Earth Day - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Items In Your Home
EPISODE 15
by Dianne Jimenez
This article takes 16 minutes to read
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Earth Day – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Items In Your Home
Hi there friend! Welcome to another episode of the Parenting Guide: Organizing Habits Made Easy Podcast and I’m your host, Dianne.
How’s your week going? I hope it’s going well for you. Whether you’re just trying to keep up with the day to day tasks, or you don’t know where or how to start your organizing journey, I’ve got you covered my friend. Grab my Roadmap here to find out where you are between overwhelm and peace of mind. Because if you feel like you’re drowning in clutter, toys, papers, half-done projects, …stuff! And you want to get out of that state and move forward to a more maintainable home you can tidy up, this roadmap is for you. Grab my Roadmap now
So spring is here, more specifically by the time this episode gets released, it’ll be Earth Day the following day, which falls on April 22nd of every year. This year’s Earth Day theme is “Invest in our planet”
So in today’s episode, I want to share some tips and tricks on how we can Reduce, Reuse and Recycle items in our home to help our planet and keep our home organized at the same time.
Now, just because Earth Day happens only once a year, let THIS year be a marker to start. Or if you don’t know how to go about it, take this episode as a starting point where you can apply these earth-saving habits into your daily life.
Now, I’m not asking or saying for you to implement ALL of these tips or other ones you’ll hear and read about on the internet. But if you can implement ONE thing and try to be CONSISTENT about it for the rest of the year, you’re doing SOMETHING to help.
And, remember that thing I said about Earth Day coming once a year and using it as a marker? Well, by next year, when you’ll already have this year’s habit instilled, you’ll be ready to take on a new earth-saving habit.
Boom! Your journey’s just beginning in helping to make a brighter, more beautiful and safer world ahead.
Every little bit counts.
OK, let’s talk…
REDUCE
You know I’m a BIG proponent for improving our mental health. And being a professional organizer myself, DECLUTTERING, or reducing the amount of clutter in our homes makes a world of a difference for our mental health. So let’s start there:
Reduce the excess stuff in your house that you’re unsure why they’re even there. I’m talking about the stuff that’s kinda useful… or maybe not even, you don’t even know – but they’re just there!
Want to go from 'drowning' to peace of mind?
What am I talking about?
Batteries
Unless you have a battery tester to see if they have a charge or not… or there are just random batteries lying around in random drawers, on shelves, or all over the house for MONTHS, even years untouched.
- Take 10 minutes and collect them all. Make an activity with older kids and have them scour the house for these loose batteries.
- Now, if you have the patience to test each one out, set yourself an hour or 2, and go ahead and do that.
- But if you really don’t have time, do this 1 thing: Drop them all off at a local battery recycling station. We have them at our town hall or town center as well as at the big hardware stores just minutes away. Get them out of your house for good and whatever batteries you DO know are still fresh and good to go, store them in a plastic container and place it in 1 area of your home. For us, it’s in the furnace room. All batteries are there, nowhere else.
Another thing that’s kind of useful, if they don’t bend or snap – And I’m not referring to Legally Blond here, but…
Plastic and wire hangers
You know the ones that lose their shape and form, or they snap into pieces due to heavier or bigger clothes? What about the variety you get when your kids get clothes?
Hangers that can hold multiple pieces, hangers with the clips for the pants, the ones that are too small but still cute, like the ones wrapped in material or pretty plastic beads?
Your kids’ closet ends up looking like the clothes rack after Black Friday: hanging all crooked, barely hanging or on the closet floor. What an eyesore!
Instead of tossing these babies out, someone, somewhere can make use of them.
I know this because just this past weekend, we were at my sister-in-law’s place for Easter dinner and there was a ring at the door. Myself and the other guests looked confused since the whole family was already there.
My sister-in-law clarified that someone was coming over to pick up her youngest daughter’s old plastic hangers. The woman grabbed a huge, black, garbage bag with a smile on her face and drove off.
find out how families with 3+ kids tackle the beast: laundry!
And a final example is the ever growing box or drawers filled with…
Random wires
… or the corner filled with old laptops and tablets? What about a drawer filled with old phones, phone cases and dusty electronics?
It’s the same story as with the batteries. Unless you’re going to designate time to sit there and test them all or see what works with what or even try to sell them online…
If they’ve been sitting there for MONTHS and haven’t been touched except to move it from one chair to the next, it’s time to send them to the electronics recycling station near you. Don’t forget to erase the data and memory from them to remove all things that could be linked back to you and your personal information. This usually entails restoring it to factory settings.
