I border on the verge of hoarding. In fact, I don’t watch that hoarder show because I’m kinda scared I might see a lot of similarities between myself and those people.
Yesterday morning, I finished off the last of the orange juice in our fridge and I couldn’t bring myself to throw it away. It wasn’t a regular carton, it was a gallon jug. It was heavy, clear plastic with a great handle and I really thought it could be re-purposed. So I left it sitting on the countertop.
When I came home from work, it was in the pile to go out to the recycling bin. I pulled it out and told Brian that it was a great container—did he think we could use it for something? It would be great to use to fill up the dog’s bowls (even though we have a perfectly good hose) or keep in the car in case of a breakdown (which Brian reminded me—we live in the city—there are people around and I probably won’t be in a place where there is no water).
As I was talking, between hearing myself and seeing his face, I realized…I might be a hoarder. After some laughs, I let it go, but later, I noticed that the jug was gone. He had taken it out to the recycling bin. He says it wasn’t to keep me from saving it, but I wonder…
I CAN throw things away—I just choose to keep them around for a while. Nothing gross, just things like shoeboxes, old sour cream containers (which I DO wash out before using) and little pieces of scrapbook paper—things that I truly do use. At least I don’t rinse out my plastic bags and re-use those—that’s progress, right???
I KNOW—I’m on the verge. So for now, I will continue to pick up the 734 pencils I see on my floor each day and place them back in the drawer. And I might re-use a dryer sheet or two. But, I won’t ask to save plastic jugs anymore.
What thing(s) do you save that you would be embarrassed for people to know about? C’mon—it will be therapeutic to spill the beans…
1 comment:
This was a fun read, Angel. But cut yourself some slack. There's a big difference between being a hoarder and trying to avoid being wasteful. Take your orange juice container example. Absolutely it's a responsible thing to reuse/repurpose/reccyle that container. To me this would only verge on hoarding if you already had a bunch of them piled up somewhere that you already weren't using. I too keep reusable food containers. And yes, I'll actually even occasionally rinse and re-use a ziplock baggie.. especially if it's relatively "clean" after the first use. I think shows like hoarders can be great for helping us recognize a problem if we see unhealthy behaviors. But being thrifty, environmentally conscious and trying not to waste, those are not signs of hoarding. My house is clean, it has lots of empty space (I tend to be a bit of a minimalist), but I definitely look for opportunities to re-use. I think the key difference is whether or not you hold on to things in a way that is actually useful. i.e. if I never throw a gift box away, yet when it's time to wrap a present, I have to go to the store and buy a new one because I don't know where in my house to dig for a gift box - that is hoarding. If I need to wrap a present and go to a shelf in my closet where I have stored used gift boxes, shoe boxes or whatever, grab one and re-use it... that's just smart. Don't let fear of being a hoarder scare you away from thrifty, planet friendly practices.
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