I've always said that if you make something too complicated, it just won't work, no matter how well-intentioned you are.
That's why it's so important to make your systems easy, especially if you live with other people and you want them to live by your organising "rules".
That's true for designing a good flow for laundry in the home and also for recycling paper in the office.
And so this was born:
I used to have one wastepaper basket but found we were less inclined to separate the paper when we cleared the trash.
Who wants to fish around amongst apple cores and other bits of fruit? Certainly not me.
This works beautifully for us.
First of all, I don't generate that much paper to start with but what I do throw away, goes straight into the paper bin. It's much easier now to take the one basket and dump it as is into the paper recycling bag.
Do you recycle paper? If yes, do you use those fancy partitioned recycling bins, or how do you make it easy for your household?
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Make it easy to recycle paper
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7 comments:
I have three places for used paper in my home office:
1) paper which has been printed on one side and is in good shape goes in a tray to be used when I'm printing drafts or other documents that don't need to be on "good" paper
2) paper which is still blank on one side but has staples or folds in it goes in a pile for rough notes
3) only if it won't go in either of the other two piles does it go in the recycling
Our home office only has a recycling bin--no wastebasket at all. It turns out that 99% of the trash we generate in there is just paper anyway.
Janet, I should have known you'd have brilliant solutions!
Sarah, you're right - it is 99% paper. Clearly I eat too much in my home office - there are ALWAYS fruit peels and the odd chocolate wrapper!
Marcia - So much of what I do in my home office is of a confidential nature, I usually shred first, then recycle at our church. The biggest thing that we recycle is newspaper. We get the paper 7-days a week. Ricky "stacks" it under a side table all week, then on Sunday afternoon, I bag it into paper grocery bags, and we take it to a local school recycling bin. This way, we save the world and help educate the kiddos.
I'm starting my office organizing this weekend... think I'll consider a recycle bin as an addition. Thanks for all the advice!
I have a special garbage bin under the kitchen sink just for recycling items. I've taught the kids what things need to go in it. In my room upstairs I have a bag in my closet that I use for recycling papers, etc when upstairs. I just take it down when its full and dump the items in the recycling bin outside for garbage day.
We have one bin kept in the garage and collected by the city. We can put paper, aluminum, and plastic in the same bin. Easy for us!
Being organized, whether at home or at the office, shows how responsible you are with all the paper documents that you are assigned to file and handle. Nowadays, more offices are going paperless to avoid paper wastage as well as the clutter. This is very helpful since some of us take recycling paper products for granted. There may be instance wherein private documents need to be printed - in this case, proper dispoasl of copies should also be considered. I do realize that some of us find it difficult to sort out their documents because of their busy schedule but if we make time to sort and organize them, then it would not take too long to look for information in the future.
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