A few months ago, my husband brought home 6 plastic waste-baskets. Why? He works for a place that makes kitchen and closet organization units. No kidding! He's married to a woman who refuses to throw away most papers or let anyone touch her stuff...hey, that's ME! I'm not as fanatical as the packrats on the Dr. Phil show, but my amount of mail, magazines, and newspapers is very noticeable. He brought all those home because they were scuffed or dented, not in perfect condition to be sold to the public. Are you kidding again? Trash containers need to be in pristine condition at the point of sale! Yeeesh!!
Anyway, the kids had been asking for waste baskets for their bedrooms and I always said "NO! If you have one then you'll suddenly create a lot more trash than you ever did before, just so you can throw it away!" I was absolutely right, that's exactly what happened. It happened to me too, now that I have something to throw garbage into, I create a lot more of it. I still don't throw away my papers, now I just sit here eating all day and tossing apple cores and snack wrappers into my little waste-basket because I have one right next to my desk. This is SO much better than when I had to actually get up and walk 10 feet to the kitchen to throw something away! Now we have a waste-basket everywhere we turn, and they all have stuff in them. Now I have to dump those out all the time. It's incredible that so much waste can be created where there was none before, or when we had to WALK a few steps to throw it away.
That reminds me of when I was a teenager and I asked my dad if I could have a desk in my bedroom instead of doing homework at the kitchen table. His answer was "NO! Because you pile up junk on every flat surface!" Hmmmm....do you think he knew who I am?
If you build it, they will come. If you put a waste-basket there, they will make waste just to fill it up. If you put a flat surface there, they will put something on it. Amazing!
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