Green & Gorgeous Domestic Goddess

CLEARING OUR CLUTTER & MAKING CONNECTIONS

Written by Angela Stewart
Our Green & Gorgeous Domestic Goddess

Recently we booked a council pickup to collect excess waste and ‘rubbish’ from our little piece of paradise.  My husband, our three children and myself spent a very productive Sunday morning in the early spring sunshine transferring our accumulated junk to the nature strip ready for collection by the Council truck on the following Tuesday morning.

Mission Complete…. but as I cast my eyes over the huge collection of ‘rubbish’ on our nature strip, spreading nearly the width of our street frontage, the joy I had felt moments ago when I surveyed our clear yard and carport quickly disintegrated… I was guilty seeing all that junk being crushed in the back of the Council truck and being deposited straight into landfill!!!!  My green conscience was not resting easily and I was racked with guilt that we had taken the lazy option towards clearing our clutter.

However my dismay quickly turned to amazement as car after car slowed down and surveyed our collection.  Many of the slow cars turned around and returned, parking safely along our street and quickly saving from the scrap heap item after item of our discarded junk.

Over the course of the next few hours our pile rapidly disappeared, and I rested a little easier.  We said a pleasant good morning and hello to quite a few strangers, one of whom turned out to be a new next-door neighbour, who was just unpacking.  As it transpired he was in need of quite a few household items – so next door we trekked with a few more boxes that had been designated for donation – this eased my conscience even further – now I wouldn’t have to drive and contribute more to our greenhouse gases, to drop these boxes off to charity.

So during the course of one morning we decluttered, connected and made a few collectors very happy with the junk we had discarded, and found that it was possible to combine all these activities in a way that involved our whole family… which after all what Sunday is all about.

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A little about our latest member of the Gorgeous Things writing team, the gorgeous Angela Stewart.

In my mid thirties, I am a proud wife and mother of three wonderful children, ranging in age from 6 to 4 years – including twins.  Together with my husband, I run a carpentry and maintenance business from home.We are currently completing a home extension, and filling up our veggie patch in anticipation of the warmer months – here in Queanbeyan we are very keen for summer.

During the last few years I have been involved in our childrens’ preschool and the local multiple birth association, and I am looking forward to increasing my involvement in our eldest daughter’s primary school and joining the soon to be established environmental committee there.

My other interests include recycling, staying healthy and looking good, and providing healthy food and activities for my children, and others I am privileged enough to have contact with.