A Generation of Non-Cleaners

If you stain your couch, what do you do? Do you pat it firmly with white vinegar, or use a formula of baking soda and seltzer and salt and a scrub brush? Or do you leave it, bothered, and eventually replace the couch? Most people don't expect you do darn your socks or repair your stockings, but what about the rest of your things?

I think one of the great contributors to the consumerism of our times is simply that we have never learned to clean, and we are generally taught that it takes too long, anyway.

This bears quite a bit on understanding the mentality of many of my clients, who are of the Depression generation, or raised by those who were. Out of necessity everything was salvageable, and even if you personally didn't know how to fix it, You might need it someday so you'd find someone who could.

It is probably not possible to teach everyone to clean, because time is such a commodity these days. Cleaning and reusing our stuff would save our landfills, our space, and our money. But, in the meantime, let's at least pass the stuff on to those who can enjoy it (and might be able to repair/clean it).

More on this topic soon.

Let's reuse, and here's to cleaning!

How little is enough?

Yesterday I met a happy man with very little.

One day he decided he was too much of an "anchor," and decided to get rid of it all. Discarding/recycling everything from clothes to old letters, he kept only a bicycle with some spare parts, a backpack with a few items such as a thermos he had found, some photos, music, and a pair of shoes. What he has left is him (and a slender self, at that).

"Perhaps I went overboard getting rid of everything," he admitted, but smiled when I asked him how it's going. "Good, I feel provided for. There are so many things around...and they're accessible when I need them."

The weight, the sighs, the head shakes I see when clients, friends and family speak of their lives. The overwhelm! Yet this man speaks calmly, walks gracefully, travels lightly, and enjoys each meal he eats. He is not picky or worried.

Were we all to clear even a tiny bit of the things weighing us down, how much lighter our steps would be, how much higher the quality of our days.

Here's to the clarity and peace of mind that comes with less.

No bag is better than a reused bag

Please help the stores and your peers understand something for which I suffer passionately: No bag is better! (or at least equal).

The idea of saving resources and reducing our carbon footprint will go farther faster if we are purists. Purity is about ideals. Ideally, I wouldn't be shlepping things around with me. Why bring a bag if I don't need one? That's how things fill up- because they're there.

The less we use, the better for ourselves and the environment.

I am very happy that stores are beginning to offer a tiny discount of a few cents if you bring a bag. However, that discount is not extended if you refuse a bag. Why not? I have discussed this with many a cashier or customer service representative who, rolling their eyes, explained that I did not get a discount for bringing a bag because I did not bring one. True enough, but the discount is for the very concept of saving resources. It is about retraining. If we are taught that we must pay to have baggage, we will Definitely have less literal baggage, and subsequently less metaphorical baggage.

My dream is that the States follow Ireland, and start charging 25c/plastic bag. Watch how quickly people learn to bring their own, or politely refuse.

No bag, thank you!