Clear the Clutter and Your Mind with Devon Fegen-Herdman

Are you living with too much stuff? Help is on the way! In this first episode of 2026, we help you clear the clutter with Devon Fegen-Herdman, owner of Declutter with Devon. Devon is a professional home organizer, former social worker, and a founding member of Upcycle Parts Shop, our favorite arts reuse center in Cleveland.   

Most people agree they have too much stuff, and they struggle with managing it all. Choosing to live differently and more gently on the planet requires rethinking our relationship with our material things. Living with less can bring us more joy, but how to get there? Join us as Devon provides tips for getting our homes under control and buying with more intention to keep future clutter at bay. 

Donation, Recycling, and Disposal Suggestions: 

Upcycle Parts Shop and Boys & Girls Clubs (arts supplies); Friends of the Library CCPL and Cleveland Children's Book Bank (books); Cleveland Furniture Bank, Chair-ity, and Humble Design Cleveland (furniture); Elyria APL and other animal shelters (linens); Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District and Lorain County Solid Waste District (holiday lights); Habitat Re-Store (tools); RET3 Job Corp and Best Buy (computers and e-waste); Good Neighbor Thrift Store and Thriftique (housewares and clothes); Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District and Lorain County Solid Waste District (special wastes, paint, pesticides and other household hazardous wastes); police stations and pharmacies (RX drug drop-off)

Learn More:

Declutter with Devon

Buy Now, The Shopping Conspiracy (Netflix Documentary)

Becoming Minimalist

The Story of Stuff                                                                                                                                  

Transcript

Episode and Guest Introduction - Devon Fegen-Herdman

Diane Bickett, Host 0:04

You're listening to EcoSpeak CLE, a podcast for the Eco Curious in Northeast Ohio. My name is Diane Bickett, and my producer is Greg Rotuno. Together we speak with local sustainability leaders and invite you to connect, learn, and live with our community and planet in mind. Happy New Year friends. Welcome to 2026 and the start of year five of EcoSpeak CLE. This is our 80th episode. And what started as an idea for my retirement project has been such a gift for me and I hope for you too. Greg and I have a lot more to come, so please keep on listening. By the way, Greg is not recording with us today, but this topic will be of interest. And our topic is minimalism. Well, sort of. Backstory a couple months ago, my guest, Devin Fagin Herdman, emailed me with an idea about doing an episode about decluttering. Devin is a professional home organizer, a social worker, and one of the founding members of Upcycle Parts Shop, which is our favorite arts reuse center here in Cleveland. And we featured them on episode 17 of this podcast, way back when. That idea resonated with me because most people I know feel that they have way too much stuff. As a listener of this podcast, you're aware that excess consumption takes a big toll on our planet and on the people living half a world away who are producing and receiving our discards. But what about the effect on our psyches when we are surrounded by the clutter of our material goods? It's all weighing us down. So today we will talk about how to clear the clutter, clear our minds, and how to buy more intentionally for the sake of our planet and our sanity. So welcome, Devin. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Yeah. So I have an interesting tidbit to kick things off today. Are you ready? Yeah. Okay. So I looked up what the most popular words of 2025 were. And according to grammar.com, number two is eco-minimalism. Right after metaverse and right before Gen AI. So that's those are two topics for a whole nother podcast. But they define eco-minimalism as combining sustainable practices with minimalist principles. This movement encourages living with less while being mindful of environmental impact. So that doesn't surprise me. There are a lot of methods out there today that will help us declutter and that promote living with less. I think it all started with Marie Kondo, and then we, you know, there's the Seattle method, and then there's the Swedish art of death cleaning. I have no idea what that is. But uh my question for you is you know, have we reached a tipping point with our consumption? Are we just over it for the most part? I hope so. I hope so.

Devon Fegen-Herdman, Guest 3:00

I definitely am, and the the people I meet with are, and I love minimalism. That is actually one of the things that first got me interested in this work and doing this. I love the tiny home movement. You know, just they would always interview people who said they were so happy living with less. And I thought that was so interesting at the end of the episode. So yeah, I think people are tired of the overconsumption, and you know, there's memes and such on social media where people are like, I grew up in a house with so much stuff everywhere. And I think people don't even realize how overstimulated they are until you experiment with living with less.

