Spring Clean-Out Challenge – is (nearly) Zero Waste possible?

It’s Spring time and I’ve got a cluttered house full of things that we don’t use, don’t need or might even be broken.

There are things that I’ve kept, even though they’re broken because I just don’t think that they should go in landfill. But with three kids, a business to run and my own life too, I just don’t seem to get around to shifting all that stuff. So it hangs around – like a toothache – reminding me, on my way to lie on the couch, that there are still jobs to be done and I really should clean out that cupboard rather than watching re-runs of The Big Bang Theory.

Clutter is a drain on your energy – possessions, stuff, need to be cared for, dusted around, packed away. I’m not advocating a possession-free existence, but I’m going to try to de-clutter some of the un-needed things from our house.

I’ve decided to try to challenge myself to throw NOTHING from my Spring Clean Out in the bin.  I’m talking about clearing out the cupboards here – not our day-to-day rubbish, that’s a separate challenge that I’ll try to work on too. This is the stuff at the back of the cupboards.  hings like old electrical cables, makeup, clothes that are too shabby to go to the Op Shop, broken kettles, broken lamps, a broken smoke detector, half-tins of paint just to mention a few.

I’d love your ideas on how to recycle some of the things I find, where to take them and your inspiration to keep going (rather than watching Big Brother).

There are a few, self-imposed, rules and caveats to my challenge:

Rules

• I’ve got all of Spring (so that’s a whole 3 months til the end of November)
• I’m going to go through every cupboard in our house and clear it of anything that we definitely don’t need anymore or that’s broken – this is not a mass cleansing, if we think we need it, we keep it, if it’s got sentimental value, we keep it
• I’m going to try and throw NOTHING in the bin – (see exception list below)

Caveats

The following things can go in the bin & recycling bin:

• Anything that can go in the ordinary recycling bin (cardboard, paper, glass bottles, aluminium cans etc) – although I’ll brush up on my recycling bin knowledge from my local council
• Totally feral things (most likely found in my 11-year-old son’s room) can be disposed of
• This challenge doesn’t include our normal daily household waste (food scraps, non-recyclable food packaging – that will be a separate challenge that I might get the chance to include in my posts too

So, enough talk, time to get started!

My first job is to put a line of boxes and bags, into our spare room, so I can sort the items out as I find them. I’ve got some scrap paper (from those oh-so-many one-sided notices that come home from school with my kids on a regular basis) and I’ll label each box/bag as I go.

So wish me luck!  My next job is to find out what I can and can’t put in the recycling bin – post coming soon!