Reusing this week: plastic containers with lids

My husband and I were discussing buying new plastic storage containers from Target (on sale this week for $5) to store things in. These containers should help us keep the kids stuff neater. I would prefer to not spend-it, as you know, so I was thinking about solutions....

We recycle almost all plastic and paper that comes through our front door. I was washing an empty cherry tomato container when I realized that these containers didn't have to go straight to the recycling bin. We could reuse them first! They are the perfect size for little boy toys. 

 

I've been saving them, and the larger ones that spinach and mixed greens come in, and we'll re-purpose them for storage. 

My sister-in-law is a philosopher (really, she has a PhD and teaches it!) and she said one of her students did a paper on the 3Rs, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  The conclusion of the paper was that while recycling is good, it should not be the primary mode of "Greenness" (my quotes, not hers). First we should try to REDUCE our consumption of things, and if we HAVE to purchase or consume something, then we should try to REUSE it, and when we have used it all the way up, we should then RECYCLE it. 

It is the perfect story for this blog. 2012 is my year of REDUCE, and when I do consume, I will try as much as I can to REUSE things before RECYCLING them.  See? By reusing, I may just be saving $5 or more that I could have spent at Target. 

We have enough

Our family makes more money than we ever thought we would make, but we live in an area where many people make more money than us. We aren't actively "trying" to keep up with the Joneses, but our bills in the last year say differently.

Every month we wonder why we have so many bills, and why are they so high? Why can't we save as much money as we'd like? Why can't we give more money away to charitable causes?

We wonder if we will be able to afford to send our children to Catholic school. We wonder if we will be able to afford preschool for our children. Is preschool even a justifiable expense when I'm not working and I still owe money for my student loans?

I'm starting this blog to keep me accountable to my goal for 2012. I want to stop shopping. We have too much stuff around our home. It is impossible for me to keep it clean. I'm running out of places to store things. Our closets are overflowing, and most of it is "junk" that we couldn't live without.

I can always think of excuses to buy more stuff, but I'm wondering can we live with the things we've already purchased? Think of us as the anti-hoarders. Anti "buy more to save more" family. Can we make use of what we already have to make our lives happier, simplier... and maybe by the end of the year a little bit richer?

And if we can make our lives richer in money, what could we do with it? Could we actually amass 6 months of living expenses in our Savings account like we are supposed to have? Could we pay down our debt? Could we outright own our home? Could we give rightly to charitable causes? Could we buy an entire Heifer International Ark? Could we supply water to a village in Central America? Could we get rid of all of the "extra stuff" we have stored around the house by actually using it instead of forgetting it is there? I hope we can do some of those things. I've got a month to get ready to actually do it.

Are you with me? Join the movement.