Cleaning up and clearing out: The 3 Rs

Shortly before the activity, one of my sisters and I had taken a trip to Ridwell for a drop-off. They were taking Styrofoam (extruded polystyrene foam).

That was all we took, because we are rule followers. We did ask about "threads" (cloth remnants that cannot be used as clothing donations or things like that), because there hadn't been a threads collection for a while.

One thing that came out of that conversation was that a lot of people had brought their threads anyway, just hoping.

At least with Ridwell, they are taking the items so can refuse them. Many places sort donations later and may have to discard a lot. "Wishful recycling" may just increase overhead, but sometimes it also requires reporting to the government.

Passing your problem off to someone else does not actually get rid of a problem.

Later, it occurred to me that "fast fashion" is probably a big part of why it is so hard to find someone taking threads now; the places that can process it are full and running behind.

When they say "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle," it is important that it go in that order. Recycling is superior to the landfill, but it has its limitations, especially in a society that keeps producing surplus. Reusing and reducing will do more to keep a clean and healthy environment.

With that in mind, I am sharing the resource list that we sent out after the activity.

First, let me say that it is long because there are so many notes, but that precision is part of not "wishfully" giving someone else a problem while feeling like you did a good thing.

The other part is that there are constant change and updates. Don't be afraid to ask if you are not sure. 

If you need ideas, you can ask us. Part of our threads stash was ribbons, which we took to Scrap because they can be art supplies there. 

Finally, I do not list any sources for shred events for confidential papers like old tax returns. These usually come up as community events sponsored events. You probably don't have to wait too long for the next one, but it's just a different system.

Waste Management: Local trash and recycle pickups.

Recycling guidelines: https://www.wm.com/us/en/recycle-right

Ridwell: Not currently available for pickups in ward boundaries, but here is their mail-in information: https://www.ridwell.com/mail-in

SBC Recycle: 19040 SW Shaw Street Beaverton, OR 97078

Electronic Waste, lightbulbs, batteries, mattress, furniture, etc…

We recycle all electronics waste, most electronics or items with metal do not have a fee

• Computers, Laptops, Tablets, Servers and IT Equipment
• Monitors, Printers, Scanners, Cell phones and telephones
• Fax and Copy Machine, DISH and DirecTV Boxes
• Ink Cartridges, Routers, Hubs, and Modems
• Mouse and Keyboards Cameras, CD Players
• Radio’s, Speakers and Stereos
• TV’s, CD, VCRs and DVD Players
• Remote Controls, Disk and Floppy drives
• Gaming systems and components

… and more, if it has a cord or runs on a battery we will recycle it.

https://www.sbcrecycle.com/

Schoolhouse Supplies: 4916 NE 122nd Ave, Portland, OR 97230 for both Teachers and Students – Donate new or gently used classroom supplies

Schoolhouse Supplies accepts donations of new and gently-used, reusable school, office, and art supplies, and other learning materials that are suitable for classrooms by appointment only. Please check the list of items we currently accept/do not accept below before scheduling your appointment. We update this list frequently based on current inventory and whether items can be safely stocked in our warehouse. We do not accept items that are not suitable for a classroom, or that are broken, damaged, dirty, or in poor condition. If you have any additional questions about what to donate or what we accept, contact us using the email address or phone number listed below!

https://schoolhousesupplies.org/get-involved/donate-supplies

Blanchet House: 310 NW Glisan Portland, OR 97209 Our guests experiencing homelessness need new and gently used clean clothes. We invite you to donate adult-sized, seasonally appropriate clothing. We give out clothing and sleeping essentials during meal services and on an as-needed basis.

ATTENTION: Because we have VERY limited storage space, we can only take the most requested items listed below. We DO NOT accept dress clothes, children’s clothes, linens, or home goods.

https://blanchethouse.org/

Union Gospel Mission:11611 SW Pacific Highway

They accept clean clothes and linen, small home appliances (working), some furniture in good condition (limited capacity), televisions that are no older than five years, musical instruments, books, artwork, pots and pans, and jewelry. Items sold in thrift store provide training for LifeChange recovery program residents and support the program.

