The TWO things that I see the most of, that are creating the most content of clutter of most homes is toys and clothes, it’s an insane situation and frankly I consider it tragic from the veiw point of wasted resources in an age where there is growing concerns about the environment. Enormous volumes of ofbrightly coloured plastics in the form of kids toys are being produced each year and I would hesitate to say that vast amounts of those barely ever see any real use let alone become any kind of treasured possession.

I worked as a nanny many years ago in a home on a framing property 40 kilometers from the nearest town and the children had every conceivable toy all of which totally filled the cupboards of their very large former kitchen. In addition they also had other large crates of toys. Yet! they spent most of their time playing with cardboard cartons and felt pens, a treasured John Deere tractor or two in the sand pit and a couple of plush toys!

Children love to create and need to do so! Toys that are already complete provide stuff all for them to imagine or create for themselves. The use-life of so many toys these days would have to be measured in mere minutes I would guess maybe hours if you’re lucky. What an incredible waste of energy resources and money! SO many end up in landfill – all those teeny bits of plastic parts to bizarre little toys that after the first use bits are missing.

How much money gets spent by parents – often those who can least afford it – on toys when teh money could be saved toward something more meaningful and memorable however transient that might be.

THEN there’s all those bleedin’ clothes OMG! the insanity, here’s the drill:

• The laundry doesn’t get done on time, efficiently etc etc
• Clothes aren’t available when required – mind impression = we don’t have enough clothes
• More clothes are purchased + old clothes & outgrown clothes aren’t ditched
• Laundry load gets larger creating further delays in getting laundry processed so…..
• Buy more clothes…… and so it goes

Before you know there’s piles of dirty and clean laundry a kangaroo couldn’t jump over WHY? All because the first load of laundry didn’t get done in a timely manner!

Again we see – lots of clothes being produced – often cheap crappy quality – to supply a market most of which isn’t needed. Those consumers could be paying off debt, having better holidays or other experiences instead of buying junky clithes they don’t need.

ARGGGGHH! ok that’s my rant for this week!

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