What A Waste?

That’s an image of a Starbucks coupon entitling me to a free drink.  You will see that it expired yesterday.   Here I am at Starbucks today, writing this blog and paying full price for my coffee.  What a waste.  Or is it?

One of the reasons I became a professional organizer is that I hate waste.  Whether it’s waste of time, waste of money, waste of resources, waste of energy, waste of food, waste of stress, or waste of a life—waste really gets under my skin.  What I’ve discovered in my war on waste is that waste is a very relative thing.

I work with people who struggle with throwing things out.  This is what I commonly hear.  “That’s still perfectly good.”  “That needs to be recycled.”  “I need to get that repaired.”  “I could probably use that for something.” There may no personal value in these items for the individual, but because there is a theoretical value, there is a concern about waste.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about reduce, reuse, recycle, but there comes a time when you have to step back and look at the larger waste issues.  If you have a limit to how much stuff you can fit in your home, then you also probably have a limit to how much time, energy, and money you can devote to controlling it.  It’s all too easy to waste the precious resources of time, energy, and money on less vital waste issues, like recycle and repair.

Getting back to coupons.  I once had a client tell me he felt like he was throwing two dollars in the garbage.  He was actually contemplating a coupon for free ice cream cone in a town in Massachusetts that he had only passed through once and had no plan of returning to.  He was actually trying to adjust his plans so that he MIGHT go to that town again.  Finally, when he listed a dozen “ifs” he realized it was ridiculous.  It wasn’t two dollars.  It was a piece of paper he could never use.

So I realize that I am kind of doing the same thing with the Starbucks coupon.  I’m beating myself up because I have kept my coupon in a prominent place for four weeks, thinking I had until mid December to cash it in. Seemed like all the time in the world at Thanksgiving!  I have been in the habit of coming to Starbucks to focus on these blogs, so I really expected that I would use this coupon soon.  Other priorities have risen to the top of my to do list lately.  I realize now it would have been foolish to shift those priorities just so I can get a free Venti Caramel Macchiato.   I had been lamenting a wasted opportunity that I never had.  So on balance, it’s not a waste at all.

Furthermore I am resolved to not waste time stressing and replace it with a timely blog!