A good day to give things away
This is my last week for working on our garage before turning my attention to prepping Kathy's house for sale, so I'm trying to make the most of it. This means that I've been doing one of my favorite things - getting rid of things!
Having run many of my own massive de-cluttering operations, as well as having helped others organize their spaces, I'm intimately familiar with the challenge of how you get rid of all the stuff you've agreed to part with. Letting go is one thing...but where do you let it go TO? Sometimes it's not so easy figuring out how to get stuff out of your space.
True, some people just throw it all away, no matter what "it" is. I'm not that way; I start to break out in a rash when I see organizers on TV dumping things into plastic garbage bags. Obviously, unlike me, they have zero landfill guilt. I much prefer to make a good faith effort at getting as many items as possible recycled and reused. The thing is, that takes a lot of work.
For our garage, my quick sort left me with the following types of items:
Household goods and clothing in saleable condition - these are the items that are suitable for donation. Having recently merged two robust households, we had a lot of these items. I did some research and found a local charity (Anna's Attic ) that would come pick up our many boxes and a few items of furniture. I photographed everything and made a list of the items for tax purposes. Then, on Tuesday, the truck came and took it all away. I know, we could have a garage sale and made lots of money, but I am horribly impatient with them. I'd rather just donate the goods to a worthy cause and take the write-off.
Household goods that aren't good to donate, but would make someone happy - these are the things that fall outside of what charities accept. For example, boxes of candles that I set aside as ones I was not going to use, several bags of plastic hangers, a kitchen range that we pulled out of the studio kitchen, old firewood left by the previous owner, and leftover craft supplies. For this, I used the Freecycle group in my area. I posted the items that needed new homes and individuals contacted me to arrange to come take it away. Freecycle is great for hard-to- donate goods, and you make people happy!
Books that I'm ready to pass along - I put these into boxes to take to a used bookstore, to resell. Anything I can't sell will be donated later on.
E-Waste - computers, monitors, TVs, broken phones, printers, and more. These I've set to one side, in preparation to take to the next local computer recycling event.
Special items, such as collectibles - these go into the eBay boxes, to be sold later on. This only works if you actually do get to it. In my case, I've sold on eBay before.
The hauling pile - home improvement debris, icky items left behind by the previous homeowner, and broken goods all get hauled away. I also had enormous stacks of cardboard that I had cut up for recycling. When my haulers came, they took the recycling to a local dump where they separate that out, saving me five trips to the recycling center.
I have to admit, out of all the people who come and take things away, my very favorites are the haulers. That's because they take the things I can't get rid of any other way. I tend to get a little light-headed and giddy when they are here. I giggle. I compliment them. I practically have a cigarette after they leave. I tell ya, one sure way to make me love someone is to have them take away the stuff I no longer want. It's crazy intoxicating!
So, after a week of donating, freecycling, and hauling, I'm feeling pretty good. Each square foot of open space is more room within which I can think and breathe. I can't wait to get back to this project and finish it off, but for now I need to move on to something bigger: prepping Kathy's other house to sell. I'm a woman with a plan and a deadline, so watch out!
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