pick up garbage

As you remove dirty dishes and dirty laundry, you are likely to discover items that can be thrown away.  This isn’t so much an article on how to pick up garbage as it is in asserting your motivation.

What Is Garbage?

Before you can set out on your adventure, however, let’s take a moment to analyze what garbage is.

According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, garbage has the following definition:

· things that are no longer useful or wanted and have been thrown out

· a container where people put things that are being thrown out

· something that is worthless, unimportant, or of poor quality (Retrieved 11/26/2013 from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/garbage)

A Constrained Spirit

There are days that I won’t walk the extra six feet and throw something away.  I’d rather just leave it on the end table in the living room or on the kitchen counter.  But then, I notice there are a lot of surfaces with this clutter type of trash.  It just says to me, “Hello!  Remember me?  Just reminding you how lazy you are.”

I don’t really know why I just leave things out like that.

Could it be laziness?

What Is Laziness?

Before we pick up the first piece of litter, it is important to attempt to understand why that litter is there.  If we don’t, we are likely to fall back into the habit again, putting us back to the beginning of what will become an overwhelming cluttered mess.

The definition of laziness from Thesaurus.com is an “unwillingness to work [or to] be active” (Retrieved 11/26/2013).  Some of the synonyms used to describe laziness are apathy, inertia, lethargy, negligence, sloth, and weariness.  Upon further inspection of these terms, to be a sloth, for example, is considered one of the “7 Deadly Sins” (http://www.deadlysins.com/sins/).

Wow!  How motivating!

[insert eye rolling]

Creating Momentum

First of all, I know that you are not unwilling to work or be active.  If that were true, then you wouldn’t be taking the time to read the information on this website.

Secondly, you may be dealing with someone else’s item that you may view as trash but that person may not feel the same way.

This happens a lot of times with my kids and those stupid toys that come with fast food meals.  The toys have improved actually from when I was a kid.  However, I feel guilty for wanting to throw them away, because the toys seem to have value at a certain level.  So, I walk away, not dealing with it.

Thirdly, you are not a sloth.  You are simply an unmotivated human.

Sir Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton, a scientist from the 17th century, described why an object will move or not move.  His first law of motion is the Law of Inertia where “an object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force” (Retrieved 11/26/2013, http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/newtlaws/u2l1a.cfm, Para. 2).

If you are riding in a car and the car suddenly stopped—using Newton’s Law of Inertia—you would continue at the same speed and direction of the car.  However, if you were wearing a seat belt as most of us are apt to do, your motion would be stopped by the unbalanced force of the seatbelt (Retrieved 11/26/2013, http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/newtlaws/u2l1a.cfm, Para. 9).

Your Spirit?

Your spirit is not unlike an object either at rest or in motion.  It takes a force outside of your spirit to change your inclination to either rest or to be active.  Right now, let me tell you when to rest and when to be active.  Eventually, you will recognize for yourself when you need to rest and when you need to be active.  Yes, it is okay to rest.  Even our heart rests in between the beats, so too must you.

Ready?

You may begin the next step in your journey, Pick Up Garbage: Action Steps.

Everyone knows how to pick up garbage, right?  Yes, but many of us lack motivation.  Motivation can simply be achieved by following a list of steps, a check list if you will.

Gather your supplies:

· Timer

· Your favorite upbeat music

· Garbage can

· Garbage bags

· Paper grocery sacks

· Disposable gloves

The First Room

Start with the room where you primarily enter your abode.  Some people enter through their front door, while others enter through a door that leads from the garage.  Wherever this may be for you, start in that room.

Line a garbage bag in your garbage can, open one paper grocery sack, and put on your disposable gloves.

It’s My Trash!  Why Disposable Gloves?

I tell you to put on disposable gloves for two reasons.

The first, and the most important reason, is that this action tells your brain that you are serious about the task at hand.  While those gloves are on, you are picking up items that are no longer useful, have no value, are worthless, or are unimportant.  When you are done, you throw the gloves away.  This action will instruct the brain that you are done and allowed to rest.

The second reason to put gloves on is so that you remove the ew and ick factor.  MANY years ago, after I moved out of my parents’ home and into my own place, I refused to do any chores.  After all, it was my home and my rules, right?

