I uncomplicated this decluttering effort
Keeping in mind that I have been fitfully decluttering craft supplies for the last two years  today I did something a little outrageous. Well outrageous for me anyway. I threw some perfectly good mat board in the recycling bin. Yes you heard me I threw something perfectly usable in the recycling bin.
The thing is they were also perfectly recyclable but it was a case of faff around with them forever or make an instant decision to get them out of here. I chose the later. You see I have a hard time wasting anything that is even remotely creatively useful and the mat board has been shuffled around in the continuous craft room reshuffle for two years for just that reason and I was over it. In my defence they were small pieces that had limited use but use none the less.
Two entries on Facebook over the last couple of days lead to me make this decision. One was in relation to decluttering unfinished craft projects and the comment or rather question which almost sounded like a plea was this ~ “But what should I do with it?” The second was a status from Mr Green @ My Zero Waste ~ “Morning all; really trying to find energy / motivation to declutter (sans landfill of course!) any tips to ease the butt glue I’m experiencing?”
The former (although possibly about something far more valuable than my mat board) got me thinking that sometimes it just complicates the issue of letting go if you make the letting go too difficult in relation to the objects worth. And the latter says to me that you can’t keep paying for the sins of your past wastefulness by continuing to allow things to be closetfill in a vain attempt to save them from landfill.
Yes I could have put it up for grabs on Freecycle or even cut it into small mats, bundled them up and sold them on ebay. Maybe a craft group or the school up the street could have found a use for them but, chances are, making this effort would probably have resulted in cluttering up someone else space who also can’t let a useful bargain pass them by. After all that is how I acquired them in the first place.
So I did myself a favour for once and saved myself the bother. The time it would have taken to find a new home for them just wouldn’t have been worth the effort. And it’s not as thought they went to land fill. They will be recycled into some other useful paper based product.
Like I said before, I have a hard time parting with stuff that I find to be creatively useful and I probably would have keep passing over these for some time but I had a better use for both the box they were in and the space they were taking up. So I took the bandaid approach to decluttering and ripped those suckers off real fast and out to the recycling bin before I changed my mind. Don’t worry this isn’t something I am going to make a habit of.
Today’s Declutter Item and the subject of today’s post
Something I Am Grateful For Today
I was a little off colour on the weekend but am grateful I am feeling much better today. I am weary after a busy day but I feel well and that is good.
“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast