This morning was triumphant. I opened my bag where I had been gathering garbage from the day before, and found it virtuously lean. The contents included one foil and film apple chips bag, one aluminum cat food can, one cardboard toilet paper roll, and one paper pint that once housed the delicious pumpkin sorbet I finally finished off last night. And these materials didn’t bother me at all because they were all the remnants of purchases made long before this experiment started, and therefore atypical of my new waste-free way of life. Or are they? The apple chips I can certainly get without packaging at the cooperative supermarket in my neighborhood. But what about the sorbet? I’m definitely not going to stop eating ice cream. I don’t think that would be healthy for me or for anyone who knows me. Maybe I should learn to make my own. Or maybe I can find a creamery that will fill reusable containers. Yes. I can do this.

But then there’s the cat food can. This is going to be a problem. I go through one a day, which adds up to a lot of aluminum. I could buy the bigger cans so that the product to packaging ratio is higher, but my finicky kitties won’t eat refrigerated food. I have enough food for now so that I don’t have to solve this issue immediately, but I’m going to have to do some homework to come up with a better system.

And should I even mention the toilet paper roll? At least it’s recyclable, but when you think about it, it seems like we could come up with a more sustainable solution for this. What about reusable rolls that people keep at home and slide the new paper onto? Let this blog be proof that I thought of it first! And on that note, what does Colin Beaver do?

But back to my morning, which quickly turned into my afternoon. Greg and I finally took on our basement today, which has been cluttered for too long with boxes, old papers, neglected exercise equipment, clothes and more. My swelled head didn’t last long when I realized how much extra junk we had that we needed to get rid of. “I can’t put all this in my special No Impact Week trash bag,” I thought as we began to sort through the piles and piles of stuff. For convenience sake, part of me wished we hadn’t done this the week we’re supposed to be living so lightly. But after hauling two carloads (got that out of the way before carbon free transportation tomorrow) to Goodwill, three to Seattle’s recycling station, and a few bags to the dump, I really started to feel saddened by all the stuff we’ve been accumulating. The cardboard boxes alone would have provided enough recycled fiber to keep us in toilet paper rolls for years.

So not only have we been buying too much, we’ve also been hoarding it and contributing to the need for new production. Plus, a bunch of that stuff, since it was quickly surrounded by other stuff, never really got used. While we were down there, we found a bunch of books that never got read, several bottles of cleaning product that never got opened and an arsenal of kitchen supplies—e.g. tin foil, paper towels and garbage bags—that never got used. And meanwhile, we’ve gone out and bought new books, cleaning products and tin foil. It’s insane! I realized today that more than consuming fewer new goods, I need to learn to truly appreciate the goods I already have. Maybe then I’ll find fewer justifications to buy new goods, and in turn, throw less away. I mean why do we buy all these things in the first place? Certainly not so they can sit in the basement.

Today taught me that part of the process of transitioning to a low impact lifestyle is going to involve sifting through the mountainous piles of impact I’ve already got shoved into closets, boxes, and cabinets around the house. I only hope that after I’ve pared down, I can continue to keep the clutter of wasted stuff to a minimum.