But do take the extra time to erase everything else. I’ve linked “How to wipe your smartphone before selling it (Android and iPhone)” in the show notes as a guide. But do your due diligence and ensure your devices don’t contain any personal information.
Reducing the amount of things we don’t need or use anymore and disposing of them the proper way is a win for the environment, a win for our homes in gaining more space and an automatic win for our mental health. It’s no longer taking up space in your mind.
Alright, let’s keep moving!
REUSE
Over the weekend, my husband, Onnig, was clearing up the lawn and opening up our patio set to get it ready for the warmer season. And under the deck is where we’ve always stored this old, kids-size plastic picnic table.
We acquired it from my mom when we had our first kid. She had gotten it from her neighbor years ago because they were done with it and they knew my mom had grandkids that visit often. These were my brother’s kids who are now young adults.
So now that our youngest is 8 and way too big for this picnic table, we were about to kick it to the curb, then thought…. ‘Hey, let’s keep this thing going. It’s still in great condition!’. So Onnig brought it over next door to the ones with really young kids.
Imagine if the first family didn’t give it to my mom? This picnic table could still be sitting in a landfill 20+ years later. But instead, it’s being given several more years of life at our neighbor’s house.
Another example of reusing things are bags. More specifically plastic bags! Yeah, when you google activities to do for Earth Day, “opt for reusable bags” is all there. But many of us still get plastic bags: Whether milk bags or straight from the groceries, it’s all around us. So instead of tossing them, reuse them over and over and over again!
My Secret Sauce for setting the kids up for success
A client of mine had accumulated so many plastic bags from years of getting groceries online. She felt too guilty to just toss them. So instead, I suggested she reuse them when donating items since we were decluttering a couple of rooms in her home.
She also let me take a few bags off her hands, and was very happy about it too. So, I used them for various things like: my kids carry their inside shoes to and from school when the weather is wet or during the winter months..
And like many kids, as well as adults, this happened to me on numerous occasions: water bottles spilling inside a school bag or in my case, my purse. You’d think I’d learn after the first few times. No. Accidents will happen and it sometimes takes your bag plopping on the floor the wrong way for the spout or lid to pop open and all of a sudden you have a swimming pool no one enjoys, inside your bag.
So, my youngest, he learned real quick. If he HAS to put his water bottle inside of his school bag, and he hesitates on this, he’ll automatically put it inside a plastic bag first! He’ll even double it, if he has to!
With 4 seasons here in Quebec, where a good part of the year it’s pretty wet and slushy, if you’ve got kids, you’ve got wet boots. And with wet boots, comes wet socks! So before we got this drying unit for the boots and mitts, I’ll link it in the show notes so you know what I mean, I resorted to sticking their feet inside plastic bags first, before putting their boots on. This helped especially when their boots didn’t dry overnight despite the number of times they went in the dryer.
And here we are finally…
RECYCLE
Sometimes we get it right, and sometimes we don’t. This is the case at my house at least. My kids are great at participating but they sometimes get a little confused or they forget what’s recyclable and what’s not..
For instance, plastic or plastic-like items – whether it’s yogurt containers, sandwich bags, mesh from the avocado bag or plastic cling wrap. These items constantly get thrown in the recycling and I often have to fish them out and put the appropriate recyclable item IN the recycling bin.
It’s confusing sometimes, I too have to stop and think. And to be honest, sometimes, I’m not even 100% sure. So I did a little search and found this beautiful website, which I’ll link in the show notes, that’s a great refresher on what can be recycled and what can’t.
3 things to establish now before losing your s#!t later on
Not only that, but it gives SO much information on the various services that help our environment. It’s simple, clear and straightforward. What I also love about this site is that there are activities for kids of all ages to learn more about recycling, how they can get involved and start at home with age- appropriate activities of course.
And just a side note, did you know that the cap (for yogurt drinks, coffee cream cartons, etc.) is too small to be recycled? So the best thing to do is keep the caps screwed on to its container, then recycle them together. But don’t forget to wash and dry that container before tossing it in the recycling bin!
And there is a section on the site that tests their knowledge. You know the teacher in me is liking this so much, it got me lit! It’s interactive, educational and designed for our little guys to understand. So head there and check it out alongside your kids. The site is called Republic Services. I’ll post the link to the site in this episode’s show notes.
I’ll be going through it with my kids too and see how they fair with what they know. #familytime !
Ok! Just because I like to give you a little more for the road and keep your ideas flowing, and motivation high, I’m going to add a bonus R word for you.
REPURPOSING
I love repurposing stories. You see a lot of them on TikTok and Instagram Reels, where people find old pieces that others leave at the curb or give away, and they make really beautiful, functional pieces with them!
