When I was doing work on sweatshop issues, I used to host “clothing swap” parties. Everyone brings over those clothes that you just don’t ever wear for one reason or another and folks get to choose what they’d like. What ever is left over can be donated to a shelter or thrift store (I like to donate to the Sunset Free Clinic Thrift Shoppe).

I know in San Diego, some folks will drive loads of unclaimed clothes from lost and founds, etc to poor towns in Mexico to distribute.

I work at a smallish tech company, and we’ve set up an unused and out of the way corner of our office as a place to dump things (mainly older electronics, videogames that have gone unplayed, etc.) that you don’t want but someone else might. Our IT department also uses this as a way to clear out decommissioned hardware. We try to limit it to stuff that someone might actually have a use for (no broken CRTs, for example).

Personally, it’s been a great way for me to clean out boxes and boxes of old videogame controllers, extra usb cables, and random computer parts without the hassle of ebaying it or the guilt of throwing it in the trash. Your old crummy PC could be your coworker’s shiny new kubuntu box for his home studio (though you may wanna pull those hard drives out before tossing them on the pile).

I bring all stuff I don’t need to my parents house, they have a big house and they don’t mind it. Benefits are: - I declutter my house - nephews will get lots of stuff to sort out at summer season - I visit my parents more often (probably it’s one of the reasons why they don’t mind me doing it :)

I organized a huge community yard sale, and raised nearly $4000 to help furnish houses for Katrina victims. My bosses let me use their parking lot for the sale, and their back room to store the stuff people donated before the sale. It was a huge amount of work, but a lot of people decluttered, and a worthy cause benefited. (Of course some people bought other peoples clutter, so maybe…) Declutter, and good Karma! ;-)

Where I live the local Arc chapter (www.thearc.org) will pick up stuff at no charge. If you’re on their list, they’ll give you a call every month or so to see if you have anything for them to pick up. Then you just set your stuff outside your door on the pickup day and they’ll haul it away. There may be groups in other areas that offer similar services. While its not good if you need stuff out the door right now, its a great service to help keep the clutter from piling up again, and it requires little work on your part.

I just donated a bunch of stuff to the Children’s Clothing Exchange here in Boston:

“Even at a used-clothing outlet, the cost of clothing a family of four can be devastating for transitioning families. And the vast majority of homeless families are single-parent families — primarily mothers with small or grade-school children.

At the Children’s Clothing Exchange, they trade for what they need — an eight-year old’s winter coat for a ten-year old’s summer outfit. Good quality for good quality. We take toys, too. If you don’t have good clothes, you can trade your time, volunteering. Shopping at the Children’s Clothing Exchange

Some are surprised that our barter system works with transitioning people at all. But we’re never surprised at how much a person who’s had so little is willing to give back. It’s simple: the participants fill each other’s needs, year after year.”

Boston’s is here: http://www.solutionsatwork.org/Services/ChildrensClothing.html

There might be a program like this in your city!

In the time honored tradition of patchwork quilting, I make art from clutter. What might become clutter in other households — old clothing and linens, paper ephemera, bits of wrapping paper and ribbon, broken beads and chine — is sorted, stacked, stashed in my mostly neat studio (Ah, the key to it no longer remaining clutter) and then used to make art. The trick is to have enough space and boxes or drawers to keep it sorted enough to be usable. This is reuse with a higher calling — throwing clutter away is just moving it from private to public problem sometimes.

My issue with clutter, is planning for a proper afterlife for the crap. I can let go of crap, but getting it a new home is my problem. Ok this might sound weird, but its sorta how I feel. Who wants to adopt my crap if I don’t want it? Noone? ok fine, I’ll hold on to it. Makes me miserable.

Can you find more places that accept crap, and explain the steps one goes through in contacting, arranging the pick up, or scheduling a drop off of stuff like old outdated furniture, obsolete tech items, clothes and old books.

We like to use something we call the “free garage sale”: there’s one bookshelf in our house that is not great for storing books because of its location, so the top four shelves are a constant display of stuff we’re getting rid of (not junk, but things we think other people would like). Yeah, it violates the Get It Out NOW thing, but it’s kind of handy: every time we have a party we fill the area up and then the guests clear it out, so it’s not as constant and horrific as it might be.

