Workshop with De-cluttering Guru – Tanya Lewis Infoactiv had the pleasure of working with Tanya Lewis, Australia’s EcoOrganiser during our ‘How to Go E-Waste Free’ workshop at this years Sustainable Living Festival in Melbourne. She shared with us her knowledge and passion around the notion of organising to help people live more simply. Tanya went through her tips and tricks on how to effectively de-clutter the office and home through her 10R’s of Eco Organising Solutions. This 10-step process helps people regain control over their time and space, in turn saving money and reducing waste. Top 10 things we learned from Tanya during her workshop: 1. Rethink Tanya kicked off our workshop, encouraging people to start from the beginning, that infatuation moment experienced when you are about to purchase something brand new. She asked us to try and pause for 6 seconds in that moment, until our rational thoughts catch up with our emotions. She explained that this time would give us a chance to think about if we really need this product, or do we just want it. Most of the time, we probably don’t need another fancy new phone, when ours is working perfectly well. To start to de-clutter and reduce waste in your life, you need to stop and rethink your purchasing habits. 2. Responsible How can we de-clutter our lives in a more responsible way? Tanya suggests shifting from the ‘throw-away’ mentality when sorting through our stuff, towards other more sustainable options such as repurposing, recycling, donating to a charity or second hand store. We can’t continue to throw things into the bin and assume they are gone forever. There is no such thing as ‘away,’ so lets think twice about the end-life of our products. 3. Refuse This 3rd ‘R’ is going along with the same theme as Rethink. How often do you find yourself at a conference, function or party with bags full of freebies? How often do you find yourself actually using any of this stuff that we are all guilty of accumulating? Tanya is challenging us to politely refuse the things that we will not end up using. This will help to keep our work and home life free from nonsense stuff. 4. Repurpose0609082e807a8bedaab356ee8166f730 This R means instead of throwing away your unwanted stuff, repurpose it into something new. Take this opportunity to tap  into your inner creative self. If you cannot find any creativity, go on Pinterest to find many great ideas about how you can repurpose your unwanted stuff. Tanya even showed us a great  idea on how to reuse those annoying bread clips as labels on    wires in the office. A really great company that’s goal is to repurpose waste is Terracycle, contact them for some up-cycling ideas. 5.Reorganise A key step in the process of de-cluttering your home and work life is to start to reorganise your stuff so that you can find those items you are no longer using and remove them (responsibly) from your space. This will help you to live and work in a highly functional space that flows to increase convenience and ease in your life. 6. Repair and Restyle Instead of automatically throwing something out the second it stops working, try to see if you or someone else can fix it, replace a part or use some parts of it towards something else. As mentioned before, our stuff never really goes ‘away’ anywhere, so reduce the amount of waste you produce and products you purchase by tapping into ‘the good old days’ and repair your broken items. 7. Reduce This point is about noticing the things in your life that have been piling up on your desk or in your closest that you just haven’t gotten around to ‘dealing with.’ Maybe even try tagging or marking those things that you regularly use, if at the end of a couple weeks you notice that half of your stuff has not been marked, its probably time to reduce this clutter out of your life. As Einstein said ‘a cluttered desk is a cluttered mind.’ 8. Reuse We can reuse things instead of throwing them out very easily in the home or office environment. Try to set up a composting program or integrated e-waste recycling solution at your workplace. Maybe organise a clean-up drive at your office, taking all unwanted things to a local opp shop. 9. Recycle This is all about gaining the knowledge and resources on where and how you can actually recycle things. A great resource is by Planet Ark, here you can use the search bar to plug in your location and waste stream to find recycling options near you! 10. Reward It’s no use doing all of this work without recognising you and your colleagues efforts. If people are making serious changes in the workplace to de-clutter, and this is making a huge difference on the flow in the workspace, reward everyone! Maybe this is in the form of an office party of a few hours off early on Friday. Be creative, you have been through this whole process. We are moving towards an economy that will continuously rely on individuals and organisations who think of ways to reuse components and materials in products traditionally considered waste. The innovative companies have already tapped into this, and are saving lots of time and energy in the process. For example, a new Chilean start-up company called Bureo is recycling plastic ocean waste into skateboards. If we can all start to de-clutter and maximise the use of the stuff we already own, who knows the potential for bigger ideas to be inspired by these actions. For more information about how to de-clutter and other practical storage and styling solutions, visit the EcoOrganiser website.