Weekly weigh in twenty six

Filed in Blog by on November 27, 2008 8 Comments
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weigh in 26We were doing so well with this week’s weigh in and then I went and had one of my ‘good ideas’. Actually, it was more of a ‘we really need to do this before the house is condemned’ type idea.

You see, this morning i walked into my kitchen annexe and was confronted with this:
annexe for recycling
This room is a bit like a garage for temperature and dampness, so understandably, it’s a ‘grab-and-go type of room, only ours is more of a ‘dump and go’ room.

It stores our recycling, our landfill box and packet foods and tins as well as a fridge and freezer. It’s not a pretty sight is it? And although I can shut a door on it and run screaming each time I have to go in there, it’s not good for my feng shui or my sanity.

Little Miss Green was in helpful mode, so she fetched and carried, toiled and tarried and we packed up the car with recycling.

The thing is, as we all know, a good declutter can lead to a bit of a strain on the landfill by throwing up tiresome bits of plastic and all manner of dustbin demons.

In our landfill box this week we have:

2 crisp packets
one cereal box inner
1 sultanas bag which is a type 7 – Happy Shopper; won’t be buying those again.
A bread rolls bag because I haven’t yet been brave enough to bake my own rolls
some plastic packaging from a stationary set LMG was bought this week – tsk tsk; you know who you are 😀

Then in the annexe I found

A plastic vending machine cup – WTF?? That baby must be about 10 years old; I seriously cannot remember where that came from! It has no code on it, so into the landfill it goes.
A plastic clip from a hanger – go figure. I thought about sticking a magnet on the back and putting it on the fridge to hold notes, but did I actually do it? Of course not…….
An ice cream container lid that has been orphaned from the container many moons ago
A teeny weeny plastic bag with no code – goodness knows where that came from
A plastic protective seal that finally came off my oven door handle this week

And I didn’t even venture into Mr Green’s drawers – well I mean; who would?

All in all it’s not a bad week at 66 grams. I’m thrilled with that, considering we’d done some decluttering too. This week we’ll be tackling the toy cupboard, so that might prove interesting and next weeks weigh in might be mighty voluptuous.

About the Author ()

I am a long time supporter of the Green and Sustainable lifestyle. After being caught in the Boscastle floods in 2004, our family begun a journey to respect and promote the importance of Earth's fragile ecosystem, that focussed on reducing waste. Inspired by the beauty and resourcefulness of this wonderful planet, I have published numerous magazine articles on green issues and the author of four books.

Comments (8)

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  1. That’s great going Mrs G…love the look of the annex LOL. It’s incredible how long rubbish can hang around for…I’m dreading going in the attic. I know there will be boxes upon boxes of stuff from when I used to run kids workshops. 😀 x

  2. Layla says:

    WOW! Just 66 grams!! :))

    I feel just guilty about even reading about the stuff to throw away.. so I guess you know how I feel about decluttering too!! :))
    I bet if everyone had to write down exactly what they throw away there would be less waste/landfill too..!!

    About toys – maybe some neighbours’ kids or distant cousins or charities could appreciate any?

  3. esther says:

    gosh, it’s decluttering time, here too! I’ve started of with all the kids boxes with toys and stuff….a third of it, goes to charity…1 third, they’ll keep and hélas…one third is beyond repair, or missing stuff….half of that part, is paper, wood or other recycleble things…but the rest…I’m afraid, will have to go to landfill (ouch!!) and elieve me, it weighs more probably, than what you made in one week! sigh! and I’ve only just started to declutter the house!

  4. I’m resisting decluttering….

  5. Tracey Smith says:

    See that’s the trouble with opening doors Missus! Scattered about the house, there’s ‘stuff’ lurking behind it.

    I do love the way you place yourself alongside all we other muppets trying so hard to make a difference.

    We are human – we’ll never be perfect – and anyway, if we ‘were’ perfect, what would we have to stive for?

    Love and respect,
    TS
    x

  6. Mrs Green says:

    Thanks Mrs A – I had a wonderful trip to the recycling centre today and you’ll be pleased to hear that the annexe now looks as if someone actually lives in the house and cares for it 😀

    Layla, I find writing it down each week very useful and without fail I see a way every week where I could have created less waste with better planning or less procrastination. No good toys will be ditched – they will all be freecycled, given to friends or taken to a charity shop. What we find is that there are broken or missing bits of things that end up in the landfill 🙁

    Never mind Esther; we live and learn. We’re still in a dilemma about next Summer when we want to sort out the garage. We really do need a skip, but our consciences are unsure what to do about it all. There is some serious rubbish in there from our pre ‘zero waste’ days. Ho hum…..

    Sarah; sometimes it better to live in ignorance eh?!

    Tracey; same here – a closed door is often better left that way LOL! But I do love a bit of order and clutter free space, don’t you?
    Perfection – ahhhh, I’m definitely getting better at letting that one go 😉

  7. Ahh, it’s the week for posting embarrassing pictures! lol I’m about to put up pictures of my messy freezer.

  8. Mrs Green says:

    Ah, yes I did see. Kristen. Not TOO bad, I think you just have lack of space in there!

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