Waste not, want not

Although simplicity is something I aspire to, I am generally bad at reducing the amount of stuff I have. Packing up my house after a year, so that the owners could return, highlighted to me how quickly I have accumulated things. Living in PNG, when I’m not certain when I might be able to find something again, has not helped. It means I increasingly acquire or store things ‘just in case’.

I am not the only one with this problem. Because things can be hard to find when needed, many people bring extra items into the country, but do not take them with when they leave. It is not worth paying for the shipping. This results in an internal-to-the-organisation market of bits and pieces. At the community sale I picked up some great retro kitchen canisters that would cost a lot more at home. From friends going away I’ve ended up with half bottles of moisturiser, half used kitchen items and so forth. The internal ‘wanted’ and ‘for sale’ e-boards have a constant stream of unexpected items.

People are known to sell their house as is, including unsorted storage sheds. This often results in a garage sale to redistribute the contents to those who want them. It can mean interesting discoveries; such as the person who had boxes of rags, all cleaned and sorted into ‘white, cotton’, ‘coloured, cotton’ etc. My fabric collection has increased from such sources… from the sales that is, not from the rags!

When sorting my house I found that the zips on my old backpack had finally stopped working. This was not a problem, as I’d already bought a replacement from someone’s clearing sale before they went ‘finish’. Instead, I got out my scissors and cut off all the useful bits to add to my sewing box…buckles, clips, internal zips… they all went in the pile before the backpack went in the bin. I have already made myself a laptop bag from the zips and straps retrieved from another bag and the fabric from second hand clothing, so I’m sure these zips will come in handy too. I left enough of the clips on my backpack that should someone choose to recycle it from the tip and get the zips working again, it could still be used.

That was the point at which I realised I’d very much become a part of the waste-not, want-not culture and the absolute truth that one person’s junk surely is another’s treasure!