Spring-cleaning

This is the time of year of new beginnings. Mother Earth has shed her shroud of wintry death and come to life once more. That's right, spring is here and with it comes time for spring-cleaning. As many know, spring-cleaning is when you take some time to sort through the mountain of things obtained throughout the last 12 months and decide what stays and what goes. It follows the assumption that we've consumed needlessly and because of this, we have more than we need.

Now, some people choose to rid themselves of their belongings through a mechanism called a Garage Sale. No, no one is trying to sell there garage, though some people do have too many of them, they simply pack all their unwanted things into the garage to have a sale. I myself have attended many of these events and at a time, I once held such an event myself. Anyone who has ever attended a garage sale can tell you this, in fact I mentioned it earlier in this rant, the items at a garage sale are un-needed things. Sure, you might find something interesting, you may even find something rare, perhaps you'll find a great deal you just can't pass up. One thing is for sure, you don't need it. If you needed it, you would have gone out and bought it months ago, that's what people do in our culture.

Now if you are not the type to hold a garage sale or you simply don't have a garage to sell out of you have a few other options. You could donate your belongings to a charitable society who in turn will sell them back to people just like you and me to help fund their cause. You could use a web service such as Freecycle or Kijiji, craigslist, ebay... the list goes on and on.

Another seldom thought of means of trinket disposal is to use a local auction house though it should be noted that items often are grouped for a sale and once the buyer has hold of the item they actually wanted many things end up tossed before the end of the day.

Since the vast majority of the items you are trying to dispose of could easily be cast into the category of JUNK, perhaps what is needed is a trip down repurpose lane. Bed sheets could become reusable grocery bags or covers for the plants in your garden. Old silverware could be turned into a beautiful wind chime. Yesterday's gift basket can be turned into a comfy place for a cat to sleep. The only limit is your imagination.

When you do your spring-cleaning this year try to keep everything, you can from going to the landfill. And this year try to keep from acquiring the un-needed.