Kids produce a lot of trash. They soil diapers (even cloth diapers use water and electricity to clean), they waste food, they make one crayon mark on a page and refuse to color the rest, they unravel the toilet paper and run it throughout the house, etc. And as much as I would love to give away baby gear and toys, many places will not except used stuff because of liability toward recalled items. Also, many consignment shops are picky, and only take ‘gently used’ items.

This frustrates me, because it perpetuates the ‘baby needs new things’ mentality. I was the same way with my first child, because I was idealistic. But Thomas gets all the used stuff because I’m keen to how quick they lose interest now. We make good money, but I still shop at Value Village because I know good stuff can be found there.

Technology also frustrates me. We paid to have three monitors recycled by RE-PC in the southcenter area, but what about cell phones? My husband is in the tech industry and needs to keep all his equipment up to date. It’s good that there are places to recycle parts, but it still frustrates me that technology has such a short life cycle.

Anyhow, that’s my rant. I appreciate your blog. Thanks for keeping me thinking.

Those things you are doing already are GREAT! Purges are great in a lot of different ways, as long as we don’t just replace what we get rid of with more stuff. I think putting things out by the curb with a ‘free sign’ on it is a good idea. Do you have any resale shops near you that you could donate stuff to that you can’t otherwise get rid of? There is a place by us called Value Village (I don’t know where all they have stores), but they will take EVERYTHING and giving it away somewhere is always better than the trash.

I know this stuff can be so overwhelming sometimes. I get overwhelmed at times too and we just have to mentally keep it under control so that we don’t get so overwhelmed that we stop all together. Did that even make any sense? Do what you can and just try to figure out ways to incorporate manageable (this is not the same as convenient) changes into your life. You are doing such a great job and I don’t want you to get discouraged. Let me know if there is ever anything I can do to help.

Mollie