Some Stats That Reveal How Much Stuff We Own

Diane Bickett, Host 3:38

So just there's some statistics I wanted to throw out. The website becoming minimalist, they list some surprising statistics that reveal how much stuff we actually own. And they have their sources. So if you people want to go back and check. So the first dat is that there's about 300,000 items in the average American home. And that's a quote from the LA Times.

Devon Fegen-Herdman, Guest 4:04

It's like I don't know how they count that, but I dug into that and actually it was in the LA Times, but there's not like a credible source behind that. So it's thrown around a lot. I think there are thousands of items in our homes. And there's an interesting reality TV show, I think it's out of Canada, where they take all the items out of people's homes and lay them out in a warehouse. Could you imagine? But it's yeah, embarrassing. Yeah, well, but thousands and thousands of items. So no wonder people feel overwhelmed and out of control when you're supposed, you know, someone's like, Where's this one doodad? Like there are thousands of items in your home. We're not meant to, you know, contain that many things in our mind and you know, know where they all are. It's overwhelming. Yeah.

About Decluttering with Devon

The Psychological Side of Clutter

5 Tips for Getting Your Home Under Control

Diane Bickett, Host 4:49

So we'll go out to a store and buy something we already have. Yes, yes. So the next ad is one out of ten Americans rent off-site storage, which is crazy. Shopping malls outnumber high schools, which is depressing. Yes. Um, and Americans spend $1.2 trillion annually on non-essential goods, according to the Wall Street Journal. So that's a lot of money we could be putting back into our community and donating to worthy organizations. And yeah. I I just thought those were very revealing. So the the last quote I have is if everyone were to consume resources at the rate at which people in the US do, at least five earths would be needed to keep up with the consumption levels. So clearly this is not sustainable. It's not sustainable. Yeah, you're and you're reminding me of another statistic, and I think it's something like we have enough clothing today to clothe the next six generations. Really? Wow. It's something nuts like that. You begin to think about that, and it's like, why is there so much? There's just so much, you know, here, and we don't need it all, right? And so how can we live more gently on the planet in in the face of this, right? Because I don't control how many clothes are being produced in the world. Yeah, I like I like that living more gently with the planet. And I mean really we're just being marketed to constantly and constantly. So yeah, we want we want that new shiny thing, and but do we really need it? But is is it really our fault that we're you know, consuming so much? Part of it is, but part of it is, you know, we're being brainwashed. Yeah, yeah. I say that all the time. I think the marketers and businesses, I mean, they're trying to separate us from our money and give us a product, and they're really good at it, you know. And I think like we're really good. We've all been trained to go to the stores. You walk out with more than you ever intended when you went in. And I think it's just a product of living in this culture and society. And to choose to live differently is definitely possible. You know, I love the upcycle sticker, make secondhand your first choice. But like it's still swimming upstream. You know, it's not the the way that everyone is living, right? So it's challenging. It's challenging. And and we do, everyone does. I mean, we need food, there are consumables, I'm buying toilet paper. You know, like there are things that we have to go to the store, we have to purchase, and then you end up getting these other things mixed in while you're there. It's very challenging. Well, we're not gonna change the world shopping habits, but I think we can, you know, we can reflect a little bit on our own. Definitely like I said earlier, you know, our listeners, EcoSpeaks, are aware of this issue. So we're not gonna delve into all the impacts of extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal. That would be a 48-hour podcast, right? No doubt. But I would suggest a couple resources. One is I just watched the documentary Buy More on Netflix, and it's really something everyone should watch because it brings home everything we just talked about. Yeah. And and there's always the the story of stuff too video on on YouTube. So all right. So maybe we can achieve more through less junk. Let's let's talk a little bit about your company. Yeah. Um, I find that you have a really interesting background that that sets you up perfectly for what you're doing now. Uh, you helped found Upcycle Parts Shop, licensed social worker. So you're dealing with the psychology of holding what you know, why we may be holding on to things and how hard it is to