Definition of Sustainability: "Meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs." – United Nations, 1987, Report of the Brundtland Commission

Are you one of the millions of Americans who is drowning in too much stuff? Do you cringe at the thought of throwing it all away? You no longer have to deal with this problem alone.

Two small Capital Region businesses, each with a green conscience, specialize in relieving people of the clutter and detritus of the consumer economy they wish to get rid of.

Green Martha and Co. and Ecolibrium LLC help people sustainably organize, clean out and dispose of their excess baggage. And both enterprises make sure that most of the things that their clients no longer want will be sold, donated, recycled or otherwise repurposed. For people using these services, the trash becomes the very last resort.

GREEN MARTHA

Operating as Green Martha, ML Healey of Greenwich, NY, calls herself a sustainability advocate. Helping people sort, organize and manage the stuff that is driving them crazy is the current emphasis of her business. She advertises a specialty in family and elders.

ML uses a gentle approach to guide people through her organizing process. "If I strong-arm people to let go of their stuff, they’re likely to just fill up the space again because of the hole in their hearts," she explains.

In some shape or form ML has been doing this work, which came naturally for her, since the 1980s, "well before organizing had a name." About a year ago she kicked her professional organizing work up a notch to make it her main livelihood.

Over the years ML developed and refined her process as an organizer by helping friends. When they went through transitions, she would help them weed out their belongings, pack and set up new living spaces. She also got lots of practice by moving again and again when she was younger.

One of the reasons she finds so much satisfaction in organizing stuff is that she perceives it to be "a mental puzzle." It's not any particular interest in what stuff someone else has, she notes.

It's also gratifying to provide a service that makes people's lives easier. "So often I'll go into someone's house and find the things that they use all the time are just piled up," she remarked. They don't have any room in their cupboards because they're filled with things that they never use.

By going through this process, clients end up having only what they want, ML explains. They also know what they have -- and where it's stored. Otherwise they may buy something they already own but cannot find, or simply do without it altogether.

The psychological dimensions

People seeking the services of an organizer tend to be overwhelmed. They have some sort of mess on their hands. Either they don't know where to begin to fix it or they don't have the confidence to embark on such a big, scary project themselves.

According to ML, "Most people end up in this sort of situation because they've gone through some extended period of unusual circumstances – a dying parent, a traumatic move, or anything big, and they hit this blip of weeks, months, or years where their stuff just gets beyond them."

Over the course of our lives, many of us accumulate lots of things. They might be our own. But also our residences can become the depository of stuff that belonged to our kids who left ten or twenty years ago or our parents who died.

Interestingly, ML finds that most of her clients "are greatly relieved" that her process stresses reuse and recycling, and this seems to aid in overcoming psychological resistance. "They're willing to let go, but don't want to trash things," she observes. She directs them to good places for things in good condition to go, and that give donors a tax deduction.

The task is to enable people to regain control over their lives. As much as possible, ML seeks to empower her clients and facilitate their organizing process, rather than do it for them. 

Before she takes on a job, ML, like other organizers, has to look at the situation. The amount of help a person needs varies from "a little advice and a pat on the back" (which someone can receive at her initial free half-hour consultation) to attention over a period of weeks. And people may know how to go about organizing their stuff, but may first have to overcome "some sort of logjam."

Occasionally ML does pro bono work with people, like single mothers being evicted or otherwise in crisis, for whom paying would be a hardship.

In certain circumstances, it falls on her to actually do the work. At times she even travels for a big job, for instance, when an elderly parent is moving into assisted living and the children are unable to take on the project themselves.

Green Martha's organizing process

ML starts with determining what categories to put things in. After the macro sort, ML proceeds to the micro sort.

The first step is to assemble all the items in a given category. Once this is done, all items of one type, be they gloves or automotive parts, which are no longer serviceable, go for recycling or into the trash. The client then selects the items that he or she wants to keep, and those that a friend or relative would like. Items with value – and a market --get put aside to be sold. The stuff remaining, if it's in good enough condition, is donated to a thrift shop or reuse center.

ML takes a strong ethical stand on charity donations. She teaches her clients not to donate stuff that thrift shop volunteers would have to throw out and pay disposal costs for. "It's disrespectful," she points out.

In terms of the organizing process, ML rejects an altogether different approach – sorting a box a week or at a time – though it appears to be less overwhelming. She says, "I don't feel that gets to the heart of the situation."

Often, she finds boxes containing mixtures of say laundry, mail, financial documents, and toys – "everything someone pushed off the kitchen table because company was coming." How, she wonders, can you make an intelligent decision about what to keep unless you're able to see the whole picture of all the things of one kind.


Before


After

Sustainability as a way of life

ML adopted the moniker Green Martha in 1999 as a sustainability advisor residing on Martha's Vineyard. There she did a web column called Green Martha in the Kitchen for the principal grocery store, did green event planning and published a couple editions of Green Martha's Souvenir Guide to Eco-Etiquette. 

Her sustainable ethic is rooted in her upbringing. "I learned sustainability from my family because that's how they lived," she said. "We’ve always been very sustainable minded in terms of material use and reuse and disposal."

Like her parents, who ran several small businesses – selling fruit and vegetables, running a summer camp and operating a couple school buses – ML has also gravitated to work in the small business sector, except when she has been self-employed.

ML derives insights into sustainability from an unlikely source – two different "grand dames" for whom she kept house on Martha's Vineyard. While doing what she calls "museum quality work" for them, she also learned some principles to live by. Their lifestyle, she said, taught her about "the demarcation between Old World wealth and the rest of us."

"These women always had enough storage space – because they only had what they want and need. They're just not consumers like the younger generations."

