We decided (I really mean Michelle decided) to clean up our closets today, so we purged (I really mean Michelle purged) a metric shitload of stuff that we haven't used in years, was broken, or just don't need anymore. I went through the disaster area called my den and cleaned out a big garbage bag full of stuff plus untold bags of recycling. I haven't really even tackled a big box of old cables and power supplies yet either.

I love gear and goodies as you all know, but I'm a bit appalled by the amount of garbage we generate as a family of four. Between the packaging and discarded possessions, we take out a huge garbage can each week plus we do a biannual run to the dump for bigger stuff.

What's more, I don't think we generate as much garbage as many households since we cook a lot from scratch (which means less packaging), we recycle heavily (we have mixed recycling bins around here so we can dump everything into a single bin -- very nice), we compost, we buy generally high quality items (so we break stuff less often), and we donate good quality used items.

In any case I have a renewed enthusiasm for the wise (if overused) advice of "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle". No reason to leave an unnecessarily messed up world for the boys.