Simplifying my life

Charity begins with wardrobe
I thought I should use the house move more as an opportunity rather than a tedious chore. So to start with I am ruthlessly reducing "stuff". In the past three years that I have spent in this present home I have just accummulated tonnes and tonnes of "stuff". After putting in four hours I am now four bags less heavier than when I started out.

There is NGO called Goonj who run this fabulous programme called "Clothe India". They believe in the 5 R s of protecting the environment. That is primarily Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Refuse and Responsibility. Reduce what you consume - you will be protecting the planet from being eroded of its resources, Reuse - what ever you can old clothes, utensils, electronic products, in fact aluminium foils and plastic bags, glass bottles as our moms used to do with the jam bottles, etc, Recycle - as much as you can, like store the water you use to wash the rice and use it to water the plants, Refuse - what you don't need no matter if it is Sharukh Khan crying out from the mountain top saying you can't live without and lastly use everything Responsibly. Be responsible in consuming and segregating waste. The more waste you create by high consumption you add more burden on the landfills. So segragate at source and minimise trash.

Goonj basically believes in all 5 of these tenets. The programme started with the wish to channelise old clothes to villages where people find it hard to afford new clothes, where as there is a huge popultion living in urban India who accummulate tomes of clothes as retail - therapy gathers speed. Now they accept old paper, stationery, utensils, foot wear, frunishings and so on. The concept is that the people earn these garments etc in exchange of labour which does not take there dignity away and they can have new clothes shoes etc. They have 30 collection centers in Delhi where you can go and drop your "stuff", from here on they will segregate, wash and clean if necessary and handle them. It is such a wonderful concept that I have become a fan and urge all my readers to know more about them. You can read more about them by going to this link http://www.goonj.info/

I have decided to keep only things I need from here on and travel light like the Hollywood house - moves where Sandra Bullock or Keanu Reeves (Lake House) just either take a carton full of things wearing the best branded clothes money can buy or travel with Uhaul. May be next time this time I shall settle for Pannickers Movers and Packers.