Living Alone: a Golden Opportunity to be Green
Last updated September 19, 2008
Living alone is such a golden opportunity to do your bit for the planet - you make your own rules. To some people, living alone may seem like the ultimate hell, with overtones of loneliness, loss, or even failure. But like most things in life, attitude can turn negatives into positives, and in terms of the environment, living alone is an absolute winner. Because really, how much does one person actually need? If you're being honest, the answer is almost certainly "not nearly as much as I have."
Given the forces that have gradually maneuvered you into this state of over-supply and over-consumption, coming to terms with the idea of less may mean a serious rethink. Take your time. You may have spent your life so far catering to other people's tastes and requirements as well as your own. You may have fallen prey to the pressures of keeping up with the neighbors or changing with the times, or the consolations of retail therapy. Whatever the reason, your previous self deserves respect for its efforts on your behalf at the time.
But times change. Accept the past with gratitude, and realize that you now have the delicious freedom of being answerable to no one but yourself. Embrace it. Revel in it. The planet will love you, and it may be the most empowering thing you ever do. But before you psych yourself into an orgy of impulsive and liberating clutter-clearance, there are a few things you should bear in mind.
First and foremost, never dispose of something you love, however bizarre, trivial, sentimental, useless or unused it may seem and however stupid you may feel for keeping it. If you love it, it's part of you. Giving it away is a very bad idea, and you're bound to regret it. Put it back on the shelf and move on.
Secondly, if you're disposing of something you know a friend, relation or neighbor covets or would find useful, offer it to them first, or if it's valuable and you need the money, give them first option. Not everyone has your new and enlightened attitude to possessions, and finding yourself the target of their resentment, however unjustified, is not part of the plan.
Thirdly, if you're keeping clothes on the off-chance of losing/putting on weight, don't bother. You probably won't, and if you do, they'll be outdated anyway. The same applies to styles you're hoping will cycle back into fashion. They might, but the outfit you had at 30 isn't likely to suit you at 60, and what's more, you can guarantee there'll be some subtle but essential variation to the modern version that marks your treasure for what it is - a has-been.
And lastly, despite the promise of technology, paper accumulates with a speed that leaves you and the planet breathless. Yes, you may need to keep financial records for a while in case the IRS gets nosy, and most of us have documents worth preserving for historical reasons. There will also be cards, letters, programs and the like that come into the category of things you love. But that aside, there's still likely to be a forest's worth of out-of-date paper just begging to be recycled. Do it.
Beyond that, view everything with a ruthless and critical eye. Do you really like the lamp you bought when orange was fashionable? Will you ever play Trivial Pursuit again now that Joe's taken his sorry self to Alaska? And the spectacles you wore ten years ago - are they really of use now, even as a backup? The corn popper, the milkshake maker, the extra linens, the second TV, the spare dinner service you had to have and the ugly present from Auntie Flo that you kept out of guilt - do you really need them now, or do they sit there like lumps of the past and obstacles to the future? Be honest, here. Wouldn't it feel better to have the space?
How you approach this project depends on you. You may choose to attack it with a random gusto that leads to temporary chaos, on the principle that you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs. On the other hand, you might prefer to be systematic, taking it room by room or category by category. Whatever the method, the outcome will hopefully be the same: a lot of stuff that's of no use to you is about to find a better home.
However you choose to dispose of this surplus, the benefits are obvious. If an injection of cash would be helpful, look at the avenues available in your area and online. Someone is certain to need what you don't, and both of you will come out ahead. If money isn't an issue, then charities and charity shops are the answer. Need here has a whole different meaning. Don't underestimate it. Either way, as best you can, you and your ex-possessions are helping rebalance the world's resources.
But for you personally, this is only the tip of the iceberg. By de-cluttering your home, you're giving yourself the personal space to grow, rather like a plant when the surrounding weeds are removed. And as a one-person household, you're in a position to make that new space the cleanest and greenest on the block.
There are no prizes for being a masochist - or a minimalist, if that isn't your style - but you haven't culled your possessions with a view to replacing them. You don't have to please anyone else, remember, and the clearing-out process will have taught you what you really need, what you really love, and what you can well do without. This puts you in a perfect position to see the pressure to consume for what it is: a commercial ploy and a threat to the planet. The more you buy, the more resources will go into making another one, so how long would you really use that new-fangled thingamabob that's all the rage? Be open-minded about it, but a pause for thought before you buy might quite literally help to save the world.
You may need to pause a little longer to think this one through, but the nature of heating, cooling, lighting, washing, cooking, getting about - and even doing nothing - can all change when you live alone, and now that you've cleared the decks in a material sense, it's time to clear the mental decks with equal enthusiasm and adopt a new and constructive attitude to energy consumption. Once again, you may be battling the habits or expectations of a lifetime to reeducate yourself, but your own financial gain will be almost as great as the benefit to the ozone layer.
Think carefully. Do you need a gas-guzzling people-carrier for one person? No. In today's climate, big cars are even losing their prestige value, and as for parking… Nor do you need every light in the house ablaze, and if they are, there's no one to blame but you. There's no reason to run the dishwasher every night for one person - or at all, believe it or not - and you can certainly cook dinner for one without using every hotplate on the hob. Sadly, it seems unlikely that clothes lines will ever regain favor, but if you're lucky enough to have access to one, use it. Hanging out your own clothes can be strangely soothing, and the smell of sun-dried sheets is Green in action.
There are some situations that have no upside, but they're few and far between, and living alone isn't one of them. It might be confronting, but it can also be more exhilarating than you ever imagined. Perhaps for the first time in your life, the choices are all yours - so why not choose to be Green? Kermit came the conclusion that green was beautiful and what he wanted to be, and once you try it, the chances are good that you will too
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