get rid of things. But how did your company declutter with Devin come about? Yeah, yeah. So you touched on the background. I've been interested in sustainability for a long time and co-founded Upcycle Partshop with Nicole McGee. And we had a wonderful time there. And also you're thinking a lot about the things, right? Because there's donations, everything's coming in. How are you gonna manage it? How are you gonna prepare it for sale, just like other thrift stores and reuse centers? And then I went on to so I've been a social worker for a long time, 20 years. So I've worked all over in lots of areas of social work, always liked working with people. And then at home, as I was mentioning, minimalism kind of became my passion. I have two children and they are wonderful, but children come with stuff. So when my son was a baby, I think I started to get a little overwhelmed at home. And this kind of became my passion project. Reading about, listening, watching all the minimalism shows and kind of home organization, everything I could get my hands on to. So continuing to work in the social work field, love connecting with people. And then I just thought, you know, what if I bring this passion to others? And kind of started as a side hustle, wasn't really sure if it would take off, but then it did. And now we're here. So I love it. I get to go to people's homes who are who are at the tipping point, who are ready for a change, you know, maybe they're tired of living, you know, feeling overwhelmed at home, too much stuff. And we go in and and provide hands-on decluttering and organization assistance in their homes. Okay. Do you have do you go room by do you do a whole house declutter or do you, you know, someone says, come in and tackle my kitchen? You have a variety of levels. A mix, yeah, a mix. I love a whole house transformation. I think that's I mean satisfying. Oh, it's so satisfying. And people are use the words life-changing. I mean, it it's an investment because it's like your day-to-day life, right? Think of every you're pulling out your toothbrush, things might be falling out of your drawer. You're trying to get your hair thing out and you can't really get it. You go to your closet, everything's stuffed, you pull out a sweater, you don't really like it. It's just like all day long. And so when you do the whole house, it's just, it's, it's magical. So I love doing that. And we also do lots of smaller projects. And we do things like garages, basement, you know, the storage area where things kind of get tossed for a later day. So, you know, when we arrive, it's like the later day has come. Let's make a decision, you know. Well, I would love to have you work on my husband's side of the basement, which is tools from his grandpa and beautiful, you know, just cool old stuff. But yeah, there's just a lot of it. There's a lot. Yeah. Um, how long have you been doing this? So we just hit three years in business. Oh, congratulations. Thank you. Oh, and do you have people working for you? Yeah, we have a team of women who go out and declutter and organize with people. Okay. Well, my daughter Haley really wants to work for you. She's the neatest, most clutter-free person I know. Perfect. Those are the people. Those are the people. I just said, Can I work for her? It's like, well, maybe. I feel like I usually meet two people when I say what I do. They either say, Oh, I really need you, or they say, I love to purge. I love to organize, right? So it's I'm kind of the ladder. I'm kind of the ladder. Yeah. So just real quick, they can find you at declutterwithdevin.com. Yes. Right? Okay. Very good. All right. We talked a little bit about the psychological side of clutter. And I started thinking about this when I was at a yoga class a few weeks ago. And the instructor said, you know, the world in she had this quote, the world in front of you becomes the world within you. And I was like, that hit home because, you know, when you're looking at a cluttered space, it's really hard to focus. Yeah. And, you know, your mind is cluttered too. Like, I can't start working on a new episode of a podcast until my office is tidy. Yes. And I think that's exactly it. And our homes, when there is clutter, usually it's kind of unfinished project projects when you really evaluate what's out. It's either like, I don't know where to put this, this thing doesn't have a home. I'm working on it, I'm halfway through. I need to go through the mail. I need to fold that. So it becomes, I think, and sometimes it's even more subconscious or unconscious until you really think about it. But it's paying your brain constantly. Like, why didn't you open the mail? Why didn't you wash this thing? Why didn't you put this away? And I think that's some of the, it's like that current under what you're trying to do. And it so you don't have a clear mind. And sometimes I think it we're so used to it. It's always there that until you get into a space that's kind of empty and clutter-free, you don't realize how how much it's bugging you. That's why I love going on vacation because that I think that's the big difference. You go to a hotel or an Airbnb or whatever, the counters are clear, there's no projects calling out at you. Yeah. I think it's a big difference. Space to breathe. