Sustainable Organizing: Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
Earth Day is April 22, but there’s no reason to wait until that day to consider sustainable organizing. Decluttering and organizing often involves ridding yourself of things you no longer use or need. What you do with all of that is another story. The earth is not often thought of as a member of this organizational process, but what you do with your clutter and how you go about organizing can have a massive impact on the environment. Your impact can be positive, however, by paying attention to your methods and tools for decluttering.
Sustainable Reorganizing: Repurpose, Recycle, Donate
When you’re decluttering your space, you have to do something with all the clutter you’ve decided to remove from your life. It would be very easy to simply throw it all away, but that will cause unnecessary additions to landfills and promote waste. Instead, sort your items into what might be repurposed, recycled, or donated. Maybe you have extra sets of bedding that your friend could use for their sewing project, or clothes that can be donated to a thrift store. Whatever it is, try and use the garbage can as a last resort. Clothes are one of the worst things to send to the landfill; even if you have clothes or blankets that aren’t suitable for humans, your local animal shelter may be able to use them.
Invest in Eco-Friendly Cleaning Supplies
For better or for worse, organizing and decluttering often also come with cleaning. Cleaning supplies are often advertised as being hyper specific. That’s all it is though – advertising. Investing in dozens of different cleaners for every specific item doesn’t make your house cleaner. More often than not, it just contributes to poor air and water quality. Instead of wasting money on dozens of different cleaners, invest in eco-friendly cleaning supplies such as those from Blueland. Not only will you make the environment happier, but you’ll save space in your cupboards by reducing the number of cleaning products you have to store.
Utilize Eco-Friendly Organizing Tools
Along with investing in eco-friendly cleaning supplies, you can also find eco-friendly organizing tools. These range from bamboo desk organizers to reusable food storage bags. Day-to-day organizing often relies on single-use plastic and disposable convenience items. If you’re looking to organize with the environment in mind, look at ways you can minimize your reliance on single-use items. This doesn’t always require purchasing new tools. You might find it fun to knit or crochet reusable produce bags or reuse old jars as containers for small items or loose odds and ends. There is a great level of creativity that can be involved in choosing environmental organizing practices, and it can turn into a lot of fun!
Understand your Carbon Footprint
Part of sustainable organizing is understanding and reducing your carbon footprint. Even in your own home, you can reduce your carbon footprint by being more thoughtful about how you use energy. Turn off and unplug unused appliances. Switch to low-watt, long lasting lightbulbs. Install solar panels to offset your energy consumption.
In fact, the theme for this year’s Earth Day is OUR POWER, OUR PLANET. The goal is to get everyone around the globe to unite behind renewable energy, and to triple the global generation of clean electricity by 2030. According to EarthDay.org,
“Renewable energy is a powerful unifying force, bringing together diverse countries, regions, states, and communities that are often polar opposites, politically and economically. Clean energy transcends ideological boundaries, showcasing the universal appeal of affordable energy.”
The ability for one person to make an environmental difference through sustainable organizing is often underappreciated. But the decisions you make when it comes to organizing and decluttering can have a big impact on the environment and the world around you. Your actions can make a difference, and as more people are willing to make different choices, the more we can make a difference together.