It's Not Easy Being Green Some Days!

Good mother of G*d, last week was crazy! @_@

Like Heather mentioned on Monday, she was really sick, I was really sick (not to mention our family is in the thick of moving, my hubby's dear sweet Grandma passed away and at the same time I am trying to get back into the full swing of homeschooling the kids and implementing some sort, any sort of structure and routine before we all go completely off the deep end) and well, I think I can speak for both of us when I say I'm glad last week is over!

The one thing I have found through the stress of moving, family crises, being really sick and the like, is that keeping up with your own environmental expectations can really take a beating when you are overwhelmed and at your breaking point.

I know I'm not the only one with the best eco friendly intentions that has taken to just throwing everything into the garbage in 5 minutes in my desperate desire for a clean kitchen while I'm staving off a migraine, trying to cook supper and simultaneously convincing the kids not to hurtle each other across the room while they play "Super Heros in the Living Room!!!". You know, instead of separating the stuff to be composted, from the stuff to be recycled, from the stuff that is actually well, garbage. When you are sick and overwhelmed, just having a clean kitchen (and quiet kids who are playing oh so nicely) trumps all at that moment.

The other time I am known to fight off those moments is when I am up to my eyeballs in useless crap and clutter and I start to get that weird kind of twitch that makes people nervous and the neighbourhood kids run scared from my house while referring to me as "THAT crazy lady down the street". It's usually when we are moving (which we have done a lot of the last few years) and it's either A) move the useless clutter and crap in the name of "I will recycle, free cycle, donate all this useless crap and clutter when we get to our NEW house" or  B) "screw it" and just start tossing everything because I've been carting around said 'useless (to me) crap and clutter' now for hmm, let's see, well, some of it for 6 years with the wonderful intentions of making sure it is all disposed of in an environmentally responsible way.

And yes, I am fully aware of all the extra fuel and energy used to move this clutter around. Ironic really isn't it? :P

Which means...yep!...THIS time. THIS move, I will not take anything to my new house that we won't actually use or need in the next 12 months. I have this habit of finding great treasures at the thrift store and the like that I fully intend to do wonderfully creative things with, while completely forgetting that really, I'm not that wonderfully creative when it comes to arts and crafts, ya know? Things like that, combined with books (oooooh I love my books!) and the kids toys, and clothes and everything else that a family of 5 can accumulate in the blink of an eye. Before you know it you have a garage full of stuff that makes you want to curl up in a blanket and beg for a fairy godmother to wave a magic wand and, well, deal with your crap.

Considering this fairy godmother has not shown up to deal with my crap answered my desperate pleas for help, I am left to sort through all this *stuff* we have collected, take a deep breath and let most of it go.

That is the easy part, getting rid of it (for me anyway). The tricky part is fighting the urge to toss it all in the garbage to make it all just go away in one afternoon and instead organize my time to sort it all out to be donated (which will be most of it) free cycled, or take pictures and sell it online. All of which I don't have time for right now. At all. *groan*

Tossing it in the garbage would be so much easier and quicker wouldn't it? Put it in the garbage bin, close the lid and walk away.

The thing is, just because it gets picked up by the garbage truck once a week, doesn't mean it's gone. It's gone from the house, but it's not gone. It's just been moved to a larger pile of clutter and crap with the potential to wreck a lot of havoc on delicate ecosystems, spill into important water systems and do further harm to our environment.

I saw this video once and I just can't let those images go. I also know I can't in good conscience contribute to it anymore.

That swirling Texas sized patch of garbage in the Pacific gets me every time. It is also why I am bound and determined not to turn into a complete basket case this time we move let those feelings of being   completely and totally overwhelmed show up when I am packing up an entire house, juggling homeschooling, cooking, cleaning, fixing up our new house yadda, yadda yadda, to get in the way and whisper to me "Screw it, just toss it in the trash, no one will know..."

But I will know and thus, I can't toss it. So that is what I am doing this week, clearing out allllllllll of our clutter - making sure nothing goes in the garbage unless there is no other option, taking pictures of what can be sold or free cycled and donating the rest to those places that will take it.

If you don't hear from me, please feel free to send a search and rescue team to my garage - I'm probably just stuck under a massive box of broken toys and Christmas ornaments circa 1982. ;o)