The New Year: Let the Cataloguing Begin!

That's right people. The new year has begun and we are moving towards becoming trash free. As we said in December, we have begun the work of cataloguing all our worldly possessions. We have not completed this task, but we have learned how many things we have in our home.

In general, the holidays were great. We spent most of the time with family and friends. We had a solstice party where we remembered the earth. We burned an old wreath we had from years ago. As we burned the wreath, we asked people to think of one thing they can do for the earth in the coming year (by the way people, if you store your wreath in a flat box or a tied trash bag, you can reuse it. We kept ours for three years and it still looked great).

Here's a partial list of the things we found in our home. By next week we will have a completed list.

Mainly, what we discovered was that we have much more of everything than we actually need AND we're still not done cataloguing everything. Much of the things we have are old and used or were bought second-hand. We have a ton of stuff that doesn't match or is part of an old set. This is particularly true of the kitchen items. Most of our plates and cups were hand-me-downs from family or were bought for cheap from a thrift store. However, this does not discount their usefulness. We also realized how much we love all the things we have and how great they truly are. We would like to use the list to remind us of the abundance in our lives and also to make us more aware of the fact that we need very little material items to be happy, and that actually, we already have much more than we need.

Hold your breath! Here it comes:

Big plates: 25
Little plates: 6
Serving plates: 18
Bowls: 23
Tea/coffee cups: 26
Drinking cups: 23
Wine glasses: 15
Cheap knives: 13
Cheap spoons: 14
Cheap forks: 11
Nicer knives: 8
Nicer spoons: 16
Nicer forks: 16
Serving stuff/mixing stuff: 26
Oven mittens: 2
Hot place mats: 5
Hot pads: 3
Tea pots: 4
measuring stuff: 5
Toaster, micro-oven, coffee pot, blender, microwave, stove, oven, refrigerator, washer/dryer: 1 of each
Cutting knives: 4
Skewers: 4
BBQ utensils: 3
Miscellaneous jars and bowls: 13
Matte containers: 6
Random dishes: 7
Shoe holders: 3
Wooden nick-nacks: 4
Brooms: 3
Dust pans: 2
Mops: 2
Cat bowls: 7
Traveling mugs: 2
Reusable water bottles: 5
Cutting boards: 4
Dish towels: 10
Strainers: 2
Pans: 4
Pots: 5
Coasters: 13
Tea Kettle: 1
Dinner table: 1
Bed: 1
Desks: 2
Couch: 1
Built in kitchen table: 1
Futon: 1
Coffee table: 1
Art on walls: 23
Books: 660
Records and CDs: 300
End table: 1
Stools: 3
DVDs: 16
Bookshelves: 7
Cats: 2
Filing cabinets: 3
Chairs: 9
Random nick-nacks in home: 104
Computers: 2
Bottles in bathroom: 32
Computer monitor: 1
Cabinet in bathroom: 1
Stereo: 1
Dresser: 1
Radio: 1
Exercise bike: 1
Lamps: 3
Desk lamps: 2
Printer: 1
Telephone: 1
Cellphones: 2
Mirrors: 2
Love alter: 70 or so items
Family pictures: 20
Scrapbooks: 5
Photo box: large and filled to capacity
Big bath towels: 13
Hand towels: 15
Shower mats: 5
Place mats: 22
Cloth napkins: 17
Pillows: 17
Blankets: 14

Yes, this is most of our stuff, but there are still a couple of areas we have yet to catalogue. Those include our clothes, shoes, and other bathroom stuff.

It was exhausting to go through all of this, and that IS the point. One thing we decided after this is that we are only going to buy higher quality things and much fewer of them. We decided we rather have one good pair of shoes than three pairs that will break down quickly. The same is true for all items.

Okay, logging off until next Sunday when we will finish cataloguing the rest of our possessions as well as talk about the things we are already doing to reduce our trash consumption.

Cheers,
S&T