Boxes come in all shapes and sizes and are made out of all kinds of things and are useful for putting lots of different kinds of things into. In fact given a big enough box we can put most things in a box. I once built a box when I could not find one suitable for my husband’s Christmas gift. That year I had went in search for a backpacking guitar for him and ended up getting him a Baby Taylor instead. It was a much nicer instrument! Thing is I couldn’t find a box suitable for it, so I took two big boxes and broke them apart and then constructed my own box for the guitar. It was a work of art, big rectangular box leaving no clue of the contents. You should have seen his face when he opened it! I think that’s probably the best I’ve ever done in picking an appropriate gift for him and actually surprising him with it. There have been other great gifts none quite the surprise though.
I felt brilliant in creating this great box that disguised his gift! Kept what was inside of it hidden. In real life when we put any physical thing in a box it we are very well disguising whatever it is that we put in that box. After awhile we often forget the contents of various boxes. Certainly though, whatever it is must be suited to being in that box or you wouldn’t have put it in that box in the first place. Just knowing one item should help me remember what is in that box. Well, that’s really not always true in life is it? Perhaps we needed to quickly clear off the table or desk or were moving and had a bunch of random items left or our friends or someone we hired were helping us and well what’s in a box may not really belong in a box.
When moving from the Sacramento, California area to the Phoenix, Arizona area we had movers as the move was being paid for by the company my husband worked for, as they were requiring the relocation. The movers were amazing I couldn’t believe how quickly they packed everything up given I had done it just a month before when we moved to this really awesome duplex near the river. I used to be one of those anal types that wouldn’t go to bed when moving until everything, pictures, towels, knick-knacks were put up and all moving materials removed. I’m not any longer, but I have had some major lifestyle changes building changed all that. Before I digress further, well they packed so well and efficently they packed my garbage can, complete with trash bag and trash. I don’t think that is something that really belongs in a moving box… trash. Thankfully, given that even though it was October temperatures in Phoenix were still over a hundred degrees there was nothing smelly in that trash!
Our minds lump many things together and put them in boxes without really making sure that things belong in the box they are thrown to. We pick up associations of others whether they be friends, family, cultural, religious… and we lump them together in a “similar” kind of way as others in most cases. Most people keep opening the top and cramming stuff in. What I suggest is going ahead and releasing the bottom and let overthing fall out before it bursts on its own accord, as then you will have more to deal with. Then looking at what’s there and reclassify and reconsider how to utilize it.
One person’s garbage is another treasure as the saying goes. Some people are able to find valuable things in other people’s trash, they are able to create things of beauty and function from other people’s garbage that makes them spend money to buy their garbage back. This works as not everyone is creative with garbage. With the state of the world today from all of our consumer efforts and the trash mounds it has resulted in and all the damage done by continued mining of resources from the earth does it not make sense to support upcyclers and recycle your own trash. It employees people, encourages creativity. There are some remarkable upcycling products out there from bags made from plastic lids to earthships that create a self-sustaining home. It takes heaps out of the landfills and hopefully through repurposing meets needs that would otherwise require getting the materials in one fashion or another from the earth causing further harm to an already severly damaged ecosystem.
Success! Box Item One: creates job, helps encourage the health of the environment through creative reuse of items that often would end up in a landfill. Typical trash to help the unemployment problem, save the environment and meet current product needs and encouraging creative artistic endeavors. All from a simple redefinition of the way we define trash and how we value what we are throwing so carelessly away. We found a more appropriate and in fact beneficial place for this than in our box isn’t box breaking fun?
Ideas: Start an upcycling center
Find an upcycling center to donate to
Visit and earthship
Start earthship building projects for homeless
Explore various upcycling projects and the “trash” that was used to make them. Some pretty amazing stuff out there.
We got the bottom out of that box, trash can be valuable and should not be carelessly tossed into landfills but instead creatively meet needs of current society limiting further destruction of the natural world.
Did you notice that boxed food in the trash? Did you know that the chemicals used to preserve that food so that they can sell it in the stores is known to result in numerous health related issues? Can you even pronounce the names of all those chemicals in your prepackaged foods? Learning to make these from scratch can save you money, it takes no more time and prevents ingesting harmful chemicals into your body. It also creates more trash than taking the time to assemble things like mac and cheese yourself and avoiding the prepackaged goods. That also means less time working to pay for those goods.
The trend is prepackaged goods are easier. They are not and they are detrimental to our health and the the environment. We work longer to support a habit of prepackaged foods or even worse the fast food diet. We have to wake up to what we are doing and live as conscious beings on this planet as we are destroying many species on this planet to provide for the gluttonous whims of our palet when eating and the ease of not even assembling the ingredients to make a meal ourselves.
I’ve never understood claims “I can’t cook.” I can understand I don’t know how to cook this or that but to say you can’t cook is to say you can’t follow directions for a quite scrumptious meal can be made from using any number of predeveloped recipes. With experience its likely you will even start creating your own. Check out the recipe section to find out how you can make really delicious homemade foods and save money and have bette health. (Of course, this still depends on the quality of the food you are eating.)
Success Box Item Two: Minimizing waste by creating our own foods instead of buying a lot of pre-packaged items. Less time working at a job to pay for food as we start taking responsibility of our own cooking. Better health as quit consuming the preservatives that allow prepackaged foods to sit on supermarket shelves.
Ideas:
Take some time to explore cookbooks
Take a cooking class
Start a cooking group
Create a meal plan
Create your own pre-packaged food by spending time one day a week or a month cooking up several meals to save time later.