Hey, Green Junkie!

Do you ever get into the purging mood and have a desire to re-organize everything in your home?

It’s normal to immediately jump in the car, head to the store and start stocking up on baskets and plastic containers in order to finally gain control of all the chaotic things in your house.

What if I told you that you could still organize your home but save money in the process and also be a little kinder to Mother Earth? 

I’m not saying you have to have ugly things or can never buy a plastic container again. I’m also not saying you need to be an over-consumer of sustainable products – because that’s also an issue. 

Instead, I’m asking you to look around your house and think about using things you already have in a new and creative way.

That’s what I am talking about in this week’s episode.

What you can expect from this episode:

• How to become organized without spending money
• The importance of not buying all sustainable everything when you don’t have to
• Stop getting rid of boxes and do this one thing instead
• What’s old is new again – how to use what you already have to become an organized goddess
• A really inventive and fun idea for mason jars

You’ll discover that and so much more in this episode.

If you love this podcast be sure to leave a review and share a screenshot of this episode to your IG stories. Tag @greenjunkiepodcast so I can shout you out and publicly say thanks. 

Thanks for listening and being here.

Your green bestie,

Xoxo Stephanie

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LISTEN BELOW

TRANSCRIPT FOR EPISODE 9

0:08
Hey, Green Junkie. I'm your host, Stephanie Moram and today we're going to be focusing on eco-friendly organizing. Grab a pen, grab a paper, because I have a lot to share today on this topic.

0:22
So do you ever wonder if it's actually possible to be green when you are organizing your home? Because many times we are bombarded with what we think we may need to organize our home when in reality, we already have what we need in the home that we can use to organize.

0:43
So what if I told you that you can save some green in addition to living a greener lifestyle? Yes, it is totally possible. Even if you already carpool to work, or you buy secondhand and you love to thrift shop, there are plenty of small, but impactful changes that you can make to live more sustainably all starts at home with your habits, your routines, and of course, your organizational systems.

1:14
So today, I'm going to talk about how to tidy your home with items that you already own that you can repurpose. You heard that right green junkie. By the end of this episode, you will know and have tips and tricks to save money, declutter your home and reduce your waste.

1:34
Make sure you're subscribed to my podcast on Apple, Spotify and Stitcher or wherever you get your podcast episodes. And please share green junkie with all your eco-friendly, loving friends while you're at it. So now, let's get into it.

1:56
Living in a messy and cluttered space can sometimes feel overwhelming. I get it. I've personally learned the easiest way to organize my home and keep the planet in mind is not by buying a new sustainable item. It's by using materials that I already have at home. You can now call me the organized junkie. Overconsumption of a sustainable product is not sustainable. I'm going to say that again, overconsumption of a sustainable product is not sustainable.

2:34
So before you run to the store to get items to organize your home, please keep listening, because I have some great tips for you. The first one has to do with all those cardboard boxes that you get when you're ordering your stuff online. One of my favourite ways to organize is to basically play Tetris with the boxes in my drawers. So if you have a cluttered drawer, maybe a place where you throw your keys or your wallet, and a lot of people say I know exactly where everything is, but it's so easy to declutter that mess by using some boxes. It might not look pretty, but it does the job.

3:24
So what you're going to do is you're going to take some boxes, you're going to cut them to the right height that you need in your drawers. And like I said, you're going to play Tetris, and you're going to fit those boxes into your drawers. So I don't want you to go to Google to look for that sustainable option. I want you to look at the cardboard boxes that you're about to put in the recycling.

3:51
And if you want to get dividers again, don't look to the internet. For the sustainable option. What you're going to do is you're going to cut the flaps off of those boxes, and you can use those as dividers within your boxes. Again, it's not going to look all perfect and pretty, but it definitely does the job.

4:12
I want you to go to the show notes and look at the images, you're going to see what my drawers look like. They're highly organized, but they're not as pretty as you would see on Pinterest.

4:24
You can store so many things in these boxes. You know you can store lids to jars, you can store your makeup in there, you can store skincare products, whatever it is, you can store in these boxes in your drawers. And then if you have covers where you put stuff, you can cut the boxes to the right size that you need and put your makeup and all those items in there.

4:47
And another great tip and hack I have for you is a lot of us have too many cords whether that's phone cords or extension cords or whatever it is, and they end up just being thrown in a box which is great. They're in a box, and you know where to find them, but they're not super organized.

5:05
So I found this tip that I want to share with you. take a box, and place toilet paper rolls upright in the box and fit them tightly within the box. And then each chord you put in a toilet paper roll. So now the chords are all separated. And when you're looking for a specific chord, you can easily find it.

5:29
So next up, let's talk about old bins that you might have, or old Tupperware containers, or old plastic containers that you just have lying around the house. How can you reuse those so they don't end up in the landfill, and then reuse them and repurpose them in ways that you can organize your home?

5:52
So you might be missing a lid to one of your bins. Or maybe your bin is like at the end of its life and you just have the lid. So let's talk about ways that you can reuse those items. So before you throw away that lidless container, maybe put it in your shed to hold garden tools. You could also put it in the back of a car, and then use that as a way to organize things in your trunk in your car.