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. How much time do you think we spend dealing with the stuff in our homes? You know, when you say there's a lot of stuff out and about, we touch this and we go to, you know, it's hard to stick with one thing because we see another pile that needs to be addressed. And it adds up over the course of a week, doesn't it? It does. It adds up tremendously. And there are statistics out there, right? Like how long do you do people spend searching for lost items, things like that. And I think it does, it certainly ends up. And also the maintenance and organization of your things. So it I think at first you don't even realize how much time you're spending. Like even cleaning, a good example. Um, you mentioned becoming minimalist, Joshua, Joshua Becker. He says, get rid of half your knickknacks. Just like put them away in a box and see if you notice. And he said, I bet you won't miss them. Dusting will take half the time, and you probably won't even miss them. So it's like we're just so used to it, but but really like we're managing and organizing and maintaining our things constantly, and we're just not aware of it. Once you start thinking of that, you become more aware of it and realize how much time it really is. Yeah, for sure. So I read somewhere that it must have been like a real estate agent who's like the stuff that ends up in the dumpster after a house cleanup is mainly knick-knacks and Christmas decorations. So yeah, nobody wants your knickknacks. Right. So and those are tough. And that's you mentioned like a realtor, that's what I see a lot. If you don't plan ahead, you know, when people come to a moment where someone's moving or there's a death in the family, you got to clean out the house. That's when people just get out of dumpster because they're so overwhelmed. And so, really, the if you are caring about the environment, which you probably do if you're here, you know, planning ahead and trying to address some of this excess in advance is really the the nice thing to do for the planet. Yeah. I work on doing that a little bit every day. I mean, I've had to clean out my parents' house and my mother-in-law's house. She downsized twice. And I don't want to do that to my kids. So the l the less stuff they have to manage, you know, when I'm gone, the better for them. Yeah. Yeah. So it's wonderful. In shifting away, I kind of really feel like we need to shift away from a material economy towards a well-being economy. Yes. Can you walk us through your process of decluttering? Give us a give us some ideas. What might be five tips for getting our homes under control? Yeah. I wrote down my five tips so I wouldn't forget them. So one of the mantras that I really like early on is thinking about what does your home look like at rest? So that's again, it's kind of bringing awareness to what we had already mentioned, those unfinished projects. So just sipping your coffee and looking around, what does it look like at rest, day-to-day? Not I threw everything in the back room to prepare for company, but at rest. And then that's where you kind of want to make the changes is like that day-to-day, where are things like getting stuck sitting out all the time that I'm staring at that I'm not working on for four months. Okay. One time I went to a client's home and they had a dresser. You kind of entered the primary bedroom, and there was like a dresser, like kind of Caddy Wampus in front of the doorway, and then past it was the bed. And I'm like, oh, how long has this been here? And it had been like a year. So we put, I mean, we put furniture sliders and moved it and all that. But I was like, oh, a year. I mean, time just seems to go sometimes. We did another basement not too long ago, and we were finding stuff that was 10 years old. Oh, that was from my previous marriage 10 years ago. Oh, wow. So that tells us that clutter had been sitting like kind of in the middle of the state. So negative energy there. Yeah, exactly. Just hanging around. So another tip is this is usually a pretty easy one to remove duplicates and specialty items. This is great for like the kitchen. You know, how many mixers or blenders do you have? You know, maybe can you get rid of that avocado slicer and just use a knife? So sometimes there's these like, you know, duplicates. Maybe you didn't get rid of the old one or you you got an upgrade. And then that single use, you know, a question you could say is what would I use if I didn't have this? Right? Oh, this is the birthday platter. And if you love birthdays, great. But like maybe you're like, oh, if I didn't have this, I would just use this other platter over here. Great. Yeah. Pick that one, you