Guest Post: Edit My Closet

If you're a regular visitor to my blog, you know that I like to figure out the motivation behind people's green actions - or lack thereof - in an attempt to find more effective ways to encourage the public to make the world a better place. It will come as no surprise, then, that I was intrigued by Edit My Closet, a service that helps clients de-clutter their homes by identifying the barriers that stand in the way and reinforcing a simpler, greener attitude about consumption. I asked founders Beth and Cheryl to tell us more in this guest post.

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Beth and Cheryl, the founders of Edit My Closet, have been providing their customers with emotional support while physically assisting in de-cluttering, organizing, and removing no longer needed/wanted items, for over five years. Their background in Social Work enables them to read body language, validate experiences, and be conscious of the emotional charge associated with de-cluttering. Beth and Cheryl both live in Toronto and have sparkling closets.

Dollar stores, leisure time, "I deserve it" upgrades, larger living space, disposable incomes, "just in case" mentality (holding on to things, physically or otherwise, out of fear one will never have access to them again), and shopping as a form of self-medication have all played an integral role in producing the cultural epidemic known as clutter.

Clutter is defined as "a confused or disordered state or collection". It's not difficult to be confused or disordered when we have an abundance of meaningless, useless objects surrounding us. This state can easily lead to feelings of being overwhelmed and out of control. This is why the process of de-cluttering (carving out time to consciously go through your stuff and discard items that are no longer useful) is considered therapeutic.

The process of letting things go and saying goodbye can be a difficult and emotionally charged experience. Our consumption and "holding-on" patterns are brought into awareness as we move through this process. The typical result, however, is one of liberation and clarity, especially when the process is executed in an environmentally conscious and sustainable way.

We provide our customers with five steps to make the de-cluttering process easier:

1. Identify a cluttered space that requires organization. Easy!


2. Establish expectations. Is there a specific vision for the space, i.e. easier access to items hanging in a closet, or wanting a drawer to close? Be clear around the intentions; writing them down helps significantly.


3. Compartmentalize and assess! Empty all of the items from the space and sort them into smaller, categorized piles. For example, when organizing an office you may have a stationery pile, an electronics pile, a decorative pile, etc.


4. Create 3 separate piles labelled Toss, Maybe, and Keep. Baskets or bins can be used in lieu of piles.
   • Go through each item piece by piece and ask: Is this essential? What’s its purpose? Has it been used in the past six months? Could someone else benefit from the item? Taking pictures of items that evoke sentimentality is a great way to "hold on" without compromising storage space.
   • Look at the empty space and think back to your vision. Are you missing anything? Would additional storage solutions help? Are there things in the “Keep” pile that actually belong in another room or area? If yes, where?
   • Further compartmentalize items in the "Toss" pile to Recycle, Donate, Return, and Give-Away piles. Take the time to donate items to shelters, libraries, and second hand stores that rely heavily on donations to serve the community effectively. Donate/recycle as quickly as possible to avoid rooting through the bags and reclaiming items.


5. Clean the area before putting the items back. De-cluttering is the perfect time to pull out the vacuum and make use of all of your favourite natural cleaning products. Miss Charlotte over at Les Bonnes Idees provides a recipe to make your own! Click here to view it.

We'd like to leave you with one last tip: de-cluttering is most often performed in the spring, as it is widely associated (for good reason) with new beginnings. However, we encourage you to try de-cluttering one space per month. Tackling areas in small steps like this is less overwhelming than a big once a year job and will certainly have a big impact over time. Good luck!

For more information about Edit My Closet, please check out our website or contact us at info(at)editmycloset.com.


Photo of cluttered room used under Creative Commons from Christopher Gollmar (flickr).
No clutter logo used under Creative Commons from Sean MacEntee (flickr).
Photo of homemade natural cleaning products used under Creative Commons from Mrs. Green (flickr).

Friday Feel Good News

It's Friday, and in my books, that means it's time to feel good. Let's set aside the doom-and-gloom stories for a moment and focus on some good news!