6:21
If you have a lid, but it's missing the container, maybe use that lid to store muddy shoes in your garage. And if you're looking to store Halloween decorations or anything like that, and you have a band that might not be in the best condition. If it's able to store what it is that you want to store, whether its decorations or sports equipment or old clothing, still use it. You don't have to go out and buy a perfect bin, or the perfect looking bin, no one is going to see the bin. It's in your drawer. It's in your closet, it's in your cupboard. I don't think any of your guests are coming over to your house and opening up all your cupboards and all your drawers and all of that. So do your best to reuse the plastic bins that you already have or the plastic containers you already have to organize your drawers, your cupboards, your garage, whatever it is.

7:24
Next up, let's talk about those almond milk containers. Or, you know, juice containers, the ones with the little spout on them. They're not always recyclable. It really, really depends on your recycling facility. Me personally, allegedly, my recycling facility recycles them. So if I buy almond milk, I can put it in the recycling but not all places recycle those paper cartons that you get milk in almond milk, soy milk, whatever it is. They're made of paperboard and then they have a thin layer layer of food-safe poly ethanol plastic, which is plastic number one. Again go to episode number eight and I break down all the different plastics. So it's harder to recycle that specific one.

8:18
But I found a way to reuse them in multiple different ways. So the first way is just to cut the top off. And then you have a container that you can put makeup brushes in or I have beeswax that I use to cover my food. They fit perfectly in there. And you can make them different heights, right, you can cut off right where the spout is you can cut lower whatever it is. So that's a great way to reuse that.

8:43
Also, what I did was cut the top where the spout is and then I cut one side of the almond milk container. And what I did was, that's where I store upright items. I have these cellulose cleaning cloths and they're really, really stiff. And then when you wet them they get really soft, so they stand up perfectly. I did buy a napkin holder at one point, they did not fit in it. And second I dropped it on the floor and it shattered. So I needed an alternative and I needed one fast. So I thought to grab the almond milk container, cut the end off and cut one side and it fits against the wall of my drawer and stand up straight. When you go to the show notes there is an image of what that looks like so you can get a visual of it.

9:38
Also, another great tip. This doesn't have anything to do with organizing, I just think it's really brilliant and I saw it on tik tok. Once you've cut off the top of the almond milk container, you're left with the spout. But wait for it. Grab a mason jar lid and cut around where the spout is. So that spout fits within the mason jar ring. And then you take that mason jar ring with the spout, and you put it on your mason jar. And that's where you can put maple syrup. I put hemp seeds, so it's easy to pour my hemp seeds and maple syrup out of a glass container. That is probably was one of the most mind-blowing things. I was like looking up almond milk containers and how to reuse them when I went to Tik Tok and I found this trick. So I tried to tell everyone about this trip because I think it's brilliant. It's a great way to store your food, but also not spill your food when you're pouring it out of your messenger.

10:45
And lastly, if you are reusing, when you are reusing your almond milk containers, be sure to clean them out and dry them properly because you don't want old almond milk or soy milk or regular milk kind of hanging out in your cardboard when you're using it as storage.

11:06
And lastly, another tip I just wanted to add quickly is you can actually use these almond milk container is birdfeeders quick Google search and you can definitely find ways to reuse them. I know it has nothing to do with organizing, it's just an extra way that you can reuse these almond milk containers.

11:23
Next, we're going to talk about glass jars. I am personally a glass jar hoarder. Okay, glass door collector, I buy a lot of items in glass, I try to buy as many items as I can in bulk. And since I have all these glass jars, I reuse them to buy my food in bulk. And then my cupboards are super organized with glass jars. So I'm always choosing glass over plastic. Always when I'm buying things. As I said, I reuse glass jars like it's my job.

12:00
So you can store your food in them. And then you have like I mentioned really nice cupboards when you open them with everything organized with your glass jars. You can store makeup brushes, kitchen utensils, craft paintbrushes, and you can also use them as a way to give food to people. What I mean by that is if you have leftovers at home, you have friends coming over for dinner, and you have leftovers and you want to give it to them – grab one of your glass jars and here you go. You have a container to give leftover foods away if you choose to.

12:37
You can give these glass stars a new life. And like I mentioned, use them to store your dry foods so your nuts, your seeds, and all of that. And then my pro tip that has absolutely nothing to do with organizing is if you have too many glass jars, use them as drinking glasses. So right before I was recording this podcast, I was drinking my water out of an old pasta sauce container.

13:07
So now that you have some ideas on how to reuse things at home to organize your house again, go to the show notes and you can see a bunch of pictures of what my drawers and cupboards look like. We're using boxes and almond milk containers and glass jars and all that kind of stuff. But if you're really really looking for something specific before you run to buy something new because again, overconsumption of a sustainable product is not sustainable.

13:07
Think about thrifting you can find baskets, can find bins with lids, containers, dividers, jars, you can find so many things at a thrift shop that I really suggest that you take some time and go there if you're missing something at home, and you want to organize your space a little bit more. So as I mentioned, there's no need to run out and purchase new organizing supplies to declutter your home. As a green junkie, please look around your home first to see what you actually have on hand. It might not be pretty, and it might not be the prettiest option out there. But at least you're organized. And you won't have to spend a fortune on buying new items. I hope this episode will inspire you to tidy your home with recycled items you already own.

13:07
Before you go make sure you subscribe to get updates when I release our next episode. And please follow at Green junkie podcast on Instagram. And I mentioned this twice already but take a look at the show notes to get a visual of what I'm talking about when it comes to organizing. I'm going green and cleaning behind the scenes and you don't want to miss what I have to offer. So do something today to live a little more green when it comes to organizing your home. Thank you for tuning in and I'll see you next time green junkie