If Paper Waste Were a Person, Mine Would Be Obese

Image: Wim

I really must stop being so fastidious about perfect hand-written copy.

If I make a list and the margin’s too wonky, I tear it up and start again.

If I copy down a recipe and the page doesn’t tear neatly from the pad, I tear it up and start again.

If I jot down notes, I’ll re-write them ‘tidily’ before I file them.

I can’t re-use the paper because I hate writing on something that’s already been written on. And all those loose pages just seem like clutter to me.

And woe betide if I make a spelling mistake!

I guess it’s the autism in me kicking in. They say we all have it to some degree. It all seems a bit OCD-ish to me and it actually gets on my nerves. I get fed-up rewriting stuff.

What’s more, I actually think a folder full of quickly jotted down recipes on the back of an old envelope and the likes is far more interesting to look through than one where every page is neatly written on the same size paper and with the same style of heading, etc. How totally lacking in personality!

I really want to try changing this. I think about the trees that have been chopped down just to satisfy my need to bin page after page of writing paper. I think about how I could be spending that time doing something either more productive or more enjoyable. Sometimes I could read a whole chapter of a book in the time it takes me to write out a recipe!

Once my daughter leaves in September, I’ll be able to take over her printer, which will definitely save paper and hopefully some time, although I do tend to re-arrange the page a few times before I’m happy with it. But what do I do in the meantime? Keep nagging her to print stuff out for me (every shopping list, to-do list, reminder list, menu plan, etc etc) or do I bite the bullet and try to accept imperfection?

If I can accept it in other areas of my life, surely it can’t be too difficult to adjust this one little bit of my life?

I’m gonna give it a try.

Sharon J

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