know, just pick one. So that's pretty good. Removing just in case items, a lot of us are a lot of us are keeping stuff, you know. I might need this someday. Exactly. Yeah. Like how often do you use? Oh, never. Oh, never. But I might need it. There's a rule called the 2020 rule, and they say most items that we're keeping just in case could usually be gotten within 20 minutes of your home for $20 or less. Right. So it's like, if I actually needed that, I mean, there is a question of would I even know I have it? Would I even know I have it? Right. Or is it just like, no. And then if you would run to the store anyway and pick it up for $5, is it worth keeping? Especially if you're feeling overwhelmed in your space. Okay. A lot of these tips are really to lower the inventory, right? So there's min a minimum from YouTube. I love her. She always says, lower the inventory, lower the inventory. That's a good quote. Yeah. And then doing sentimental items last. So people are always stressed about sentimental items. For sure. Everyone has sentimental items. That's not where you should start. You should start with some of these easier things. If you get rid of, you know, an extra set of towels and then later regret it, very replaceable. If you get rid of, you know, your mother's wedding dress and later regret it, that's irreplaceable. So just hold off on the sentimental items. Don't worry about those till you've built up some good skills, then you can get there. And sometimes limiting the space, and which is brings me to my last tip, which is let your space tell you. So sometimes I say like it depends where you live, right? In a 1500 square foot home and you have a small closet, maybe an older home, you might only have room for 15 dresses, right? If you live in a newer home that was built in 2025 and you have a lock-in closet, you probably have room for 50 dresses. So you have to kind of let your space tell you how much space you have. And then you can be intentional, right? If you're like, I love dresses, dresses are my thing, great. But then be intentional, like, okay, I'm gonna set aside this space for dresses, you know, like more than just this closet and really dedicate the space you want. But that can that is another thing. Instead of just sort of allowing a collection to take over and it's spilling out and it's collecting on the floor and in the hallway, you know, being intentional about how much space do I have for this particular item. Okay. Those are my five tips. I don't know. My tip is I've been starting to put like with like throughout my house. Like sort of instead of having vases in three places of my house, yes, I have them all in one spot in my house. Or that's perfect. Um, I'm I'm trying to do that with my clothes so they're not like in the attic in my kids' rooms that are gone and in my own closet. If it doesn't fit in my own closet, I probably don't need it. Yeah. And that way I know that if I want to I think I need something, I can go first to see what I have. I can go to my inventory of vases or whatever to make sure I'm not buying something I already have. Yeah. So if all the jeans are in one place and all the sweaters are in one place, I can see what I have. You're exactly right. And that can help with that removing of duplicates to your point. Because if you have vases in three different spots, sometimes people are like, oh, I didn't even realize I have two of the same vase, you know. And then when you bring it all together, you're like, I don't actually need two, and they're all the same size and color, you know. So then you I get flowers twice a year. Why do I need right? How many vases do we need? So yeah. I wanted to ask you, it feels like it all it's is decluttering a woman's sport or men, are men doing it too? There, I will say I have had some male clients, right? So there are men out there who are doing it. And also it seems like women, women are the majority decluttering organizers. And there is research that shows that women separately from men have rising cortisol levels in so rising stress levels in more cluttered environments. And that they found that as like a gender difference. So I think what happened And men just don't see it in Yeah, literally. That literally biologically, they're they're not getting as stressed. Wow. And I I mean, and there's also tons of culturally women are presented as the you know, caregiver of the home. And you know, if you have kids, it's usually like moms in charge of four people's stuff or you know, that kind of thing. Yeah. And of course, there's not enough research on same-sex couples and you know, things like that. So we're being general, general here. Yeah, yeah. So we talked about where people get stuck in sentimental items. Definitely. What are the sentimental items mainly? My my issues with photographs. I've got trunks full of photographs. I thought I had a document every thing that both my daughters did growing up, and and back it was like paper back then. Yes. Yeah.