SCRAP PDX: 619 SE 6th AVE, Portland, OR  97214 We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to inspire creative reuse and environmentally sustainable behavior by providing educational programs and affordable materials to the community. Yarn
Fabric (yardage only, no scraps)
Working Sewing Machines and Sergers
Canvases (new and used)
Sketch Pads
Art Paints (no aerosols or house paint)
Paint Brushes
Jewelry
Beads
Glue (no aerosols)
Tape
National Geographic Magazines
Paper Bags with Handles

https://portland.scrapcreativereuse.org/

Aloha Community Library: 17455 SW Farmington Rd. Ste. 26A Aloha, OR 97007 The Aloha Community Library gratefully accepts donations of books, movies, and music in good condition.

We cannot accept:

• encyclopedias
• Reader’s Digest Condensed
• National Geographic
• VHS or cassette tapes
• items that are damaged, soiled, mildewed, infested, or missing parts

Any items that we are unable to incorporate into the library’s lending collections may go to our sales team to be sold online in our Amazon store or at in-person book sales. All sold items benefit library operations!

https://alohalibrary.org/

Also consider local food pantries, animal rescues, and Health and Human Services agencies. 

Cleaning up and clearing out: That's one way of looking at it

Back when anti-Marie Kondo sentiment was at its height, some started promoting Swedish death cleaning as an alternative.

With this method, there is no cute joy and gratitude and Asian-ness! It gets thrown over for Scandinavian (much whiter) morbid efficiency.  

The philosophy is that you want to spare others from having to clean up your mess. 

Having known multiple adult children who had to go through years' worth of possessions and paperwork, I appreciate that aspect. It has some flaws.

First of all, if you are tidying for yourself, you get rid of a lot of that anyway, but you are doing it for your joy. Wouldn't it be good for you to live in an organized home that is not full of detritus that no one will care about after you're gone?

By that same token, if there are things that you enjoy having around but you know that no one else will care about, shouldn't you be able to enjoy them to the end?

You can still plan ahead. Maybe your figurines can just go in the trash, or to a museum, or to a collector. A joyful tidying process still lets you know what you have and think about what to do with it.

Thinking about others is good, but only prioritizing others can leave you empty and sad, or maybe even bitter.

That can be balanced.

There is one other thing about it.

Based on the articles, Swedish death cleaning is more of a tradition than a philosophy attributed to one person, so you can see different versions.

In some versions, planning for your death means burning any evidence of secrets or problems.

I also know people who have found out devastating things after it was too late to get questions answered. I suggest that a better option is to deal with secrets and difficult communication now rather than destroying the evidence.

The current philosophy is that adopted children should be repeatedly told that they are adopted from the beginning. That way, it is part of their early formation and there is never a traumatic memory of finding out.

That method may have flaws. Regardless, previously there were families who never wanted their children to know, but whose children found out anyway in some manner that doesn't have any cushioning. Maybe it comes out through half siblings popping up through family history sites.

If there is a chance of that happening, clear it up now.

If there was something painful but not understood casting a shadow, clear it up now.

If you wrote journal passages or letters about hating someone, and you realize that you don't hate them anymore, well, maybe burn them, or maybe talk to the person, but do something for healing now.

Thinking about death can be a part of building a good life, but it can't be the only part.  

Cleaning up and clearing out: Changing approaches

Since we did not want to make people feel like contaminants (we wanted to be gentle and affirming), the obvious choice was to focus on Marie Kondo.

Marie Kondo is an organizing consultant and author, who had a Netflix series, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, in 2019.

For a while her name was everywhere and it drew a lot of criticism. I think part of that was racist and some of it was a bristly reaction to tamping down on the urge for more stuff, but some of it was also misunderstanding. Even now I see references to her and "minimalism" but that was never her theme.

Instead, she turned the focus to not what you get rid of, but what you keep, and that what you keep should be the things that spark joy. 

Yes, there is a risk of offending someone when you suggest that they are probably never going to read through that stack of books that has been collecting dust for years, or that they will probably never get back into those "skinny" clothes... the truth can hurt.

It is still beautiful to surround yourself with things that you love and make you happy, and she affirms that it leads to always having enough.

I will give some caveats. Her business started with people whose homes were so cluttered that they were calling in a consultant. That she worked in a densely populated city like Tokyo meant that most of her clients were probably dealing with smaller living spaces than we might have here on the West coast.

