had a clean kitchen, in which case you might not totally relate to what I’m about to say here. But if you’re reading this there’s a good chance that maybe you don’t always have a clean kitchen…)
I often (really – I do mean often) gather a box of stuff that I have decided I can part with and I feel so much lighter and happier when it’s out of the house. Seriously!
Why? Because once I was drowning in clutter. Too much stuff. And I will not ever go back to that.
Claiming that anything is “life changing” is pretty cliche, I know. It’s the sort of statement we throw around, but it doesn’t really mean anything…
So I should really call this post something else, but I’m struggling to come up with anything less cliche that could actually convey just HOW MUCH this simple change in my habits has improved my life at home.
Ever stumble upon a tiny particular area of your home that makes you stop short with the realization that you live with grossness? Things you aren’t cleaning – but should be?