» Confused by Clutter? Clearing Out with a Clear Conscience

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Nov0407

Confused by Clutter? Clearing Out with a Clear Conscience

Jonathon

My mom keeps things “just in case”. I preach ‘just in time’ management, but I keep things until I can find how to properly dispose of them – sometimes years.

Where I find great websites, I will link to them so you can read the best, but for some challenges I have not found real help elsewhere.

electric kettle that was on for a whole day, empty?	(repair? recycle?)
50 feet of television cable?	(find who wants it – is it worth the trip?)
fridge?	(is it ecological to replace it? If I give it away, have I just ‘passed the buck’?)
more to come	(this is a warm-up, not the final article)

As Paul Hawken writes in The Ecology of Commerce, in nature there is no waste – some organism fills a niche which results in a self-sustaining/growing cycle/spiral, where one’s waste is another’s food immediately, and (after decomposing and ‘re-composing’) is eventually your food again. (Hawken’s argument is essentially: to tap the potential of commerce, see economies as ecosystems). Be my detritivore! (Eat my detritus! Please!)

Since Mom has Alzheimer’s, we need to be neat, so her visual field sees only what she needs to see. (To be defeatist: With Alzheimer’s, the need to be organized is paramount, the ability to be organized is lost. The more chaotic our world is, the more we need order, but chaos consumes all. It takes harmony to make harmony.)

Mom as a Cartoon: Picture: Piles of paper all over the dining table. Caption: “If I put things away I won’t know where they are.”

Titles for a website/article/business/play/song: Trash Not? Rid of it Right Conscious Cleaning

(Search terms: proper disposal)

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