Rubbish!

[Tosh]

Salam,

Our houses are getting messy because we keep up piling up stuff. "Maybe that will come in handy later" etc.

I don't like the clutter but I have issues with throwing stuff away. Like plastics and paper, and stuff... I might not need it but I don't want to throw it away to go and fill a landfill somewhere, this is an islam-based opinion for me. Recycling I have been doing, but not everything can be recycled.

It is very refreshing and productive to have a neat room, Imam Bukhari used to keep his living space spotless, MashaAllah... but I often end up with CLUTTER CLUTTER CLUTTER, SubhanAllah!

So, as a Muslim or someone otherwise ethical, How do you deal with this?

JazakAllah khair.
Allahu Alim. Allah knows best.

[.: Anna :.]

plastic paper and all u can recycle it.
otherwise why dnt u join freecycle for some of the other things, if its a junk to you as in you dont want/need it but it is something too good to throw, u can just put a message and whoever wants it can collect for free.
or else donate things in the charity shop, if its something which people will be able to use.
if it is a real real junk, something broken, dirty etc then u will just have to throw it away. otherwise your house will become very dirty and untidy. for some things there is no choice, as long as u are trying to keep it to a minimum. I know it will go in a landfill site, but do u want to keep your house like a landfill site?! There comes a point where you have to throw in the bin. But insha allah u can buy more things in recycle packaging, and reuse shopping bag etc rather than taking the plastic ones, small things like that

[Apricot]

Donate usable items to charity. Donate things that you have kept for 2 yrs without using. I often donate usable stationary items (paper, pens, rulers, etc) to friends with school-age kids or to a school. If donating is difficult, try selling things online.

Our religion warns us against hoarding things, for fear of want, etc. Also we are taught that upon death, we will not take any of our worldly possessions with us to the grave, only our deeds.

[PiElle2]

change your mindset from "Maybe that will come in handy later" to "We dun need it"...:D

[Umm 'Umarah]

Well, landfill sites are there for a reason, if we all adopted that mentality we'd all have a landfill site of our own in our homes.

Just get rid and don't look back. no point in hoarding paper and plastic for later. lol.

[Tosh]

JazakAllah khair for all the responses thats really refreshing.

Still too much plastic and big boxes for storing things....what about old folders?

Sometimes giving too much in one go really ruins it for people! They just mess up their houses. Gotta think whether they are gonna use it.

But really, JazakAllah khair for your response, that is really encouraging and good advice.

Still feel bad because things like half broken lunch box, some countries the people wouldn't even have that. SubhanAllah.

Ok, what about books. I have some old story books in the house that no one reads...I don't want to give them to my baby cousins because they always have annoying stuff in them that promote unislamic stuff. Just plain annoying. Basically, if a muslim wrote some of these books, even though some of the stuff I am talking here might seem trivial...they would probably get kaafir written all over them (Dajjal, may Allah protects us all, Ameen)

[PiElle2]

old books will be good to donate them to children's home or something... at least they will last they cos they put in a library or something.:)

as for the other disposable stuff.. can be used for making 'rubbish' art...

everybody likes to feel useful, including rubbish!:D

[MangoChutney]

Salam,

Our houses are getting messy because we keep up piling up stuff. "Maybe that will come in handy later" etc.

I don't like the clutter but I have issues with throwing stuff away. Like plastics and paper, and stuff... I might not need it but I don't want to throw it away to go and fill a landfill somewhere, this is an islam-based opinion for me. Recycling I have been doing, but not everything can be recycled.

It is very refreshing and productive to have a neat room, Imam Bukhari used to keep his living space spotless, MashaAllah... but I often end up with CLUTTER CLUTTER CLUTTER, SubhanAllah!

So, as a Muslim or someone otherwise ethical, How do you deal with this?

JazakAllah khair.
Allahu Alim. Allah knows best.

Rearrange your room every now and then...you'll find things u dont need and it's an excellent excuse to get your room in order.Also, make more shelf room.