Devon Fegen-Herdman, Guest 23:26

What do I do with those?

A Stuff Discordant Relationship

"What Do I Do With" Lightning Round Places to Donate, Recycle or Discard

Diane Bickett, Host 23:27

Is it okay to like get rid of them? Should I have a party and say which ones do you want us to keep? Yeah. I think there, I mean, there's multiple ways to get rid of them. I think the first thing people do is go through and throw out things that don't have people in them. So sometimes people have these elaborate, you know, travel things with landscapes. And usually that's not what kids want, you know, but the ones with people are more valuable and get again getting rid of duplicates. And then I love the idea of, especially for adult children, it's like, you know, here's your bin of photos, and I'm handing it to you, and you can do what you'd like. Sometimes people have a party, you know, the next holiday if they're from out of town or whatever, and kind of everyone's going through it together and enjoying those photos. Um, but then you hand it off and let it go. Also, I mean, some people do like to digitize, digitize, yeah. That's exactly a lot of work. And there are companies, you know, of course, where you can send it away and they'll digitize for you. Yeah. I did that with some VH old movies on VHS tapes, and it was great. Then I just got a f a file that sits on my computer. Yeah, yeah. Give us something to tackle. Let's be specific about like one part of our home that maybe we could do this weekend. Um, I think the pantry, you know, it's the winter and we're all inside, and soups are great. And so dig through your pantry. What has kind of been sitting there unused that you could pull out and use? And then if there's stuff that you're really never gonna use, like the gourmet olive that you'd like were gifted or whatnot, check the expiration date. Unfortunately, we find lots of expired food. If it's not expired, the food banks will take it. So, you know, don't it if you haven't used it in the last six months, you're probably not gonna use it in the next six months or use it right now in January. And then, you know, otherwise donate it. Okay. Yeah. And that way we'll know we've got 42 cans of tomato sauce and we you know, maybe I'll make a pasta or something. Yeah, exactly. So what do you do if like you live with someone who doesn't share your same sentiments on the level of clutter they can tolerate? Yes. I read a long time ago, I read an article and they called it, I loved this, a stuff disconcordant relationship. And I was like, oh, right? Like Really, Greg? Yeah. I'm like, oh, I'm living in that. And no, and I've given talks and I say, sometimes you're here, not for you, but for the people you live with, right? The thing being in one myself, the thing that I have learned over time is you work on your things. So even if you're like, I'm not the problem, everyone else is the problem, you probably have stuff to work on. So focus on your things: your dresser, drawers, your area of the bathroom, your car. Start there. And sometimes even that is a bug enough to get other people moving. And focus on yourself then. Like, you know, everyone's digging around for camping and you're like, I got my stuff all together because my dresser was all decluttered and easy. So that's one tip. But then, you know, beyond that, there's gonna be common areas and things. If you can delineate space, that's my number one tip. So if it's just like an example at my house is like shoe rack by the front door, right? So if it's like everyone put your shoes here, the person who likes a lot of shoes is putting out 12 pairs of shoes. And then I'm out there putting out one pair of shoe and maybe it's still getting crushed, right? So if you can be like, no, like clarify the space. This shoe, this shelf is for this person, this shelf is for that person, this shelf is for the third person. That way, the person who wants a more minimal setup, they can just have one or two pairs on their shelf and they can have a lot of white space, which is gonna feel amazing. And if the other person wants to cram five pairs onto their shelf, that's kind of their problem. Okay, and then you continually sort of return their items to their designated spaces. Okay. Sometimes people with a lot of stuff all over the house don't realize how much they have because it's spread everywhere. Well, with decluttering comes what do I do with question? The question of what where this stuff should go. Yeah. So for our remaining time, I want to first do a lightning round where I will mention like a category of something, and you will name a place where you would like to donate or take an item, and I will also name my favorite place. And then following that, we'll just get some tips from you about how to be a little more intentional about what we buy so we don't, you know, bring the clutter back. Yes. Okay, are you ready for the lightning round? Yeah. Okay. All right. Arts and crafts supplies. Upcycle parts shop. Okay, I've got boys and girls clubs, books like children's books or whatever. Yeah, friends of the library for the book resale. Cleveland Children's Book Bank is mine. Furniture. Um, I love Cleveland Furniture Bank. I love them too. I also love Humble Design Cleveland and Charity, also featured on this podcast. Yes. Linens. Elyria Friendship APL. Okay. I had an animal shelters too on my list.