Well, it didn’t take me long to figure out that I did need to clean up after myself, you know, when people wanted to come over.  Soon, I found that those lazy moments would catch up with me and that bowl of Ramen noodles that I ate and shoved under the couch was definitely an ew moment.

Today, my housekeeping skills are much better as far as my picking up after myself.  That means I no longer put a bowl of anything from which I had eaten under any furniture.  However…I have three kids.  Anything goes when you have kids.  Because I have kids, I am compelled to look in areas that at a glance one would not think stuff could be there.  I have found many items that were icky, including live spiders.  With gloves on, I am not as apt to recoil from whatever unidentified item/substance I may find.

Note: Disposable gloves will not protect you from bites that you could get from spiders, bugs, and critters in general.  Please do not handle these live creatures with your disposable gloves.  Take appropriate actions to remove them, such as contacting a professional.

Gloves on?
Turn on the music, set your timer, and go!

What I want you to do today, is just go through your dwelling and pick up items you know to be rubbish.  Travel from room to room picking up items and placing them in the garbage bag that you are bringing with you from room to room.

Recyclables

Funny thing I have read about Oregonians is that they feel guilty about throwing away stuff (I Finally Sold My Car, Retrieved 1/13/15 and Only in Oregon, Retrieved 11/28/16).  I lived in Oregon for 13 years and I have to admit that I do fall in this category.  That isn’t to say my 25 years in Florida made me a happy-go-lucky type of individual where I just willy-nilly threw things out.  I didn’t actually.  I recycled as much as I was able to do so.  But the culture about being earth friendly in Oregon is more palatable, so the guilt runs deeper.

I have thrown away things that maybe I ought to have recycled and yes, I did go through a type of grieving process.  I know that some of you are reading this and are like, that is totally silly.  But some of you think the same way which adds to the demotivation of picking up after myself as well as the others.

If your spirit won’t be quiet in throwing away items that can be recycled, take a paper grocery sack so that you can put those items in there.  I hesitate to have you do one and then the other because your mind is already thinking “Pick up Garbage”.  Therefore, I recommend you look for trash and unwanted recyclable refuse at the same time but putting them in separate bags.  Using a paper grocery sack immediately lets you know that it is recyclable and can be easily tossed into a mixed recycling container.

Note: Follow your local area’s guidelines on what can be recycled.  If you don’t know at the time you want to start this step, consider throwing it away for now so that you can begin to set yourself free by organizing your spirit.

Go With The Flow

I tend to just do one room at a time where I will bring the trash can with me so that it will stand upright and require little effort for me in throwing items away.  For recyclables, I bring a paper grocery bag into the room.  When my paper grocery bag gets full, I place it in a designated spot for me to separate later and then I grab another paper grocery bag.

The point is to continue looking through the house for garbage with little reason to stop.

Distractions

Your focus is just garbage.  However, you notice that there are some items that aren't trash, because they still have value.  Not valuable to us because we no longer want them, but we say to ourselves that they may be valuable to others because they are still in good condition and can still be used by someone else.

Remember the first part of our definition of what garbage is: "things that are no longer useful or wanted..." (Pick Up Garbage: Motivation).

Therefore, these are items that you would consider giving away.

But how do you handle these unwanted items right now?

Since you are in the mode to gain energy and momentum, you ignore them and move on.

What?

That's right!  You ignore those "give away" items...for now.  You, also, ignore items that you want to set aside for a garage sale.

Your focus is just to pick up garbage.

What if...?

As you go around to pick up garbage, there are going to be many distractions.  One such distraction are the large clutter piles that might be trash, but we won’t know unless we sit down and go through it.

Don't!

You need to pick through that pile like a hungry person looking for food.  Quickly, quickly, quickly!

You can sit down later and go through it.  Right now, your focus is to immediately look for the trash and move on.

When you're finished, take all garbage bags to the trash can, curb, or other collection point.  If you recycled any items, this is the time to take them out of your dwelling as well.  You do not want either of these items left in your house.

Stop and Give Me Ten!

You have now completed the "Pick Up Garbage" step, and you're more than halfway finished with your journey in Getting Started to Organize Your Spirit.

Going forward, when you leave a room, complete the Action Steps of Pick Up Garbage by carrying it out of the room and into a trash can.  New habit established!

Now, you are now ready for the next step, Eat Well: What You Really Need to Know About Meal Planning.  Great job!