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A few weeks ago I finally got to check out the new food court at Toronto's Eaton Centre mall. The name, Urban Eatery, is a little cheesy, but I guess the idea is to encourage mallgoers to think of a hip, modern foodie destination - rather than the greasy, littered, last-resort dining option usually associated with the term "mall food court". And modern it was, with the layout and decor envisioned by Canadian designers as part of a $120 million revitalization of the basement level's north end. The glass, stainless steel, marble, and wood impressed me, as did the variety of seating options that are much easier on the eye than the uniform beige chairs and tables typically seen in food courts. I was also appreciative of the array of vendors: alongside a small number of fast food joints were take-out versions of some of Toronto's better restaurants featuring much healthier menus than I was expecting. But what actually made me smile was this:

Real cutlery! There are, in fact, over 100,000 pieces of reusable tableware in circulation at Urban Eatery, and somewhere on the order of 20,000 drinking glasses, too. As you can tell from the photo, plastic cutlery is available, but instead of automatically being handed your meal in a polystyrene foam container with single-use forks and spoons, you get to inform your server that you will be staying in to eat... and out come the real dishes! I'm not happy that the plates and bowls are made of sturdy plastic, but at least they're reusable.

This is what one of five collection stations looks like. Urban Eatery staff take the trays and separate food waste and dishes, bringing the reusable tableware to what I've been told is a giant, but energy-efficient, dishwasher hidden away in some back room somewhere. With 24 restaurants in the food court, I was surprised to see the stacks of clean dishes never run low, but then again, I also didn't see any of the staff slacking off. They just kept coming out with freshly washed plates, cups, and cutlery, and the whole system seemed to be running smoothly.

Three cheers for smart design: this is one of two hand-washing stations located right in the food court itself, i.e., not tucked away in a washroom. The soap dispenser, faucet, and paper towel dispenser are all motion-activated, which reduces waste and helps prevent the spread of germs. In fact, having a hand-washing station at all helps stop bacteria from getting around; I can imagine there are people who feel they're too busy to stop and walk all the way over to a washroom to wash their hands after eating. Those lazy fools have no excuse now!

That's right, help us preserve our environment. Looking around, I noticed only very few instances of trays being abandoned on tables. Whether that's due to efficient staff walking around to tidy up or due to a sense of shared responsibility, I do not know. What I can say with some certainty is that when a space is clean, tidy, and easy on the eyes, the people using the space are more likely to keep it in that condition. I hope this model is replicated all across the country!

BYORB... Recycling Bin, That Is

I know, it's Friday, and I should be writing a Friday Feel Good News post, but there isn't much good news out there, not when the Canadian Government has decided to block the listing of asbestos on an international list of hazardous chemicals - apparently saving jobs in the industry here is more important than saving lives in the countries we export asbestos to, because that's not "our problem". So let's distract ourselves from that bad news with a look at a product you might see on store shelves soon: the Waste Folder.

Say you find yourself spontaneously having a picnic only to discover you have no method of transporting your recyclables back home. What will you do with that apple core? That aluminum drink can? Those juice bottles? Look no further than akarchitectes' Waste Folder, a cardboard package the size of a file folder that unfolds into a bag with six compartments to carry your plastic, glass, cans, paper, organics, and tetra packs out of the park in style. For lots of images that showcase the design, check out designboom - I don't have permission to show the images directly from this page.

I heard about this idea back in the winter, when picnics were just about the last thing on my mind. Strangely, I haven't found myself impulsively having any since the weather has improved, so I'm not sure this would be terribly useful. When I do plan picnics, I use an insulated picnic bag. Since it is large enough to carry my food and drinks into the park, it's large enough to carry the waste back out. Most importantly, I will continue to use it for years, whereas the Waste Folder looks like it wouldn't fare so well after the initial use - especially not the food waste compartment, which doesn't even look sturdy enough to be filled with wet organics!

The compartments would be useless to me, too, since curbside recycling pick-up in Toronto uses a "dump everything into the truck to be sorted later" approach to encourage higher participation rates among city residents. I'd be taking the time to sort my waste, then tossing it all into my blue bin once I got home. There's also a good chance I'd forget to take this item with me. Most days my purse can't hold anything as large as a file folder, already filled to capacity with a water bottle, travel mug, empty food container, fork, and cloth napkin!

So... what's the point? Is this perhaps more appealing to the recycling-unconverted, and I just can't see it because I've been carrying home my waste for years? Or is this truly designed for those who frequently go on unplanned picnics? The real question: would you use this?


Photo used under Creative Commons from Ian Westcott (iandavid/flickr).