Devon Fegen-Herdman, Guest 28:46

Yeah.

Being an Intentional Consumer

Diane Bickett, Host 28:47

Holiday lights, you know, those broken strands. I'm in Lorraine County, so the collection center, which compares to Cuyoga County Solid Waste District. Okay. Yeah, I had either the zoo for lights for lions or the Cuyahoga Recycles Special Waste Convenience Center. How about household hazardous waste like electric batteries, paint, uh pesticides? The Lorraine County Collection Center. Also, yeah, same Cuyahoga Recycle. So check your local solid waste district. Yeah. How about prescriptions? Uh the most of the police stations have a drop box and it's right inside the door. You don't even have to go into the main part of the building. Okay. I had pharmacies sometimes, like Walgreens will have a drop box for those. Yep. Tools. A tool library where you can borrow from as well. Okay. Do you know of any like on your side of town? I think Cleveland Heights might have a tool library. I have heard that as well. Okay. Also, Habitat Restore, I think, will take tools. Perfect. Housewares. Now we're getting into the knickknacks and the glassware and the china. Yeah. In Avon Lake, I love Good Neighbor Thrift Store. They're run by a local church and keep the money, the proceeds in the community. Okay. My favorite is uh Thrift Teak on the east side. How about computers and electronics? Yeah, Best Buy at their customer service desk. We'll take all kinds of small electronics for recycling. Okay. And mine is RET3 Job Core in Cleveland. Cool. So we will put links to those organizations in the show notes. So check those out. So how about how do we how do we be more eco-minimalist in terms of intentional, being more thoughtful about what we bring into our house once we declutter? Yeah, I think there's several ways to do it. One thing to think about, you know, I think one thing is awareness, which we're bringing now, right? And just realizing, recognizing what we're doing. So there's Anthony Ongaro has this idea called the Twitch. And basically it's like sometimes we think, oh, I want to do this new thing, right? Like it's, you know, January, people are making New Year's resolutions. Like, I'm gonna run marathons this year. This is my year. And then the first thing we do is like, I'm gonna go to Feet Fleet and I'm gonna get, you know, some new shoes, and then I'm gonna get a new water bottle, and maybe I need a little garment to, you know, trap where I'm going. That's the fun part of running a marathon. Exactly. But it that's exactly it. So it's like, how do we, you know, and then a week goes by or two weeks goes by, and I haven't run, and maybe I haven't even put the shoes on. Maybe if I ordered it, it's still in a closed box, you know, like I never even opened it. So it's that impulse to shopping. How can we slow that way down? Right? How can we, if you want to do something new, how can you like start running? And then a month from now, if you've been running all month, then get the new trainers. Buy the gear after you commit to the hobby or whatever. Exactly. Yeah. So can you borrow? Can you be creative? Can you, you know, ask the neighbor next door to borrow her, you know, knitting book and then decide if it's like really for you. You know, that kind of thing. So I love like shopping. I'm putting that in quotes and then selecting what I want, but then put it on a wish list and then wait 30 days. Are you even thinking about that item? That's great. You know, so then I've done the research. I picked out the favorite one. If I do want it in 30 days, if I'm still thinking about it, I can go back and get it, but not purchasing. I love the library because you get that dopamine hit of shopping, right? You get to come home with a bunch of new stuff. And a lot of them have like game borrowing and toy borrowing. They have I was gonna mention that the toy library at the county library. Yeah, yeah. So you can come home with new things, but then in a few weeks you'll just give them back, right? Or how can you do some swaps with friends? And the other thing that I like a lot, which COVID kind of brought about, is the online shopping or like where you do pickup, right? So if I need something from Target, I'm like, I'm out of shampoo. I love to like purchase it on the app and then pick it up because that way I'm not walking through the store picking up a bunch of a bunch of impulse buys. And there's no charge because I'm pulling in and then they'll bring it out to your car. So it's like very convenient. You could do that with Amazon too. You could go to just force the delivery to go to one of the pickup locations. So it forces you, it takes the convenience out of it. Yeah. Makes you think maybe a little bit longer. And I think if you're just not walking through the store, like I just am not seeing all the things they're promoting and trying to get you to buy the extra. It's like, no, I actually needed shampoo and band-aids, and that's it, and that's all I'm gonna go pick up. Well, my tips I had a tip in my tongue. I had a tip on the top of my tongue. Okay. It'll come back. Yeah.

