Just went through my craft supplies and my fancy paper (my daughter always used nice paper for her school projects). Two bags headed for the library today.
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I think I have shared this before, but I cut the paper out and recycle it. Then the only parts that get trashed are the covers. Still not ideal, but better than an entire books in the landfills.
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Our library takes all kinds of books for donation. They sell them at annual book sales as a fund raising event. Iām guessing old textbooks donāt sell, but bet they know what to do with old books. Maybe your local library could recommend the best way to dispose of them?
I posted question about old textbooks on a local FB page. Pretty quickly somebody answered that the library takes all books, with a big upcoming sale. But later somebody in our local Friends of Library group said Pleaseā¦ No Textbooks. There is not much buyer interest, and they have to pay to recycle unsold books. This of course would vary by library - itās always worth checking.
Our county offers a CHaRM (Center for Hard to Recycle) dropoff. They do accept books. Iāll go that route if I canāt find any good Reuse opportunities.
I spoke with a friend who works at the university Engineering center. He did say he is surprised at how some of the very old books disappear on a freebie table. But I donāt want to do a dump on them without investigating more.
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I was looking for something in my file cabinet. Cleaned out a bunch of paper - some I still need to shred, but it felt good to get rid of old paper.
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My membership in this club is now at āuberā level. Sold my house on the day it was listed in late April and will be moving by July 22nd. I knew there was lots of stuff here from 28+ years, but I swear it all multiplies like rabbits at night. S came in week before last and made lots headway in his room, but dumped lots of things in Dās room with instructions to trash, sell or donate. I am having a garage sale on 6/25 and I think things will become more manageable after that is over and the remainder is picked up for Salvation Army. I have found a young woman who is helping me list things on FB and sort for garage sale and she is a big help. Piano was given away week before last and I gave my realtor the patio furniture after she contributed 1/3 cost of window repair requested by buyers.
I am becoming ruthless about books and have donated more than a dozen boxes to local library for their twice a year sales since January. Young helper said to quit donating for now as much of what is left are things that could be sold $1 each at garage sale and then remainder donated. I am filling the trash rollout each week and wishing we recycled more than twice a month. Iām excited about my move to be close to D & her family, but canāt take possession of condo until 8/1, so it will be a chaotic few months for me. Good news is that condo has been repainted and had the bedrooms recarpeted just prior to listing. It is basically move in ready and has a good sized storage unit for each condo in the basement, so a place to keep my seasonal decorations in a climate controlled environment.
I never thought that I was hoarding stuff before starting this move, but I should have insisted kids clear out and be ruthless earlier. S has boxed up stuff for me to send him (not too much) and has sorted toys into themes with hopes of selling online and having me handle a porch pick up for them. He also found sites that will buy his Nintendo NES and Gameboy systems, but looks like I will have to handle the boxing & shipping once he supplies labels. Very thankful I insisted on a long period before I have to give possession!
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My husband will need to make a transfer station run to dispose some stuff from his workplace. I suggested we add the old rug that did not work out and some leftover lumber 
and pay for the run ourselves instead of him trying to figure out how to expense the transfer station charge. Deal. He still remembers the āShed-o-$&!Ńā saga from 2017 (documented here in this thread). No more such sheds housing a literal ton of useless stuff. 
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We lost momentum but need to get back to work on sorting and packing. H refuses to do a yard sale, but has taken a few boxes to a local charity thrift shop.
H also returned some of Dās baby things to her, much to her dismay. It took me hours to sort and categorize clothing by size, whether it went to her or stayed with us, and label each clothing bin, plus bins of linens, toys, bottles, etc. He took 10 bins to her, two or three at a time. She and SiL still have not begun to clear out the room thatās been a junk room for over five years and they plan to use it as a nursery. Sheās mad at me for not lugging it all to our new home later this summer and storing it until she wants something. Oh well.
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Another small victory. Husband just went through his dozens of baseball caps and got rid of a bunch.
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Oh and I shredded the papers from the other day and made a bag of garbage with an old hose and old plastic plant pots (faded from the sun - they looked horrible).
I am trying to convert my husband from a buyer to a purger. Every time he suggests something to buy, I drag out the ones we currently own and have him weed through those instead. That is how I got him to got through all his caps.
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Great progress! I donāt think of myself as a big buyer. And over the years I did make modest efforts to declutter. (Every year after Christmas, Iād go through younger kidās room giving away toys. Then Iād move some items in from older kidās room. DH and I never bought them many toys, but they had a bunch of doting relatives.). But based on all the stuff weāve sent away and all the stuff remaining we were buyers. Can blame some of this burden on my motherās stuff, but not all.
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Our local recycling place will not take computer monitors but on the Next Door app I lucked out and found a local guy who disassembles computers for electronic recycling. I made arrangements for him to pick up our old, heavy desktop and he even took the hard drive out for me right there on my front porch and gave it to me. It might be worth it to see if there is anyone local who does this, assuming you canāt drop it off somewhere.
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We have a retired guy posting on NextDoor who does all sorts of curbside pickups with his truck for reuse / recycle / etc. Itās really cool since he does it as a community volunteer, letting folks pick a donation amount to help cover his expenses and the landfill fees. We had some friends who downsized last year and reallllly would have loved this service.
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More progress last night. Went through much of the closet in my office. Threw out lots of stuff (programs for events, etc.)
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I went through a couple of bins of summer clothes yesterday. Only netted about 15 things to get rid of, but better than nothing.
I was looking through my husbandās closet - he needs to do a big donate pile and do a ārefreshā of many things, but that usually means I have to buy them.
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Hey ā¦.15 items is decent progress. Inch by inch, row by rowā¦
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Well first my recent victories. I have a minivan (no seats) full of stuff for a local āfree garage saleā collection for families in need. Not sure they will take all of it (tall dresser with bottom/6th drawer not usable, metal shelves a bit flimsy, a very sturdy desk chair, lots of clothes and misc house stuff). Plus last week I got rid of bags of stuffed animals and toys on Facebook local Buy Nothing page.
And taa-daaā¦. a teacher watching Buy Nothing wanted the pictured old tribochet (catapult high school physics project) that was kicking around the basement. My husband was so sure Iād find no takers.
There is still a lot of junk all over the house (including empty tubs, file cabinets etc) as I work my way through the kids old bedrooms and the basement and crawl space. Along the way, sometimes I am just gathering items by category. Under my sonās old bed is all the stuff and paperwork Iād like him to sort through someday. Itās a very high bed frame (no box spring), so itās a big collection. But we emptied his big closet - YAY.
Any suggestions for old encyclopedias? I am doing ebay watchlist on some similar ones, but I doubt they will sell. The info is from the 1940s - I think the potential possibly could be for home decor - they look like this. Not wanting money, just a way to keep them out of landfill New Standard Encyclopedia by Funk and Wagnalls | eBay
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Iāve seen similar Funk & Wagnallencyclopedias on Etsy.
Also Abebooks and Amazon marketplace.
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Thanks. I have not done any online sales. I can easily find similar listings. Are there tricks to look up if there have been any actual sales?