When they did buy something, they would opt for the best quality – which is not necessarily the most expensive -- because it will last, she said.

Their relation to time also impressed ML. "They’re not cramming things into their days, just like they're not cramming things into their cupboards. They managed their time, and they said no much more easily than the rest of us."

ML recognizes the impact of socioeconomic class on sustainability. Affluent people are known for their much bigger carbon footprints, but on the other end of the spectrum, living sustainably can be rough for other reasons.

"Poor people don't have the money to plan further out. They got to buy the cheapest thing -- that will break right away. It's a trap," she contends. And anyone struggling to make ends meet tends to be profoundly overwhelmed.


ML Healey

ECOLIBRIUM LLC

Sustainability expert Steven Davis, who's based in the Troy area, started Ecolibrium about a decade ago. In 2008 he turned his business into full-time work after leaving his job as sustainability coordinator at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Values motivated Steve to get into this line of work. "I don't like waste and I didn't see anyone else providing this service who understands the big picture [of waste]," he said. He sees as his current vehicle to help "move the community toward Zero Waste." [See the sidebar for an explanation of Zero Waste.]

Ecolibrium provides clean outs and professional organizing for clients, and sells their unwanted stuff on commission. The skills and networks that Steve has developed enable him to make sure that usable materials do not get wasted.

Familiarity with the resale market for a wide range of items gives the business an edge in helping clients decide what's worth putting up for sale. Besides selling on eBay and Craig's list, Steve moves mixed lots of quality goods and antiques at frequent estate sales.

"It’s fun to look at all the stuff we have. People really get jazzed about it," he said. Another plus are the prices, which are "more on the affordable end," he added.

This particular business requires trucking. Steve recently purchased a 14-foot Isuzu box truck. Running on a 4-cylinder engine, this very fuel-efficient truck replaces the more awkward, gasoline hungry van and trailer combination previously used by the business.

Ecolibrium's decision making hierarchy

Steve tells his residential customers that he will approach their stuff "as a triage. They understand that concept from the medical field."

Steve analyzes a household's surplus stuff through a series of practical questions. The aim is to have the lightest, lowest amount of waste left for disposal.
• Are items saleable?
• If not, can they be donated?
• If neither of these reuse options apply, can they be recycled?
• Could items be repurposed for a different use?
• And finally, could they be disassembled so their components could be recycled or reused?

Useful services when selling a house or just moving

Ecolibrium's typical client is an individual or couple downsizing their possessions in order to transition to a smaller home. The occasion of selling a house often creates an imperative for the homeowner to declutter or get a more radically clean out.

As a means to stretch his miniscule marketing budget, Steve zeroed in on realtors as a source for referrals. According to Steve, in House Selling 101 one learns that cluttered houses are more difficult to sell. They're just too distracting for the majority of potential buyers. Very few people are able to imagine how their own stuff would look in a house that's crammed with someone else's belongings.

Ecolibrium also preps houses for sale in other ways, such as doing small repairs or a bit of carpentry. Steve is always pleased when his business can make use of unwanted building materials that the homeowner has on hand or that he rescued from previous jobs. Practicing what he preaches, he used 80 percent recovered materials to build a three-season room on the rear of his own house.

In a recent situation Steve had to create more room in a crowded basement before he could help his client organize his stuff and decide what to do with it. Using rough-cut pine lumber that his client no longer wanted, he solved the space problem by constructing shelves.

Steve said that it might seem strange to build shelving for a client when he is getting ready to move. The payback comes when prospective buyers notice the useful storage space.

The path toward his reuse business

As a young man, while still in college, Steve lost a parent and was faced with the difficult situation common to many of his customers. "It took me two years to go through the house because I was emotionally involved with the stuff," he said empathetically.

After earning his degree in Psychology, which he finds helpful in his line of work, Steve went on to Antioch New England, a non-traditional graduate school. Immersed in the field of non-profit management, he found he would prefer to work for a socially responsible business. At the time, in 1997, "Ben and Jerry's, Stonyfield and Tom's of Maine were all still independent businesses," he said.

During grad school, Steve took a side job with a clean out service. Though the business recycled a lot, he was appalled that all kinds of usable stuff were being destroyed or handed off to the employees. What a waste, he thought, when reuse requires less work and brings greater returns than dismantling items.

For his Antioch practicum, he chose the Community Warehouse, a non-profit reuse center in Hoosick, NY, because it sounded like exactly what he wanted to do. The initial reality though proved grim. The store had barely any customers, the storage barns were locked, and the resale market in computers had barely been tapped, he said.

After Steve completed his stint there, the Community Warehouse created a job for him and then promoted to operations manager. He threw himself into his work, retooled the place and made it run like a viable retail business. "I ended up making $100,000 a year in revenues selling garbage," he said.

After three or four years Steve left the Community Warehouse and started Ecolibrium. An inquiry from the student greening coordinator at RPI led to a staff position he held for over seven years. He was able to save the university $50,000 a year just by diverting waste for recycling and reuse. When buildings were remodeled or demolished, he made arrangements to get usable materials into the hands of community groups. By showing results, he said he was able to win people over.

Steve Davis and daughter

Contact:

ML Healey, Green Martha, 518/692-9539, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , www.MLHealey.com

Steve Davis, Ecolibrium LLC, 518/833-0739, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , www.reuseguru.com

Zero Waste

Adopting the Zero Waste goal involves changing practices in order to systematically reduce the volume and toxicity of waste. Instead of being discarded and land filled or incinerated, products and materials get reused, recycled, composted or repurposed. The objective is to conserve all resources. The things that cannot be cycled back into something useful need to be redesigned or avoided. Hundreds of cities, towns and larger political jurisdictions around the world are showing that Zero Waste makes economic and ecological sense.