Roll Up the Rim to Waste

I have a confession to make. This isn't easy. As recently as a few years ago, I willingly and eagerly fed my addictive personality by participating in a contest that required me to waste single-use paper coffee cups despite owning an insulated travel mug. Based on the title of this post, my Canadian readers know what I'm talking about and can probably relate. At the risk of alienating those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, but in staying true to my values, I will not post a link to the contest website in this post. All you really need to know is that this yearly contest is run by a popular coffee chain, that the prizes range from a preloaded coffee cards to mountain bikes to cars, and that the nationwide compulsive consumption of coffee in single-use paper coffee cups began today and will continue for a few months. If you're wondering, I've never won more than a donut.

There are many types of people in this world. Some aren't terribly susceptible to the temptation of contests like these, while others dramatically increase their coffee consumption in a desperate attempt to win. Those who usually buy hot beverages from a variety of stores find themselves heading back, over and over again, to the same coffee chain - if they're going to be buying coffee, it might as well be from the store where they have a chance of winning a prize, right? Worst of all, people like me intentionally leave their travel mugs at home because the contest is won or lost right there on the single-use paper cup. My most shameful memory from the years I participated is of the day on which I brought my insulated mug to the store, had it filled with coffee, then asked for an empty, unused paper cup because I deserved a chance to win "in return for my purchase", which is how I think I put it to the employee at the time.

Let's take a step back and think about what we're really buying into. I believe we frequently ignore some pretty serious issues around coffee: society tells us to say no to drugs, yet most of us are physically addicted to caffeine, and our culture endorses, even encourages this behaviour. We support the local food movement, but insist on consuming large amounts of a beverage that is made from a bean that grows nowhere near here - and it's no special occasion delicacy, no, we want it multiple times a day! Sustainable production methods are important when it comes to the fruits and veggies we eat, but our favourite Arabica is most often grown in full-sun and fertilizer- and pesticide-intensive conditions, causing deforestation, the destruction of habitat in some of the world's most biodiverse regions, and soil and water degradation. While the friendly barista enjoys a decent wage and the tips we leave in the jar, plantation workers are exploited and farmers are unfairly paid for the harvest. Talk about bang for your buck! So many economic, environmental, and social injustices for such a low price.

But it's not enough that we want to pay a mere dollar fifty for 12 ounces of java. We also want a container for the beverage that will outlive its usefulness after being in our possession for about 20 minutes. Most importantly, at this time of year we want as many of those containers as we can possibly get our hands on. All for the thrill embodied in the few seconds it takes to unroll the rim of a single-use paper cup, revealing "please try again".

I was once there. I no longer am. If I want excitement, I'll find it in performing a taiko (Japanese drumming) piece with my fellow students in front of a large audience. If I'm drowsy and need to perk up, I'll go for a brisk walk around the block. If I want a mountain bike, I'll save up until I can afford to buy one, then bring my business to a local bike shop. This year, it's not enough for me to avoid the cups by boycotting the contest; I'm going to avoid the coffee chain entirely, at least for the duration of the promotion - possibly longer. So I'd like to ask those of you who usually participate in this waste-producing event: will you join me in rejecting it?


Photo credits: cup on sidewalk, cup and ashtray, cups in grass.

Trash-Talking... in a Good Way

It's always bothered me that we don't take waste generation seriously - after all, it's not often we think about what happens to trash once we put it out on the curb. Out of sight, out of mind, anyone? When you read the word "landfill", you probably conjure a mental image of a mound of dirty, smelly stuff, but do you ever think about where it is? Do you know where the landfills are located in your area?

Living in Toronto, that has been an easy question to answer: Michigan! But not anymore. As of two weeks ago, our garbage is staying in-province! The best part: it's called Green Lane, which makes me think of ponies on a meadow, with flowers and butterflies. Wee! Interestingly, this landfill is equipped with a methane gas collection and flaring system. I'm not sure how this is possible without housing the trash indoors, but I'm happy to hear that the emissions will be used to generate electricity. While this is not exactly what I had in mind when I heard Ontario will be phasing out its coal-fired power plants and relying more on alternative sources of electricity, it's better than letting the landfill fumes directly contribute to global warming (methane is much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide). Just don't use this as an excuse to avoid practising waste diversion!

