exquisite organizing

Fifteen years ago I might have been thought extreme in the extent to which I organized my life around minimizing my ecological impact on the world. Now, maybe I wouldn’t seem so out there. It’s not me that has changed.

This little biz is very involved with stuff, and stuff is very involved with how we use the world. In this case, there is the choice of what to do with all the stuff that my clients get rid of. You’d probably be interested to know, for example, if I routinely threw the stuff out into the street. (I don’t.) My benchmark with my clients’ cast-offs is that everything should be channeled according to its highest and best use. Most of what that entails is obvious: recycling, re-use, etc. I have added another tool: a “free sale.” This is a brief (1-2 hours is ample) public advertised event, where everything that still has some use to someone can be laid out like a banquet, free for the taking. My experience with these is that the most surprising things will disappear to a new life. Open household containers of all kinds? Gone. Obscure medical devices? Bye bye. Your world-class collection of twist ties? See ya. And so on.

I don’t think the free sale idea is my invention. Less doubtful is that it’s a bit of a contradiction in terms. Neither matter. A free sale is a fun community happening, a good ecological deed, and a pragmatic solution to the cascade of leftover stuff that moves generate. It preserves and prolongs the useful life of stuff that would otherwise further crowd a landfill near you. I think that it’s an idea whose time has come.