Creative Re-purposing

When we talk about green organizing, one of the biggest principles we follow is re-purposing items you already own. They might not be working in their current role, but often, just giving an old item a new role gives it new life and helps to solve your organizing needs without spending any money, acquiring anything new, or getting rid of something old.

Here are some examples of re-purposing I've used with clients recently:

1) Taking a shoe shelf that wasn't being used in the closet and putting it by the front door where shoes were sprawled all over the floor (an example of simply relocating an item to where it's more useful).

2) Using an empty tissue box to corral a drawer full of empty plastic bags to be re-used. This example also saves lots of space. If you re-use plastic bags, containing them is very important and a tissue box works wonders to contain lots of bags in a small space.

3) Using rolling mesh bins being underutilized in a toy room to contain balls and other sporting goods in the garage. The rolling feature made them much more useful in the garage where they can be rolled out on the driveway for easy play. Their larger size also made them more useful for larger items like balls and water toys, rather than small items in a toy room.

Real Simple likes this idea of re-purposing so much that they have a regular feature in the magazine, a web page, and even a new book dedicated to New Uses for Old Things. Check it out for some creative solutions to common household issues. Some of the ideas I find a bit far-fetched, but some of them are absolutely brilliant...in any case, there's no doubt they will get you thinking!

Bottom Line: Next time you're re-organizing a space, think creatively about what you already own. You just might find you have what you needed all along. And don't be afraid to use things unconventionally - if it works for you, that's all that matters! What examples of re-purposing have you used recently?

Recycling CDs and Other Technotrash

I recently decided to downsize my CD collection since it had been sitting untouched under my desk in one of those old giant CD 'binders' for years - the contents of this wooden CD crate are all that remain. But I was left wondering what to do with all my unwanted CDs. It turns out that there are a number of options for recycling your old CD/DVDs. I used a favorite green site, www.earth911.com, and discovered that my local Best Buy has recycling bins at the front of the store for CDs, batteries and cell phones - who knew?! On another note, I also recently brought an old desk top computer that was simply collecting dust to the Geek Squad desk at Best Buy where they happily took it all (I removed the hard drive first) off my hands to recycle. They charged a $10 fee for the monitor, but gave me a $10 gift card in return.

Back to the CDs, here are some other 'technotrash' recycling options I have recently seen recommended by other professional organizers.

http://cdrecyclingforfree.com/

http://www.greendisk.com/

I love GreenDisk's slogan: "because good planets are hard to find"

Here are some interesting CD/DVD tidbits from cdrecyclingforfree.com:

CD/DVD Recycling Facts

• A cd/dvd is considered a class 7 recyclable plastic
• To manufacture a pound of plastic (30 CDs per pound), it requires 300 cubic feet of natural gas, 2 cups of crude oil and 24 gallons of water
• It is estimated that AOL alone has distributed more than 2 billion CDs. That is the natural gas equivalent of heating 200,000 homes for 1 year
• It is estimated that it will take over 1 million years for a CD to completely decompose in a landfill

Think about what technotrash you have cluttering your home and office, check out the resources above and do something about it! And by all means, let us know if you have other recycling resources to share.

Simple Steps

While many people think of recycling their bottles, cans, and paper as simple steps to help the planet (and they are!), there are also simple ways to reduce your impact while you organize your home or office.

1) Buy less stuff! Sounds so simple, right? And it is! Think twice before each purchase you make - will the item enhance your life and contribute to the space you are trying to achieve? The less stuff you own, the less you have to maintain, clean, and get rid of down the road.

2) Donate, don't dumpster! I live in a large building and so often see large quantities of seemingly usable household items in the trash. While it's an organizing must to get rid of items that are no longer needed in your space, that doesn't mean someone else can't use them. There are lots of charities and thrift stores out there that will gladly accept gently used household items. Simply 'Google' charities or donation sites in your area to find out what they will take. Some will even pick items - bonus!

3) Get creative and reuse what you have! It can be expensive in addition to wasteful to buy new things every time you embark on an organizing adventure. See if there are new and creative ways to use items you already have. This doesn't mean you should keep things around that you don't love or need - just think outside the box. For example, two mesh filing crates I wasn't using have been repurposed as recycling bins in my house. And to think, I almost bought new recycling containers?!

These are just a few ideas - let us know your favorites!

Keep, Donate, Toss and RECYCLE

When you are conquering the clutter separate your items into keep, donate, toss and recycle. Your goal is to reduce your toss pile by increasing your donate and recycle piles. It is amazing that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. Tap into your local resources to see what items can be reused or recycled. EARTH911.org is a great search engine to find your local recycling resource.

Paper Recycling

Does your office have a paper recycling program? If not, it's easy to set one up. There are many recycling companies that will pick up barrels of paper for a small fee. In Massachusetts, I am a fan of Earthworm recycling. But, there are companies nationwide. All you need to do is make a phone call, order some plastic recycling bins (or put a sign on regular trash bins to designate them as paper only), and put them under everyone's desk. I first did this at a small company (40 employees) I worked for 10 years ago. A few people teased me, and my boss was reluctant, but I pushed for it and got the program going. The first month the recycling program sent me a report. We had saved 35 trees that month (that's almost one tree per person!). The company still uses the system today. In 10 years – that's over 4,200 trees saved! All I did was take initiative. You can, too!