How To Waste Less This Year

Happy New Year! As always, the new year is a great opportunity for a fresh start and to get organized! I always say the easiest way to get organized is to have less stuff. Why not challenge yourself to get organized by being more sustainable? There are so many resources at our finger tips these days that can impact not only your home and daily functioning, but your carbon footprint as well! Read along for 10 ways that you can make a difference (big or small) while getting organized.

CLOTHING

1.Rent the Runway
If you have a special event coming up or are finding yourself headed to the office part-time, consider renting your clothing. Rather than stuffing your wardrobe with items you might only wear a few times, rent them instead. All you have to do is pick out the clothing you would like to rent, they mail it to you and you send it back once you’re done wearing it – dry cleaning and return fees already included!

2. Buy second hand 
Looking for an easy way to keep your wardrobe fresh, yet sustainable? Buy second hand! We love bringing our clients clothing for consignment to Raspberry Beret in Cambridge. Whether it’s a consignment shop, Poshmark or your local Goodwill, it’s easy to find used clothing at a great price! It’s a win-win keeping each other’s clothing from going into a landfill. Plus you save money and give/get a fresh wardrobe!

3. Store recycling programs
If you’re purging clothing, look into store recycling programs. Madewell has an awesome program where they’ll give you $20 towards a full priced pair of jeans for any pair of jeans you bring in – doesn’t matter the brand or style! H&M also has their own recycling program that will give you money towards your next purchase.

4. Do a clothing swap
As a society, we’re all still figuring out what our wardrobe looks like these days. What do you “normally” wear on a daily basis is such a hard question to answer since the pandemic started. Since we’re all looking for a bit of a refresh, see if you can coordinate a clothing swap with a group of friends to zhuzh up your wardrobe and someone else’s!

HOUSEHOLD

5. Compost!
One of my favorite things in my house is our compost! I love knowing that our food scraps are sustainably being put back into the earth rather than a landfill. There are so many different programs that you can sign up for like Black Earth or Boot Strap Compost that pick up your compost straight from your doorstep – it’s so easy! Did you know that if you live in Cambridge you can compost for free? Zero excuses for y’all to compost!

6. Buy Nothing
Have something opened or used that won’t be accepted by your local donation center? Try your neighborhood Facebook “Buy Nothing” group! It never ceases to amaze me how ones “trash” can be another person’s “treasure.” 

FURNITURE

7. FB Marketplace
Before you purchase new furniture online, check out online sites like Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist to see if you can find what you’re looking for. Not only will you get something instantly (rather than waiting forever for a dresser to arrive) the environment will also be thanking you! 

8. Furniture Consignment 
Go to your local furniture consignment shop like Buy and Consign in Waltham, Fiddleheads in Canton or Tables to Teapots in Acton. You never know what treasures you might find! 

PRODUCT

9. Buy sustainable products
Rather than purchasing plastic products, we like to encourage our clients to use sustainably made products such as bamboo drawer organizers, bamboo drawer dividers or fabric baskets. We also love the look of these water hyacinth baskets. As always, sort and purge your space before you purchase any product. Often product gets overpurchased and not returned when it’s bought before you’ve done the sorting and purging leading to the wrong solution. 

10. Check out our resources page!
We have a ton of resources on our website where you can safely dispose of anything! Before you throw something directly into the trash, check out our page to see if there’s somewhere that item can be reused or repurposed. 

 There are so many ways to get organized, why not do it sustainably? Not only will you get the relief of getting yourself organized, it will also feel even better knowing that what you’re disposing/replenishing was done sustainably. Now get to it!