unknown 34:04

Okay.

Diane Bickett, Host 34:04

What about one question I think people used to ask is, can I afford this? So that was sort of the metric of like, I feel like when I was a kid, you know, it's like, ooh, like, can I can we afford this? And I think now of things are so affordable that I mean, actually things are really expensive. But right, the inflation and everything. But people, I people, you know, oh, I see that sweater. It's not really a question of can I afford it? I think we need to be thinking, where will this live in my home? Yeah. And if your sweater shelf is already overflowing and you every time you try to get out a sweater, there's an avalanche. You don't actually need that sweater. You know, everything you buy today is something you're gonna have to get rid of tomorrow. So think about where that's gonna go. Yeah is it gonna be hard to get rid of? I mean, is is it recyclable or is it recyclable or is it gonna donate? Is it gonna you know be quality so I can pass it on? Right. Or is it gonna be a freight acrylic sweater that's gonna be in a dumpster somewhere? Right. And and I think when you're buying the higher quality items, right? Like maybe the sweater will last for five or ten years instead of one year, right? If you're buying the higher quality. Absolutely. So a lot to unpack here, a lot to think about. I was when I was working at the solid waste district, we would get a lot of people who would call. They felt that they had to donate or recycle everything. And they felt such guilt if we, you know, and I felt some guilt when I had to tell them that sorry you have to throw that out. There's no home for it. But I think it's a mindset, it's acceptable to throw stuff in the trash. Here in the US, it's gonna go to a sanitary landfill rather than an unwanted donation that's gonna end up, you know, in Ghana, you know, like where some a lot of the clothing, unwanted clothing is going or it can't be used again. So right. Yeah, those images are horrible of the beaches in Ghana. Yeah, and that's a challenge we were talking earlier about Christmas decorations. And I so I love donating unwanted things to the you know, the various places we mentioned. I was saying I had a client, she did a big garage Christmas clean out last like May. And I was so worried that if I took it to one of the thrifting places that it would just get thrown out because they wouldn't be able to store it for seven months, you know. So I ended up selling it on Facebook Marketplace as a lot for like $20. And it really was not, you know, I'm sure I went through a bunch of people back and forth. It was not really to make $20, it was to keep it out of the landfill. And so sometimes you can kind of be creative like that, and other times you're right, it's like our society and economy has not created a good circular waste system, which is what we wish for, and and we just have to throw it away. Yeah. Would you have any parting thoughts or anything you want to say about your company to leave us with or up an update on Upcycle Park Shop? Whatever you like. I know. If you check in with Upcycle, if you're thinking of going in January, double check because I think there might be a little hibernation winter break, but I'm looking forward to being there in February and donating and buying some new things. And if you're feeling stressed, lower the inventory, even just a little, you know, one drawer, one shelf, just even five minutes, set a timer and go for it because you will feel so much better and be glad you did. Yeah, go into your makeup drawer and it's all lined up and all the expired stuff's thrown away. It will lower your cortisol every morning. Yes, which is what we all want, right? More ease, more peacefulness at home. Yeah. And, you know, we can't let our stuff rule our lives anymore. No. Your home should serve you. Yes. Very good. Well, thank you so much, Devin. This was a great interview. I learned a lot. Thank you. This is a good idea. Wish you the best in your business, though. Thank you. I appreciate it.

Greg Rotuno 38:08

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