So if some of the methods that she uses seem more extreme than you need, that's okay. Just as you will value different things than other people, you may have your own techniques. It is worth figuring out what works for you.

We had four books on display that night (three by Marie Kondo), because even for taking in the information there were different options:

• The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
• The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up: A Magical Story
• Kiki & Jax: The Life-Changing Magic of Friendship   
• The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room

Can you spot which one is not by her?

On the same topic there are books for children, regular prose books, and a manga.

The manga is my favorite. I think that's because having the story focus on one person, Chieki, and her issues, made it more meaningful. I don't regret reading the others.

Chieki had things that she loved but could not find because of all of the other things in the way. In one scene, she can't find her charging cable and in the process sits on an eyelash curler. 

That did not spark joy. 

There were two things that really stayed with me. 

She'd had a tendency to shape her life around the guys she was interested, especially in regards to the hobbies she had tried (the source of a lot of the clutter). That was embarrassing, but needed to be understood. 

Part of that centered on a portrait of her that she really liked, but also had some sad associations. She was going to discard it, then she couldn't, but then after keeping it overnight she was ready to let it go. 

Maybe they are just "things" or maybe there is more there, and we need to deal it. We will feel better when we have resolved the emotions.

On the flip side, there was an old recipe book that she was sure she would be told to discard, but she couldn't bear to let go. Chieki was all ready to fight for it, but Konmari just said, "Please, keep it."

You may get defensive about your joy; you don't need to be.

Cleaning up and clearing out: Getting started

Technically the two library posts were the real start of the series, but this is about how we got started with the idea. 

There were some difficulties.

Initially we were thinking April... spring... spring cleaning... spring rolls! A plan!

If spring rolls seem like a stretch, they are traditional eating at the Spring Festival. I once helped roll up many for Lao New Year, which was happening in April. I have also seen them described as a delicious "celebration of the season"... it works.

It was also the primary thing that stayed the same. 

Shortly after we'd committed to that theme, an article popped up about more frequent cleaning causing decreased lung function.

https://www.greenmemag.com/health-nutrition/a-hidden-risk-in-daily-cleaning-the-toll-on-womens-lungs/

There's a sexist assumption in the title there, and RFK's CDC is sharing the study, which makes me suspicious, but that didn't seem like a good start.

Then, the night before the activity, April 6th, Maria saw that the day of the activity, April 7th, was National No Housework Day:

https://nationaltoday.com/national-no-housework-day/ 

Come on!

We had been doing some reconfiguring anyway, but it did give a general sense of doom.

Regarding the study, the issue appears to be the harsh chemicals that can be used in cleaning. Conducted in Norway, are their chemicals worse? I don't know.

Regardless, it doesn't have to be that way. You don't have to choose between cleanliness and the ability to breathe.

For starters, you can wear a mask when cleaning. You can use more natural products. That can mean purchasing gentler products or following those guides where you just use vinegar and water and maybe some lemon. 

There are options.

It did get me thinking about something else.

In Patricia McLachlan's book, Sarah, Plain and Tall, Sarah blows the hair she cuts out onto the wind so that the birds might take curls and weave them into nests.

Some time ago I was thinking about that and did a search. I found someone really angry about it. That hair will catch the birds feet and they will get stuck and die!

I'm not sure that's true, but someone else said you can compost hair (and dryer lint), and there was more anger: 

Do you color your hair? Those chemicals are bad!

I still have not put hair or dryer lint to compost -- better safe than sorry -- but I find that there are internet comments where anything about feeding wildlife or gardening things like sheet mulching or humans existing in general is just attacked.

There are a couple of problems with that. 

One is that if all you do is yell at people -- especially people looking for good things to do -- they are going to stop listening and maybe even trying.

So when you show the pictures of angel wing in ducks who eat bread thrown to them, if you are shaming humans rather than explaining what you can safely feed them, maybe they will stop feeding ducks altogether, but maybe they will keep feeding them bread because how can you feel confident in these rabidly yelling people who hate you?

The other problem, though, is that I don't think it's very helpful to view yourself and your loved ones as contaminants.

You should think about your impact on those around you -- wild and domesticated -- but it should be possible to believe that you can do some good. 

The Library of Things

Here is an area where I am going to be kind of a hypocrite; I love the concept of the library of things more than I love the library of things itself.

Part of that is me not having much interest in a lot of things; I already own plenty of things and I don't want more. 

