I detest waste. Really detest it.
And I don’t mean waste like the rubbish that the bin-men (they are all bin-men where I am) take away every Thursday. Although that’s pretty rubbish, as is what we undoubtedly do with it. That stuff is an unfortunate by-product of 21st Century life and the cause of many issues, but that’s not the type of waste that I’m talking about.
What I mean by waste is the type of waste where someone, somewhere, could make use of but because of circumstances they can’t.
For example, if I have a toaster that works, yet it no longer matches my new kitchen décor then I would like to be able to give that to someone who doesn’t have a toaster and can benefit from using it. Traditionally charity shops would take things like that and sell them for low prices, benefitting the purchaser and the charity. But these days regulations around the safety of electrical items means that many charity shops won’t take my toaster, because the cost of PAT testing the item renders it unprofitable.
Trying to post items like that on social media buy-swap-sell sites is fraught with issues – from the proliferation of scammers at one extreme, to the general inconvenience of having to wait in for someone to call and collect a toaster at the other.
Even taking the item to the local recycling centre generally costs more than the item is worth, and the fuel cost (monetary and environmental) often extinguishes the value in recycling the item in question.
So as a consequence it is easier to simply send the thing into landfill.
I am the same with non-physical waste, like unlet days in my holiday cottages.
November is always quiet. As are other months during the winter. After all, my cottages are in north Wales in a village called Capel Curig. They are gorgeous and they have a view of Snowdon from the front door. They have hand-made wooden hot tubs. They have wood burning stoves in the lounge. But even those things sometimes aren’t enough to make people want to visit what is consistently one of the wettest places in Britain during the autumn and winter months.
And I’ll be honest, I think that’s a waste.
Snowdonia (or Eryri, if you prefer to use the Welsh name) is stunning whatever the weather and whatever the time of year.
And so when I see empty days (and even empty weeks) in my cottages it makes me sad to think of the waste.
I am not concerned about the loss of income from quiet periods. I earn enough from them. So in the low season I slash the price and it still doesn’t encourage people to come. And there is only so far that you can cut prices before you start to devalue your own product and I’m simply not prepared to do that.
A bit like the toaster, I would rather find someone who wants to come, but can’t afford it and let them stay for free than see the ‘waste’ of the unbooked nights just slip by.
So I’m pondering doing something radical: I’m seriously thinking about offering my cottages on a “pay what you can” basis to people and organisations who are deserving and who would benefit. The problem is that it’s important that the guests that stay look after the place, and don’t abuse my generosity, and that’s a fine line.
I would love to have aspiring writers come and stay for a writing retreat. I would love entrepreneurs who need to get away for a “Think Week” to come and stay. I would love to be able to help genuinely good people who simply couldn’t afford to, to come to have a break away, maybe a respite or just a rest.
But exactly like the toaster, I have no idea how to go about finding these people. And if I’m honest I’m terrified at the risk of scammers or piss-takers or people who would abuse what I have spent many hundreds of thousands of pounds making as perfect as I can.
I hate waste. Yet I hate piss-takers and scumbags. I want to do something brave. Yet I’m scared of doing something stupid.
It’s a real dilemma.
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