[Tosh]

oK jazakAllah khair, definitely appreciate all that you been saying so far, gonna get going on that in the period often described as NOW inshaAllah.

One more thing. Alhamdulillah, I have been involved with quite a lot of stuff now, still gotta do much more inshaAllah. I have different bags for each activity (7 bags). It often takes me a while to get things sorted when I am going out anywhere cos I transfer across things from this bag to that bag and so on.

Old course notes from GCSEs & A-levels and stuff that don't really matter anymore and they aren't useful to other people really...

Also, pots and pans that I don't use because I bought them on my gap year, and now I am back at home...? What to do with them?

What you think about storing the boxes of items (to hold their value) - though I am no business man - it gets quite space consuming!

I am not just asking loads of questions so I don't have to do anything (well I think not), I actually want to do something about this inshaAllah.

[Astraeus]

Keeping extra things "for use later" is a problem, almost an illness.

Many, many moons ago, I had to move from Boston to south Florida for a job on a megayacht. I owned a pickup truck at the time, and it was so loaded with junk that truckers would flash me with their brights because they thought I was driving with my highbeams on. After my contract was up, I threw out or donated over half of what I had. When it was time to sell our condo a few years ago, it took me two weeks of sorting threw everything to decide what to keep and what to throw out, donate, or simply give away by leaving it in the alley. The stuff in the alley was gone in under two hours. When we moved back to IL last summer, I still had stuff to get rid of, and once again I am going to seriously go through my stuff and really scale back. Most items will be either donated or sold. Non-Islamic books will be donated to a used book store, with the exception of a few.

Buy a good shredder. I burned one out during the condo cleanout for having so many old documents which needed to be shredded. I am sure this shredder will have a workout too. ;)

As others had said: donate, recycle, throw out. In the US we have Salvation Army, Goodwill, and other organizations which take most anything, and will resell them at thrift stores if in good shape, including pots & pans. :up:

[.: Anna :.]

things like pots and pans from gap year just donate them in a charity shop im sure they accept that stuff, or else if you know someone who wants them
i dnt think u need to keep the boxes really for things. it becomes clutter and aslong as the item is working etc, it doesnt matter. if u have so much of the clutter, i doubt u will get round to selling each one for highest price so dnt worry about that.

[Tosh]

so true about the selling each item...I am not in need of money so much like that Alhamdulillah.

My mum (and its spread to all of us) keeps all the boxes in the house stored - like ice cream tubs, other boxes, old lunch boxes...etc...what to do with them?
I hate to throw thick plastic boxes away...i hate to think what happens to them!

Also, stuff like using aluminium foil, we try to keep it to re-use, but isn't that a good thing?



jazakAllah khair

[Astraeus]

Also, stuff like using aluminium foil, we try to keep it to re-use, but isn't that a good thing?

jazakAllah khair
Since my son likes chicken nuggets & fish sticks, I use the same foil. I wash it in very hot water and let it dry in the still hot oven. Just don't keep it if it touched any raw meats or fish. Better safe than sick.

[PiElle2]

so true about the selling each item...I am not in need of money so much like that Alhamdulillah.

My mum (and its spread to all of us) keeps all the boxes in the house stored - like ice cream tubs, other boxes, old lunch boxes...etc...what to do with them?
I hate to throw thick plastic boxes away...i hate to think what happens to them!

Also, stuff like using aluminium foil, we try to keep it to re-use, but isn't that a good thing?



jazakAllah khair


invite some relatives or brothers back for Quran recitation or some Islamic activies, get your mom to cook up and let them take-away the food in those boxes at the end of the session...:D

[$HugoBoss$]

You ever heard of a paper shredder???????? Take out time to organize the clustered items if you don't your going to form a mountain of junk.

[angel*]

I'm a clean freak so I don't think I could live with 101 thing's floating around, recycle give what you can't to charity shops and thing's that are broken they need to go in the bin.