Woe is me: A Packrat’s Dilemma
Posted on | April 19, 2009 | No Comments
One of the things that I didn’t understand for a long time was that to lessen my impact on the Earth, I needed to consume a lot less stuff. Part of my urge for consumption in the first place surely comes from being an American – as Americans, we are told that consumerism is, in and of itself, a very American activity. Buy buy buy, and our economy stays healthy! After 9/11 we were even told to go shopping. As I love shopping, this was not a problem for me. 
)
But as got older, I started to realize where all of my stuff was coming from, and how all of it was made, and neither of these learning experiences was very comforting. Add to that my instincts for “harvesting and hoarding” that I got from my grandparents (who lived through the Great Depression), and voila – I am now a packrat. I’m not untidy – I’m quite organized about it actually – but I just have way too much stuff.
So I’m purging. Again. It seems as if I’m always purging. I’ve written previously in other places about ways to get rid of stuff, or repurpose it, so that you don’t contribute to the waste stream any more than necessary. But what about those things that you can’t just give away? For instance, CDs?!?
I have a lot of CDs. I mean, who doesn’t? And I don’t just mean music CDs, I mean CDs that you’ve used for projects or to backup your computer. I’m not quite willing to part with my music CDs yet (and I’m trying to figure out when I will be ready to do that) but all of those backup CDs I just don’t need anymore. I only need a few DVDs for storage, not a stack of 100 CDs, but I surely can’t just throw them all away. They have important stuff on them, don’t they? Like all of my work!
All of this is really leading up to my latest idea, which is to take these CDs and turn them into a mobile. I love mobiles! They are so cool. Obviously I’m not the first person to ever have this idea but the real challenge will be what to put on the fronts of them to make it look tasteful. Here’s one I found on the internet in a Google search; I like it but I think I’m going to take it farther than this….
If anyone has any suggestions for what to do with my CD mobile, let me know!
Tags: electronics > home > materials > recycling > waste
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