AT on ... Creative Reuse vs. Clutter

In my effort to be a greener human being, I've seriously curbed my urge to purge. Throughout my life, I've been the opposite of a packrat—always happy to toss things rather than hold onto them. I'm not a big believer in mementos. I wasn't a big believer in saving things "just in case" they could be used again ...

Things have changed though. Now I have the urge to save a lot of things. Corks, glass bottles, bags of every shape and size, old towels, old sheets, etc. You name it, I've recently tried to keep it, even if every bit of its usefulness has been used up. I am a recent convert to the church of Creative Reuse, and my devotion is strong. I want to give everything another purpose.

But that leads me to the problem of clutter. Luckily, in my house, we don't yet have a terrible problem with clutter. But I see the potential for it lurking in some of my over-stuffed cabinets, drawers, and closets.

We're about to have a clutter crisis. I know it.

So how do you balance your creative reuse needs with your personal sanity? How do you keep clutter at bay? I'm going to need some advice.

(Image: Flickr member florriebassingbourn licensed for use under Creative Commons)

Comments (4)

Not that I have this at all under control myself, but:
--Figure out a *limited*, neat storage system for things. Once your Box for Corks is full, you either can throw more corks out without guilt, or you have to come up with a project that uses them that week.
--Keep the storage system somewhere accessible (so you use it) but not in your way (so you trip over it).
--Keep a list of what you're keeping and where, so if inspiration hits you can find it. Don't lose the list. :)

posted by morfydd on October 20th 2009 at 12:36pm
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My mom uses this mantra: Your home is not a landfill. In other words, if you're never going to use it, there is no point in storing it in your house-- it will end up in a landfill anyway, and be trouble to you all the while.

All the creative reuse on the Internet makes it look like no pop bottle, spaghetti sauce jar, or worn-out t-shirt needs to go to waste, but the truth is, we only need so many pop-bottle bird feeders, etc. At some point, if your glass jars are getting overwhelming, you need to take those things to the recycling center and be done with them, and if you still feel guilty, start figuring out a way to buy fewer things in glass jars.

The other thing I don't like about the creative-reuse stuff is that it makes it seem like there's nothing wrong with the overwhelming production of disposable products in the world. All the refashioned t-shirts in the world aren't making up for that.

posted by matchbookhymnal on October 21st 2009 at 3:35pm
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Yes my Gran's clutter was mainly this, as she was also an artist-as I was helping her clear it so she could move somewhere much smaller she was still in denial that she might make something out of it one day even though some items she'd kept for 15 years! The amount of stuff she had would've taken decades to make something new out of.

I totally agree with matchbookhymnal that one answer is to try and figure out a way of bringing less of this stuff into the house (for instance I will preferentially buy items packaged minimally or packaged with recyclable material so I don't have to increase what goes into landfill unneccessarily), but if you're not using it or converting it then you're just using your house as proxy landfill.

And I agree with morfydd that you can keep these things but keep it to a limit; for instance I keep padded envelopes (the type you get dvds in from amazon) so I don't ever have to buy them (I sell some of my dvds once watched so they do get used on a regular basis), but once I fill a small container with them any extra get thrown away as they won't get used before more enter the house. Same with old sheets etc-there's only so many future craft projects I will get done in the future before another worn out item of fabric is available to use for the craft project after those ones.

posted by Sian on October 23rd 2009 at 7:42am
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I really understand this problem, and I'm into my crafts. Solution, Freecycle. You give those craft materials, like bottles and corks, away when you don't need them (to other crafters) and you go on your local freecycle and post a wanted ad when you need them again.

I've just given away old beads and broken jewelary recently, on the other hand, I got someone to collect baby food jars for me to do a spice rack.

Just pass it on. Only look for it when you need it

posted by Maurs on November 8th 2009 at 2:38pm
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