Its Gotta Go

As an Owner/Partner in a junk removal business, called:

ITS GOTTA GO RESOURCE RECOVERY,

I can tell you I have seen some messes in my time. The amount of stuff, baffling.

Which, once I was actively working in the industry, I became painfully aware of. Through the organization of other people’s clutter, I quickly developed a strategy for sorting that was designed to remove recyclables from garbage, contain and remove donations, and curate the valuable.

The lessons Of Mindfulness I have heard so many times from people wiser than I.

My Father, for one, gloaming towards racks of clothing pretending to gobble them all up. At 16, I was mortified by his unabashed display of mockery to the consuming masses. Today, I am beyond grateful for the lessons in mindfulness that my father bestowed upon me, in what I later came to understand as desperation. Desperation to impart his perspectives about societal norms that he deeply disagreed with.

30 years later, tens of thousands of tons of “junk” sorted, have provided a glaringly apparent understanding of the necessary versus the pathological.

One Mans Trash is another Mans Treasure; became more than an adage; It became a business plan, a very lucrative business plan.

Among other things I have accomplished, garbage is something I have come to understand in some pretty multi-dimensional ways.

The clutter of physical stuff, the cloying asphyxia of survivor trauma, the bereft, dejected, and overwhelmed. The heart wrenching visuals of a whale carcasse bloated with plastic debris.

All of the above enough to descend our world into despair.

As a retired community support worker, I could never have guessed that I would require those skills to be a junk removal specialist; but I could not have been more wrong. Cleanups often get called into us from landlords, real estate agents, bereft families and community services.

The stories of many people’s lives have been sifted through my hands.

I have comforted grieving mothers, wives, and offspring. I have delivered good used furniture to youths who are coming off the street. I have negotiated the discernment of valuables from garbage with some very sad and lost human beings.

We actually have had a borderline psychopath hoarder, stalk us. We had to involve the police on three separate occasions due to his harassment. He was so very attached to the garbage he was living with.

I have seen unapologetic consumerism.

So many people attempting to fill a void, to appease their sense of emptiness and powerlessness; with material possessions. It is a symptom of the greater societal issue of disconnection with nature, paired with the unrealistic pursuit of instant gratification.

The waves of garbage have at times overwhelmed my husband and I. We are a Mom and Pop Operation. Starting out with an $800 Chevy Cheyenne, with a home made box, that we charged $200 to fill. We graduated to a 24ft cube truck. Through sheer volumes of junk removed, gardens built, walls painted, and furniture delivered, today our business is worth close to a 1/2 million!

Along the way, we have left smiles on the faces of relieved landlords whose properties have been left in very poor condition, received donations from the wealthy, of furniture and household items, delivering them to Habitat For Humanity Restore. Also to our local charitable thrift shops. Through all of this, I have created a list. A list of absolutely un necessary items. Items you would not miss, but continue to buy and throw away. Items that have crossed my path hundreds of thousands of times.

To pare it down to three, three that are the most un-disposable, will be a challenge, but for the sake of furthering our responsible and mindful consumerism, I will proceed.

The Mindful Consumer Mini List

1. Plastic toys
2. Gimmicky vacuum cleaners
3. Unrecylable chemical compounds

When it comes to recycling, there is a lot of confusion and difficult to acquire information.

MINDFULNESS

When it comes to choosing products, products that are essentially created based on consumer preference, you the consumer have much more power than you realize. Markets are driven by the consumer, what we buy, they make more, what we ignore goes out of production fairly quickly. This is the truth about supply and demand. We must become more demanding about what we are supplied, not always by protesting or marching, but simply by opting out of products, services, and economies that are not driven by or connected to Mindfulness, sustainability, and true usefulness.

we can find some power by using our hard earned dollars to vote for the highly repairable, repurposable, or recyclable.

Opting out of buying plastic toys for our kids would make a

MASSIVE IMPACT.

1. Plastic Toys

This will require thoughtfulness and creativity granted, but it’s not impossible. It doesn’t need to be expensive either. In the rearing of my four sons, I have learned so much about children, their needs, and what inspires and engages them.

Build, or hire someone to build their outdoor play equipment, invest in larger ticket, but fewer items, that pack the biggest educational/enjoyment punch. Bicycles, dirt bikes, science equipment, archery set ups, musical instruments, puppet theatres, and art supplies.

Not to mention EXPERIENCES!

This I have found to be of the most value when it comes to cultivating engagement, curiosity and connected bonds that foster learning.

Watch and observe where their skills and interests lie, and provide Play Equipment. Perhaps it is handmade, or made with the best, most recylable materials. The link in this paragraph is for an absolutely fantastic subscription box of customizable, quality toys made with sustainable materials to match any interest.

Children don’t need heaping toy boxes full of half broken plastic, they need their curiosities encouraged and embraced. Teach them to repair their belongings, and to care for and value the items that bring them the most joy.

The Mindfulness Matters Consumer No No list

2. The Gimmicky Vacuum.

These I have a pretty long-standing hate/hate relationship with, myself the explorer of options to quickly and efficiently remove dirt from my home. Bottom line; THE SHOP VAC. That’s right, they are sturdy, utilitarian, simple, manouverable, no obscure vacuum bags to hunt down, and

🎊VERY CLEANABLE 🎊

Also, I have never picked up a Dyson Vacuum in all my years doing junk removal, and I have disposed of a MOUNTAIN of vacuum cleaners. Many can be recycled as metal if they have more than half of their components made of metal. You can’t throw plastic ones in the garbage without removing their motors, so the process to throw them “AWAY” is more complex than most would imagine.

3. Finally, unrecylable chemicals

Here some real discernment becomes very necessary. In my time doing junk removal, many, many clients have amassed shops full of chemicals they cannot dispose of.

Inevitably, my husband and I have ended up with several households worth of these chemicals on our hands.

We learned that the only way to dispose of these, was to sign up for a once a year collection, by a very specialized chemical disposal company that is brought in by whatever governing body is in charge of your local transfer station.

What these companies do with their sludgy and toxic booty, I shudder to imagine. I think it bares some research on our parts as consumers, prior to the purchase of anything that is not compostable, or declared organic or environmentally friendly. What are we using these chemicals for? Is there a natural alternative? How much of this chemical will we actually require?

Top three most offensive and Indisposable chemicals.

1. Pesticides
2. Solvents and adhesives
3. Industrial cleaners

So this Spring, when you’re cleaning out your shop, spare room, or barn, take the extra time to discern the materials with which you wish to part. Remember there is no AWAY!

On a final note, I will share one item I almost never get my hands on in a junk removal....

Duct Tape!!

As a Canadian I am sure this is all credit to our nationally famous Mr. Red Green!

Blessings in All Your Endeavours to be conscientious consumers