Freecycle your way to Greenliness

How much space does one person (or a couple) need? A girl's gotta have her kitchen, or does she? Not all gals cook much. I do, so I need my kitchen, but probably not as huge as my mom's kitchen.

How packed does that space need to be?

I used to be quite the packrat, and I'm slowly re-evalutating my belongings and giving things away on freecycle so it can be used by someone who would like them. (Just got rid of a large fish tank that was my dad's and he insisted we take it, and then we never used it. It's going into the bedroom of a 2 yr old girl who loves 1 Fish 2 Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. :)

When I did my first bout of removing unneeded items I gave 13 full boxes of stuff to value village. I dunno what they did with it all. >.>

I need my art and craft supplies. I'm a TechnoPagan so I need my compy. (I did give away my old laptop, which still works great (it was top notch in 2002) when you keep it cool, to my friend Alexis who has never owned a computer and can't afford one.) I'm on my 4th computer. At least this one I bought myself. I intend to upgrade it (and use the old chips and stuff for jewelery prospects) instead of replacing it constantly.

I've given away so many clothes to Value Village, like 3 garbage bags full and a big box as well, because I was such a packrat. I mean I had clothes in my closet that have been moving around with me since the sixth grade. (Ok so I kept that one hoodie, MEMORIES MAN!! MEMORIES!)

Andrew won't part with the tv or video games... So I can't ditch those. Instead I don't sell my classic stuff (Anyone wanna play Paperboy on SNES with me? :d No? How about Chrono Trigger?) I'm learning not to watch TV, I buy less cheeseburgers that way. I download popular shows via torrents (they're free to watch on the tv anyway) and I use Joost. Ultimately I could probably get by on just a computer and an internet connection for my screen-staring-based entertainment needs.

Books, books MUST be kept. Reading blogs are great but there's something to be loved about a book when you can fall asleep reading and wake up cuddling it lol It's hard to curl up in a big chair with tea and read with your monitor and mouse. Laptops ya but not desktops.

I've been cleaning out my kitchen cabinets for things that I don't use. I have 4 gadget type appliances (ice cream maker, quesadilla maker, a pasta pot, a toaster oven that mostly works...) that I never use that I will use for a garage sale. (They're like-new.)

This started because I was walking around my apartment one day lamenting a "lack of storage space" and then it hit me, there's plenty of storage space, but is it being used to store things that are actually worth keeping around?

If I wasn't married, I probably would have sold most my stuff, stored the rest at my parent's house and joined the peace corp by now. (But we're living in Canada and I'm American so I can't join Canadian peace corp with Andrew until I have permanent residence. It would be interesting so long as we plan the financial part, what if we have a house, you know?) Then I would have come back and live in a gypsy wagon reading tarot cards, painting, and living in the woods. :d

Or so that's what I like to think :) (The gypsy wagon is cool, ok?)

Here's my way to gauge if I need to keep something or to give it away.

1) Do I use it often?
2) Do I wear it? (If clothes)
3) Does it stimulate creativity? (All musical instruments and artsy things STAY!)
4) Does it teach me anything? (DS stays, I have Brain Age.)
5) Is it beneficial for health or well being? (Games stay, I have DDR Supernova, its a great workout! And playing the other games does relax Andrew after work....)
6) Can it be reused for a new purpose or used for parts to make something new?