Needless to say, this only works because we’ve got the clutter thing down to a more manageable level. (Our method of choice for bulk removal was the combination 15-yd Dumpster and packed-car charity run. Much of our “clutter” was construction debris.)

Those who said 1800GOTJUNK was ‘reasonable’ - can you give a ballpark figure for your job? Their website says they can’t estimate without coming out and I just need an order of magnitude.

@sarah

Those who said 1800GOTJUNK was ‘reasonable’ - can you give a ballpark figure for your job?

That’s a great question, actually.

1800GOTJUNK was the first company I used for junk removal — maybe 5 years ago — and I was in the same quandary. At the time I used them, they seemed very pricey to me, but after having done many dump runs on my own over the last few years (often renting a costly van to do so), I’m more sympathetic (although that particular company still seems on the expensive side compared to others I’ve now used).

I think it’s difficult for any hauler to do a sight-unseen estimate, primarily because civilians like us are notoriously bad at guessing weight and volume. And since most hauling comes down to those two factors, they like to do the bid in person (plus they’re more likely to get the gig if they’re there).

If you have a lot of stuff (and aren’t in a super hurry), I’d suggest breaking your load into several smaller bits and trying 2-3 different places. That way you get some perspective on price, you get to know different companies, and you’re also less likely to get stuck with a single big bill.

Personally, I also think it’s important that the people be professional and that they don’t charge so little that they’re likely to be dumping your stuff in the woods or on the side of a road somewhere, Sopranos asbestos-style. :-)

@julia

If you call a hauler, they’ll probably ask you what kind of stuff you have (like: cardboard vs. car batteries vs. scrap wood, etc.), and approximately how much stuff you have. Like I said to Sarah, they’ll probably punt on specifics, but you should def, ask about their minimum charge — just in case it turns out you don’t have enough stuff to make it worth their while, they may still have, say, a $100 minimum or what have you.

The nice part about a good hauler is it’s totally hands-off. They’ll parachute in, the stuff disappears, and you aren’t staring at it any more.

Julia, just donate it somewhere. Local social services agencies, the local library, Goodwill, Salvation Army, and local charity thrift stores are good places to call. Just call and ask if they can take it, and if they can pick it up.

I work in social services, and our lobby has a “free table” (it’s expanded to include a two-level hanging rack and a shelving unit in addition to the original table) where staff and clients can leave or take stuff. This makes it hugely convenient for me to get rid of stuff, and I have some insight into the process. Things don’t stay on the table for long. One of three things happens: 1. Someone takes it. This is what happens to the vast majority of stuff that gets donated. 2. It stays for a long time, and then our receptionist culls it and takes it to one of the charity thrift shops. 3. It’s deemed unsuitable (used underwear, things with holes or stains, some other miscellaneous such things) and gets thrown away. I dislike number 3, but at least if something I donate gets thrown out for whatever reason, I have the satisfaction of knowing I tried to give it away, and I feel less guilty if it has to go through a second filter before it gets tossed.

I just finished grad school. Textbooks go out of print REALLY quickly. There are new ones issued every 2 or 3 years. What to do with old textbooks? I found Books for Africa.

Books for Africa takes textbooks and delivers them to places in Africa. They are approved by the Smart Givers Network. They get 4-stars from Charity Navigator.

http://www.booksforafrica.org/

One of my favorites is Dress for Success. They provide suits and other work-appropriate clothing for women on welfare or a low income so they can look good and feel confident going on job interviews. If you have work-friendly clothes you don’t need, they can be helping turn someone’s life around instead of cluttering your closet.

http://www.dressforsuccess.org

Note that they accept women’s clothing only!

Putting old stuff in the street with a “free” sign would be great, but forbidden over here in germany. In most cases we have to pay to get rid of old or unused things. Over here is mostly no will to pay for used or old stuff.

But on the other hand - some furniture or old TV screens and something of that kind going straight to poland or russia to get sold over there.

One activity that I’ve actually enjoyed is driving my junk to the city landfill.

I think everyone should do this at least once in their lives. Dumps for large cities are totally unlike what you would expect. Most of the landfill is grass-covered green hills almost like a golf course except for the top of the “active” hill which is a lunar landscape of black dirt teeming with large bulldozers. As you toss your junk out in the designated zone, tough dudes in bulldozers run it over and flatten it down as hundreds of seagulls circulate in the air above.