In other trashy (but good) news, Vermont has become the 27th US state to ban electronic waste from its landfills. It's always a good idea to keep lead, mercury, and cadmium away from, well, every living thing! Toxic chemicals like these can mix in with that nasty sludge created by mountains of garbage, and this concoction seeps into the ground, then leaches into groundwater. To make an electronic waste landfill ban effective, proper disposal of the toxic products must be cost-effective and convenient. Vermont has opted for a free recycling program paid for by manufacturers, discouraging the public from illegal dumping and providing an incentive for electronics companies to reduce the amount of hazardous materials in their devices in the long run. What's next? Ensuring the e-waste is disposed of properly and on domestic soil, not shipped overseas to be taken apart in ways that hurt workers and the environment.

While Ontario has not put an electronic waste ban in place, the City of Toronto encourages its safe recycling and provides free curbside pickup of unwanted devices. Check out the spoof video ad:



For more details, read the City of Toronto media release about the Green Lane Landfill and the Associated Press article about the electronic waste landfill ban.

No Impact Week: Day 2 - Trash

This week I'm experimenting with No Impact Week, exploring some of my past successes at decreasing my carbon footprint and generating even better ideas for the future. My goal is to challenge myself to redo the week later this year when it will have the greatest impact on my day-to-day life. Click here for a review of Day 1 - Consumption.

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Day 2 - Trash

It's funny how I unconsciously renamed the second day of this experiment; I called it "Waste" instead of "Trash" at the end of yesterday's post and almost did the same again today. While it's true that throwing so much stuff in the garbage is a big problem that we're ignoring (when was the last time you visited a landfill?), it's important to scrutinize what goes in your blue and green bins, too. Of course any waste diversion is better than none, but minimizing our overall waste generation, whether blue, green, or black, is better. In other words, it's time for a waste audit!

Day 2 of No Impact Week called for examining the contents of a bag that I was supposed to fill with my "trash" from Day 1. Once again I should remind you that I'm not really participating this week, as it's too abnormal compared to my usual routine. Case in point: I stayed home on Day 1. Not bringing anything new to my place meant not opening any packages, not using any bags, and not accumulating receipts. My breakfast was toast, cut from a loaf of bread purchased on December 31st and brought home in a reusable shopping bag, and spread with peanuts-only peanut butter from a glass jar. Since I don't cut away the crust (who does that?!) and ate both slices of toast completely, no waste was generated. Lunch and dinner were leftovers from lots of big meals over the holidays, resulting in dishes and utensils that needed to be washed, but not much else. Between the meals? I read books, watched DVDs I had previously borrowed from a friend, had conversations on the phone and in person, and played games. Keep in mind that Day 1 of No Impact Week fell on January 2nd, a Sunday firmly wedged between two vacation days. Definitely not a normal waste generating day for me.

If I had to highlight areas I can - and will - improve on, then these are my top 5:

• Start carrying a reusable food container and utensils with me wherever I go, to complement my water bottle and insulated thermos. If I can't finish my meal at a restaurant, I won't need a styrofoam clamshell. If I can't avoid a quick lunch at a food court, I will at least be able to decline taking a plastic fork, knife, and/or spoon. I can even cut up an old shirt into many pieces and always carry one with me to use as a napkin, then wash them all at the end of the week.

• Invest in organic cotton produce bags for grocery trips. Often, I'll place certain fruits and veggies directly into my reusable shopping bag, then once at home, I'll reuse old plastic produce bags to store these items in the fridge. But purchasing a dozen apples at a time doesn't lend itself well to this procedure. So, instead of loading them into new plastic produce bags, I will start bringing my own to the store!

• Reduce the number of garbage bins in my home to two: one in the kitchen, and one in the bathroom. Then, increase the number of bins for compostable facial tissues such that there is one in each room! Most non-reusable, non-recyclable, non-compostable items are found in the kitchen and bathroom (if any of you come up with a reuse for floss, I'm all ears), while every other room generates virtually only facial tissue trash - which is green bin friendly where I live. By keeping these two streams as separate as possible, I can maximize my landfill diversion.

• Plan meals around what's in the fridge to avoid having to compost food that has gone bad. I'm actually really ashamed that this happens. Sometimes I cook a big meal too soon before leaving town for the weekend, and it's inedible when I get home. Other times I excitedly pick up some interesting groceries, then forget them at the back of the fridge until I notice them again for "that smell". I'd like to design some sort of a spreadsheet (laminated, to be used with dry-erase markers) that keeps track of the inventory of the fridge, including the dates on which certain items were purchased and cooked. That would make it a lot easier to use up food before it goes to waste.

