Reuse not Refuse

by Ira

While my kids have grown bigger, my basement seems to have grown smaller. As toys were used and then abandoned, they made their way to the basement creating great piles of stuff never to be used again in our household. Adding to the burden of discarded toys and clothes were household items displaced as my wife and I “modernized,” replacing long-serving dishes, pots and pans, etc. with ones that caught our fancy.

Desperate to reclaim basement space and reduce clutter, my wife and I considered tossing the lot out with the trash - recycling as much as possible, of course. Even with commitment to recycling, I felt awkward recognizing how much volume (clearly indicated by the piles in front of us) would be added to a landfill if we left the discarded items on the curb with the trash. We needed to find a way of getting reuse out of what would otherwise become refuse.

My wife contacted Big Brothers Big Sisters of Massachusetts Bay and offered to donate what we needed to get rid of. The truck came, the goods were hauled away, someone else will get good use out of what we donated, and there will be no careless expansion to our landfill from our decision to reclaim our basement.