However, if I thought that I might want to own something but was not sure, there is a good chance that there would be something I could try through the library.

https://wccls.bibliocommons.com/v2/search?query=library+of+things&searchType=smart 

I could try out a soprano ukulele, or a cake pop maker, or a metal detector.

If there was something I would only need once, like a car dent puller kit, or a shaved ice machine, or a VHS to DVD converter, those are all things I could borrow for that one time.

There are ways in which it is less convenient. Books will get sent to the library you request them at, and can then be turned in at any library in the system. For these items, you need to pick them up and return them to the owning library. 

Many of them would be awkward to ship; I get that.

In addition, if the single use you want is an event with a firm schedule, availability could be an issue. All copies of the backyard movie kit are currently on hold. 

There is an option to put things on hold for later, so that might be something to look into, but it is probably better if your use is flexible.

Where I tend to think it could be most useful is in giving children access to new things, perhaps especially over the summer. 

Try playing with these Magna-tile puzzles.

Let's try some different musical instruments. 

Maybe you will find something you want to commit to, but there are plenty of options to just try. 

The beauty of the library in general is that you have access to things without needing to own them. My primary use for that is books, with occasional DVDs.

It doesn't have to be limited to that. 

https://www.wccls.org/using-library/get-card#mauticform_wrapper_verifyregister 

If nothing else it's just fun to browse. 

Using the library

This is not the series that I was thinking about, but it can be a smaller series.

We are working on an activity that is kind of going to be about spring cleaning, though kind of not. That will take multiple posts, and there are things I do not necessarily want to give away just in case anyone who will come also reads my blog.

Regardless, one thing I was thinking about was how much the library saves.

When I was in school I used the libraries a lot. Once I had graduated it was not as convenient, plus having disposable income was exciting and I bought a lot of books. In addition to the money spent -- some of which was not necessary -- those books still takes up lots and lots of shelf space.

Sometimes I borrow something from the library and decide I want to own it. That is a much better reason for buying something than just thinking a book sounds interesting.

I remembered that once they gave us a year end printout with the number of items we had borrowed and the cumulative value. I thought that could be good information, so I asked about that yesterday.

Actually, if you get a checkout receipt, they always have the amount for that day's pickup. I don't usually get a receipt; I believe in reducing, reusing, and recycling, and it's not like I'm not regularly checking my due dates online. For research, I got the slip:

Today you saved $111.93 by using your library.

That was only five items. (We had just done a pickup on Thursday.) It was mainly picture books, though, and those are pricey.   

They were able to bring up a report for the year-to-date, which also gives the lifetime.

The amount saved for this year, as of March 29th, was $13,954.13. Lifetime was $105,411.07.

Now, I suspect that lifetime amount is only since the Aloha Community Library joined up with Washington County Cooperative Library Services, and also I doubt it counts the inter-library loan books (which we use a lot) as their prices would not be in the system.

Still, it's pretty impressive.

I was thinking about what would happen without the library. We would not spend that much. It wouldn't even be practical. We would certainly buy some, probably including some used, and maybe we would trade with friends, but mostly it would just be fewer books.

Perish the thought! 

It is recommended that children read (have read to them, really) one thousand books before starting kindergarten. Five years is over 1800 days, with daily reading starting early, there is plenty of time. 

Picture books are pricey. 

A child should have books that they own, too, and can get back to, but having a whole library system to choose from is so valuable.

I loved having a variety of books at home, and there are still old favorites, but it is a wonderful thing to have this rotating stock with so much available.

I love the library. Give it a chance and it will love you back.

https://www.wccls.org/using-library/get-card#mauticform_wrapper_verifyregister 

 
Related posts:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2014/07/library-memories-part-1.html  

Between themes

I'm really tired and I don't know what to write about.

The good thing about getting one theme is that generally the material starts writing itself, as I remember all of these different aspects to an idea and feel like they should all be explored.

That is not the case today. 

There is something that I have in mind to do, but I am not ready to get started.

It is not impossible that my staying up late last night to finish the next segment of my research paper contributed to the tired body and brain.

I hope that's not going to be too big of a factor, because that's going to be happening a lot.

I'm probably still adjusting to the time change. 

Related posts: 

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2026/03/only-nine-tasks-left.html