• Buy groceries at my local farmers' market more often to avoid excessive packaging. This goes hand in hand with my second point about reusable produce bags! There are some veggies that automatically come with packaging in some stores. For instance, my local grocer carries imported spinach that has been pre-washed in a facility that subsequently places the greens in clear plastic containers. Why not instead purchase locally-grown spinach from a nearby farm with my shiny new cotton produce bags?

I'm glad to have discovered a few more simple actions, which, taken together, can noticeably lower my carbon footprint. Although it's comforting to know that I can recycle and compost most of the things I throw out, the best strategy of all is not to bring so much stuff home to begin with!

Stay tuned tomorrow for my thoughts on Day 3 - Transportation.

Photo credits: landfill compactor and cat with tissues.

Biodegradable materials are sitting in landfills, and that sucks.

Only two posts in and already there's a recurring theme in my blog: when people don't buy reusable water bottles and travel mugs, they often justify their consumption by proclaiming that plastic bottles are recyclable and (some) paper cups are biodegradable. "I'm doing my part", they say while complimenting the local corporate coffee house for bringing in those new recycling stations (don't get me wrong, I'm glad they've taken that step). We need to work harder at educating each other about what works and what doesn't when it comes to waste diversion initiatives, and make sure certain issues are being properly addressed.

Let's think about those fancy new biodegradable paper and plastic cups that can be found popping up at the office, often for catered meetings. My first concern is that the shiny green "biodegradable" label may only suggest that some fraction of the material can break down (which also makes me wonder if they used vegetable-based ink?), or worse yet, that the item could take centuries to decompose. I'd rather not even consider the possibility that some products marketed as biodegradable could break down only to release harmful toxins. As far as I know, there is no official definition for the term, no standards for making a biodegradable claim, and no regulatory body to separate the good from the bad and the ugly.

Another issue with these feel-good cups is what happens to them after the water and coffee has been consumed and the meeting is over. Off the top of your head, how many compost bins have you spotted scattered around your office building? I'm willing to bet the number is smaller than one for most of you. I'm also willing to bet that a lot of people out there think this is a non-issue, ignorant of the fact that the fate of a biodegradable cup is not so glorious when mixed with plain old garbage. Trash is compacted so tightly that biodegradation, if it occurs at all, takes place very slowly because of the anaerobic conditions of the landfill it ends up on. Add to that a relative lack of light and water in the middle of the heap, and a definite lack of the microorganisms that actually perform the biodegrading magic, and what we're left with is lettuce from the 1960's that has not decomposed. Ew.

The alternative? Bring biodegradable items home for municipal curbside green bin pick-up, which, unfortunately, is not without its share of problems. This program was designed with two important facts in mind: (1) people are prone to laziness, and (2) people can be easily motivated by money. I happen to believe in the universal application of these tenets - because I'm often one of those people! There are lots of communities where residents now have to pay if they set out too many garbage bags for collection (threat of losing money), which encourages waste diversion actions like separating compostables from inert trash. So, in the absence of a burning desire to get dirty in the backyard with a garden compost bin and so many possible uses for healthy soil (threat of physical activity - let's face it, we all like getting sweaty at the gym and only at the gym), people happily fill their little curbside green bins. Out of sight, out of mind, as is so often the case. Let's pretend there haven't been issues with organics sent to landfills because they were held in non-biodegradable plastic bags and simply because workers have been mixing them with regular trash.

But once again I'm letting my cynicism get the better of me. Every new program, green or otherwise, is implemented with lots of kinks that need to be ironed out, and eventually they will be. In the meantime, talk to your employer about setting up a composting program at work, or approach your condo board about getting in on the municipal organics collection program. If you're really keen, show up at the management office of your local mall and demand that they commit to setting up green bins alongside the recycling bins in the food court.


As for me, in September I look forward to moving out of my overpriced high-rise apartment and into a walk-up with a friendlier landlord in a quieter neighbourhood. There are many reasons for making this change, including the prospect of setting up a composter on the property and encouraging my new neighbours to help me turn vegetable scraps - and the occasional biodegradable cup - into rich soil. Next summer, get ready for backyard tomatoes!