What, Yet Another Blog!?

Welcome to twigg hugger!

I started this blog for a number of reasons, one being that I recently completed graduate school (a most unusual and uncommon experience, but that's another tale for another blog) and I've finally got time to once again turn my attention to other interests and pursuits. I am also responding to Barbara Sher's Jolly 2007 Challenge, which is to pick a project for '07, something fun and enjoyable and to write about it.

One such project is my personal quest to "unconsume"(see R. Walker's murketing blog for a definition of this concept), which actually began around September (not coincidentally, just about the time I finished school). Being somewhat of a packrat, my tiny little apartment was just overflowing with stuff! I knew I had to somehow figure out a way to get rid of this accumulation. However, as many of you fellow diehard packrats know, this can be terribly difficult to do, especially if it seems like its still good or useful stuff. What if you need it again? Or, better yet, maybe someone else could use it...? Therein lies the Packrat's Dilemma! It is very hard to get rid of stuff that is or might still be useful, either to oneself or somebody out there, now or in the future!

But this time I was determined. I scoured the Internet for donation, reuse or exchange options. As in the past when I attempted this, I found that unconsumption/reuse is easier said than done. Mostly what I tended to find were articles with generic laundry lists of suggestions for what to do with stuff in theory, like "Don't toss those magazines out, donate them to a senior citizen's home or your local library!" but very few references to any individuals or organizations who were actually accepting such donations in practice. Organizations tend to have specific needs and wants that didn't necessarily include or overlap with one's need and desire to get rid of things.

Nevertheless, I am nothing if not persistent, and slowly but surely, I began to find new homes for a variety of items, thus allowing this packrat to begin to stumble out of the clutter maze! If you are as serious a packrat as I am, this task may seem daunting, but as with any large task, if you break it down into a lot of tiny ones you'll gradually see results. And that's what this blog is mainly about. How an ordinary, regular person can take tiny steps towards divesting themselves of their clutter in both a personally satisfying and eco-friendly manner. Perhaps the idea of hugging a tree is overwhelming. So, just start off small and do it one twigg at a time, and you'll get there!

In this blog, I will describe my journey to do just that. I will discuss not only the solutions I found, but the "customer" experience (another one of my interests) of doing so, because let's face it, the more difficult and/or unpleasant a task is, the more likely we are to procrastinate or avoid it altogether. And, as I stated previously, being eco-conscious can sometimes seem like something that takes too much effort, persistence and time. On the other hand, we cannot continue to bury our heads in the sand about the consequences either (can you say melting polar ice caps...?) Hopefully as you read these pages you will come to see that it can be a more convenient habit.

Finally, a special shout out to some fabulous and dynamic ladies I met earlier this week at an Idea Party. Along with the Jolly 2007 Challenge, meeting and talking with them also gave me the final push to galvanize myself to actually start the blog instead of just thinking about it!