Solving Problems

I had a list taped to my refrigerator for most of last year, labeled "Solving Problems" which listed 5 things I wanted to improve in my life with possible solutions.  I just took the list down yesterday.  4 out of 5 were accomplished.  

Now I'm ready to tackle something new and this year, my biggest project to work on is solving the problem of Space and Time.

I don't have enough of either one.

At least that's what it's felt like these last two years.  So my big project this year is to come up with some modifications to organize my living space and my time better.

I've already solved one problem linked to my current project.  The problem of perception.

Before, I could only see the lack of space and the chaos that is/was my home.  I'm not a hoarder.  It isn't that.  It's just that things accumulate, and I couldn't seem to find the time or energy to declutter.

It's difficult because we run our businesses out of our home, and as the business spaces expanded, the living spaces shrank.  And time has been affected in the same way.  As I took on more work projects, my personal time almost completely disappeared.  When you work out of your home, the boundaries can become blurred because you're not separated by distance from your work place.

But as I said, my perception has shifted around seeing my living space as chaotic.  These last two years, I've spent a lot of time in the state of Overwhelm, (that's just south of here).  But about a month ago, I stopped feeling frantic.

So today, I was looking at my same ol' living space and didn't see it as a horrific jumble.  In fact I even said to myself, "This isn't so bad".  And I made progress today, on turning it into a space that works for me.

And I enjoyed the process.  It was restful, and it was a relief.

The Game

Whenever I have something big to overcome in my life, I figure out how I can make a game of it.  It keeps me focused and it gives me a creative way to change my life.  So the other day, I created a new game to help me reduce my "inventory" of stuff, and create a beautiful, organized, practical space, which can function for both business and living.

Trash

One of the challenges I face in my home is how much trash builds up.  So I wanted to address that issue as part of this game.

Back in the late 1980 s, I became aware of the trash problem, and so I began recycling.  But in the last few years, I've come to believe that it's not enough.  The problem of trash has gotten complicated.  It just has.  And in my quirky way, I have responded by trying to be more aware and responsible about my own trash.  Sometimes that leads to me hanging onto things to either reuse, or find a way to dispose of responsibly. I have reduced my consumption of items that come packaged in plastic, and I try to avoid wasting things.

In July of 2014, I participated in a world wide event called Plastic Free July.  The idea was to try to avoid single use plastic.  It was hard.  In fact, you'd have to be pretty self sustainable to pull it off.  And that was the point of the exercise.  To raise awareness.  Some of the practices, I still continue, but I have also made compromises which make me feel guilty.  And that really ticks me off.  Because I don't want it to be hard, and I don't want to feel guilty.

I'm not talking about what other people should do with their trash.  I'm talking about me.  I'm talking about how this issue has complicated my life.  I'm talking about how it affects me personally.  Because I have educated myself on this subject.  Now I know what I know, and I can't unknow it.

I want to do better.  So when I look around my home, and see a lot of accumulation that I am no longer able, in good conscious to just throw in the trash, it makes me mad.  We are constantly bombarded with trash.

But anger can be a useful thing.  In Chinese Medicine, the concept is that Anger gets you moving.  It causes you to take action.  And that action has led me to rethink how I'm handling my trash and to create some new goals for myself.

So another one of my goals for this year is to immediately and significantly reduce the volume of trash I put into my trash can every week.  My usual volume is about two grocery bags each week.  But half of that is chicken bones from making bone broth, and there is also used cat litter from my 3 cats.  Both of those can be composted, it just requires a different process than the yard waste style of compost pile.

There is a whole belief system around composting and people discuss it at great length and even disagree about it.  But here's my belief.  If it's food, and it's done correctly, even if it's meat, bone, dairy and fat, it will break down.  The same should be true for most of what I throw into the trash.  I buy very few things that aren't biodegradable.  It just requires an adjustment in what becomes natural for me to do.

I will be writing about this from time to time, as I discover what is possible.  For now my new indoor trash can is a yogurt cup.  My daily goal is to only generate enough non biodegradable trash to fill that cup, and no more.  As I experiment with this, I will reduce that amount if I can.  The real challenge will come when I begin to declutter.  Who knows what that will look like!

The Peepers

It snowed on The Peepers yesterday!  Both flocks went into their houses and stayed there the rest of the day.  But today it was much warmer, and they seemed happier.