Clearing the crap from the cupboards

You might have noticed I'm a bit of a greenie.  Not in the militant-tree-hugging-vegan-eating-never-wear-leather kind of way, but I do try to follow my principles.

So I've given myself a way to be more aware of my consumption of crap. Not the eating of it (still love the occasional junk food), but the buying of manufactured crap.  In particular clothes and plastic stuff.  You know the kind, when you're out at a shopping centre for the sole purpose of buying your son's school shoes and you end up with the three-for-ten-dollar undies from Cotton On and that brightly coloured plastic container that you really, really need to stuff in the pantry and forget and swear at every time it falls out when you open the door.

I was inspired by Pip Lincolne's (Meet Me At Mike's) post about ethical fashion to only:

• buy from ethical makers (a bit of research required); or
• buy second-hand (I do this quite a bit already); or
• make it myself (that probably won't be very successful, but I'll give it a try); or
• wear things I already own (I hardly ever throw stuff out so there's a big resource there); or
• borrow or swap garments with friends (see above, lots of resources!).

#YOEF

I'll also extend this to limit stuff I buy for the house as I've just spent two days clearing out both my kids' rooms and THEY HAVE SO MUCH STUFF!!! They've forgotten half the things that were shoved into cupboards and bookcases (including some science experiments with sandwiches and apples uurrrggh!), so I'm encouraging them to be mindful when they tell me they really really need something.

The hallway is full of old toys and about a dozen soccer balls from under Nugget's bed. I've been trying to encourage him to be interested in other things beside the Playstation since Christmas so I've given him a copy of Kylie Ofiu's book, 365 Ways To Make Money (note, some of these ways are probably not appropriate for children but I don't expect my 11 year old to take up escorting anytime soon).

(The dog is not for sale!)

When I explained how a garage sale might help him get rid of his old stuff and buy him his next video game, he was all fired up to become an entrepreneur.  And he has promised to do all the advertising, setting up, pricing and clearing up afterwards.  He may even end up charging me commission if I want to sell my own stuff!

I'll also be setting aside some boxes to go to my friend, Danni's house who is sending a shipment of toys to kids in Tonga.

It's amazing what you find in the cupboards that you haven't used in ages. Have a look and if your cupboards are bare, come over next Saturday, you could get yourself a bargain basement breadmaker, some cheap chino's or a next to nothing Nerf gun.

*Joining up With Some Grace for FYBF*

**This is not a sponsored post, but any profits made from this post will probably be commandeered for ANOTHER Playstation game**