It’s been a long week packing and moving into my new place. I had been at my previous apartment for 4 1/2 years so I forgot how much work it is to move. Luckily I’m really happy with the new place and will hopefully be able to spend at least a few years here! Moving was a good chance to go through all of my things and figure out what I could get rid of. I never really realized how easy it is to get rid of some old things I had around for awhile, so I thought I’d share 5 ways to recycle unwanted items from your home:
1) Clothes – I usually go through my clothes in between the seasons. For any clothes I want to give away, my first step is to give them to my sister to go through. She’s the same size as me and doesn’t enjoy shopping as much as I do, so she looks forward to my closet cleanings. For anything she doesn’t want, I drop them off in the drop-off boxes in parking lots to be donated. When I lived in New York City and didn’t have a car, I dropped my clothes off at a nearby church.
2) Cell phone – I had 3 old cell phones at my apartment for some reason..including my pink razr – remember those? I had heard about this non-profit, Cell Phones for Soldiers, and decided to try it out. It was really easy! You just go to the site, print out the pre-paid label and mail your phones. They send them to be recycled and use that money to buy calling cards for soldiers overseas so they could make phone calls to their family, so it’s for a great cause.
3) Digital camera – I had an old digital camera that wasn’t great to use. The batteries exploded inside so there were remnants from that around the camera, which isn’t good. So I found Recycling for Charities and sent my camera to them. They take care of recycling it and then donate the money to a charity that you choose from a very long list. The only negative with them is that the label is not pre-paid, so you have to pay to ship the item.
4) iPod – I forgot how large iPod nano’s used to be until I found my old one! I wasn’t sure how to get rid of this, and then found that Apple will recycle them for you. You can either mail it to them using their pre-paid label you can print from their site or you can drop it off at an Apple store and get a 10% discount off your next purchase. Good deal!
5) Furniture – I had a Walmart bookcase in my room that wasn’t great quality. I didn’t want to bring it to my new apartment, so I left it on the street in front of my old apartment! This works well if you’re in the city. People come around with vans the night before trash day looking for “trash” like this bookcase. I’m not sure what they do with them. Probably keep for themselves or sell on craiglist to make money.
Any other suggestions for how to get rid of unwanted items?