Our favorite trick is a combo of sell/free. After a previous garage sale, we left the items out by the curb with a sign that said “Name Your Price!” and asked that they simply put money in our mail slot. 100% honor system. Sure enough, we came home later to find random dollars on the foyer floor and a few coffee cups or old pans were gone.

One thing I did once to get rid of childrens’ books and old comics (about 4 boxes) was giving them to the local children’s hospital (“Sick Kids” in Toronto).

I called first to find out a) if they would take it and b) where I should drop them off. They were pretty pleased and I later got a nice letter from one of the managers there.

Peter Walsh is on Oprah today (Monday the 9th). Very timely!

Book swap sites - there are tons of them. I always felt weird about unloading my dry academic european history books on Goodwill, or for that matter, on schools in Africa. They just don’t seem like useful material except to a small segment of the population. And book swap sites can hook you up with those few people who do really want them.

Bookmooch lets you donate your points to libraries or prisons or whatever, so you can get rid of stuff without having to get stuff in return :)

I always recycle those that are still useful when used in a different way. I think that our clutter has a secondary purpose if we are creative enough to use them.

Take your old electronics to a place that recycles them - PLEASE keep electronics out of the landfills! Electronics recyclers used to be hard to find, but they’re all over the place now. Even here in the middle of Iowa we have two within easy driving distance. The only problem is, if you’re a computer junkie like me you’ll probably find something there that you just HAVE to buy and bring home, thus compounding the clutter problem.

For clothes, furniture, home electronics, and knickknacks that still work and look good, don’t forget consignment shops. They’re a great way to keep good stuff in circulation and out of the landfill, and they can actually put a few bucks back in your pocket. Most will donate anything they can’t sell to Goodwill or other charities, so you kill two birds with one rock.

There’s at least one place here (in Australia, alas, for you US folks) that takes a whole lot of odd stuff, which they then sell to artists and school teachers. They’re called That’s Not Garbage, and while they did once have a website, they’ve recently changed hands. But ours in this state was copied from another in another state, so there may be some in the US as well.

They take clean industrial waste (like the foil offcuts they used to stamp milk bottle tops out of), bits and pieces of just about anything non-toxic, ribbons, sequins, bits of interesting paper, containers, store dummies, anything. Artists and wee schoolkiddies get inspiration and cheap materials, and we get a lovely warm feeling that we’ve disposed of Stuff in ways that won’t use up landfill. Plus if you’re a bit of a geek, it’s really interesting to wander through the warehouse to see what they’ve got this week.

If you don’t have any in the US, maybe some of you might be inclined to start one? Just a thought.

Oh, and animal shelters will always need clean bedding: blankets, fluffy things, general warm-n-softness, but not pillows because the dogs chew ‘em.

Other than that, Freecycle rules. And Goodwill and its confreres.

One point that FlyLady makes is that it’s important not to dither about how and where to get rid of stuff. Because that becomes another obstacle to doing it. And those of us with problems getting rid of stuff don’t need one more obstacle. So it’s more important to do it (getting the stuff away) than to do it in the perfect way. (Taking environmental concerns into account, of course.)

There are two amazing places here in Portland, Oregon, that have affiliated or similar groups elsewhere:

Free Geek http://freegeek.org/ SCRAP http://www.scrapaction.org/

The first is a huge recycler of computer parts. They also have a program where you can earn a free Linux box through volunteering or through building their Linux boxes. It’s a nerdy wonderland! They have so many CRT monitors that they are technically considered a toxic waste dump.

SCRAP is another of those creative reuse places. They run contests like Iron Artist.

Awesome way to think out of the box’o’crap, Merlin! This stuff helps us all be more conscious of where our discards go.

Jim beat me to Free Geek and Scrapaction, but missed the Rebuilding center — the Home Depot of thrift stores. They collect and sell all kinds of used building materials.

I’ll get the ball rolling with a favorite of mine.

The San Francisco landfill has an “artist in residence” program:

The company provides selected local artists with the opportunity to create art using materials they gather from San Francisco’s refuse. This includes 24-hour access to a well-equipped studio, a monthly stipend, and an exhibit at the end of their residency, but artists seem most excited about having 24-hour access to the materials.

More at: Artist In Residence - (AIR) - SF Recycling & Disposal

Although it’s not specifically related to decluttering, I love the idea that artists are out there picking through trash and turning into cool stuff.