In the next 2 examples, nothing was refurbished or revamped… just items were used differently, but kept as is.
A few years ago I was thinking of separating the big plant we have at my house. So I got this beautiful ceramic pot for the project. Well… if you know me… it can take several years before I even do that. The good intention and idea are there. The execution though is zero.
Last summer, my mom did all the repotting for me and I assisted her. I’m not a fan of taking care of plants or having flowers in the garden. Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE gardens and flowers, I just don’t want to have to take care of them! As mentioned I DO have plants at home; They just have to be extremely low maintenance and easy to revive (laughs).
So, the beautiful pot I had INTENDED on using was just sitting there in my garage. And when I was reorganizing the shelves and small garden section in our garage, there it was, just staring at me. I always knew it was there, in the back of my mind, waiting for me to take action. Talk about wasted mental real estate right?
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So what were my options? Repotting it? You know the answer to that. I didn’t want to throw it away: what a waste! And I didn’t have the energy to put it up for sale or give it away.
Now usually do. But this time… I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t. I think it unconsciously took up more mental space than it needed to and for quite some time – like years! And now, I didn’t have any more mental space to devote to it. So, I repurposed it.
We use Tide pods when doing laundry . There were 2 bags under our sink in the laundry room that were kind of an eye sore and took up space. It never bothered me before because this wasn’t something I see every day nor did it disrupt everyday life. But I thought about how we move in this space. If I could minimize the amount of activity done here, I’d have saved time and made the space less cluttered looking.
Just to paint a quick picture for you, this is what analyzing the movements in this space entails so as to minimize the amount of activity being done:
- Open the cabinet, bend down, take the bag, unzip it, remove 1 pod, reseal the bag, and bend down again to put it back.
I know, it’s so simple but if you think about it, that’s 6 movements including 2 back bends. Now multiply THAT by the amount of laundry you do every day, multiple times a day! The former athletic therapist in me is screaming: That’s WAY too many opportunities to increase the wear and tear on your back!
So I repurposed this beautiful, (fake) gold trimmed ceramic pot, and emptied all the Tide pods inside. Now, all you gotta do is, bend once to take the pod and then gently kick the door closed to start the laundry. Crazy right? That’s just 2 moves, down from 6!
If it isn’t obvious, I’ll point it out here:
- That’s a huge win for saving time, a win for less physical strain, a win on decreasing my mental load, that’s no longer wasted on that nagging thought! And a win for the environment because it’s 1 more thing not being tossed in the garbage and…. If we can also add here for the environment, it may be a stretch but it CAN contribute to it, less strain on your body means less driving your car to and from, to see your doctor or physical therapist due to back pain!
Boom! The little things add up.
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My final example on repurposing:
When my friend moved from 1 State to another a few years back. It boggled her mind, years after the move, as to why she had a box full of glass food containers but couldn’t find, for the life of her, the lids for these containers! It occurred to her that she never got the box of lids since she moved!
So early in my pro organizing career, she told me that when she decided to reorganize her junk drawers she got the great idea to use the glass food containers as compartments, or structures, to house the different categories inside her drawers! She showed me a picture and I couldn’t be happier and more proud of her work!
I love seeing this, so I’m going to take this opportunity to ask you to let me know via email or by tagging me in your Instagram stories when you DO complete or are in the midst of an organizing project. I want to cheer you on and give you tons of virtual hugs and high-fives. You know what else would be cool? To feature your awesome work on my Instagram feed! This just helps others to do as you do and get organized! So don’t forget to tag @1tidyplace ok?
Alright, my friend, that’s it for me!
I’m so glad you spent some time with me today. I truly hope you found something valuable and actionable in today’s episode. Remember, even though Earth Day falls only once a year, it’s never too late to start making small habit changes in your home that will help shape the world we live in tomorrow.
If during this episode, you thought “hey this is good stuff”, or ANY episode so far, I’d really appreciate you sharing the link via text or email to a friend or 2! By doing this, you’re also helping me help MANY others out there who want to get their home and life organized, 1 step, 1 space at a time. So to that – I thank you.
I appreciate you and your time so much. I hope to see you back here, next week. Bye!
Referenced in this episode
- Get my Roadmap – Go from drowning to peace of mind
- Earth Day 2022 – Invest in our planet
- How to wipe your smartphone before selling it (Android and iPhone)
- Boots & mitts dryer (Little Hotties)
- Republic Services
- Repurposed ceramic pot
- Repurposed glass containers
- Tag me on Instagram with your organizing projects
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