So, my 365 adventure begins today. The game is to send on its way 1 item for each day of 2012, thus leaving my life 365 items emptier by the end of the year. And for every new item I acquire, 2 must go.
I’ll post photos of the things that I’m releasing into the wild as I go, just for your curiosity.
I believe in the three Green Rs “Repair, Re-use, Recycle”, so I won’t be just slinging my stuff in the town dump. I will consider mindfully each thing, and try to relocate it with someone who would be pleased to have it in their home – e.g. even some of the junkier bits I have put together to make up a Crafts Bag and free-cycled for a hard-pressed mama to keep her brood occupied over the holidays. I entirely concur with Jonathan Porritt’s words about throwing things away: “There is no such place as ‘Away’.”
I should make clear that since I decided to do this a few days ago I’ve been enthusiastically gathering stuff that I can move along, and found homes for some of it already so, though the photos will appear through 2012, those of you who know me personally may spot an item and think “Wait . . . what? But it’s May 23rd and she gave me that thing back at the end of December. . .” An item for each day of the year is what I’m aiming for, rather than an item on each day of the year. I numbered each thing as I photographed it, so the items will be logged in the order I photographed them rather than in the order I’m giving them away.
I hope during this year to really make a habit of this so that my daily living becomes less cluttered, with a view to moving on in 2013 to include packaging into the game of getting rid of 2 things for every thing I bring into the house – which should certainly teach me to bear in mind that a plastic yoghourt pot is just as solid a thing as a Ming vase! That feels like too big a struggle for where I am at the moment though, but I’ll try to keep it in my Far Horizon sights in the hope of scaling down my uptake of packaging as we travel through 2012.
Just to link you in with someone else who’s decided to accept the same challenge, you can see how Julie is getting on with her 365 de-clutter over at her blog Just Julie B.
So here we go, then.
For DAY 1, my first item-to-go is a funky pair of feather earrings. These went as part of a craft kit for two little girls embarking on home-schooling. Their mother blogs over at Brigid’sPilgrim.
