• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Living a Sunshine Life

Discovering the Positive in Every Day

  • Home
  • Start Here
    • About Living a Sunshine Life
    • Terms of Service/Privacy Policy
    • Disclosure
  • Positive Inspiration
  • Recipes
  • For Bloggers

Spring Cleaning: 20 Things to do with the stuff you don’t want anymore

April 4, 2013 by Mary 3 Comments

Tweet
Share
Share
Pin2
2 Shares

If you’ve been following me at all for the past month you know I’ve been working on an organizational challenge to turn my junk pile basement into a homeschool classroom.  Would you believe it…I FINISHED!  Check out this amazing transformation.

Final11

Yes, this is only one picture out of many from the transformation.  You can see more pictures and read some of my thoughts about the entire experience on my final post about the challenge.  On this post here I want to take a look at what to do with all of the stuff I got rid of to make space for the classroom.  One of the biggest lessons I learned through this whole challenge was learning to let go.  Once I did that the only problem I had was finding enough boxes to pack up everything to move outta here.

I’ll be honest.  At this point we haven’t moved everything out yet.  No, it’s not in the basement, and it’s not going back there.  It’s piled up in our garage waiting for a new home.  Sigh.

boxes

Don’t worry, that’s not as bad as it seems. We’re going to be doing a garage sale, then donate the leftovers…it will all be gone in the next couple of months, so just a short amount of time left to live with this mess.  At least it’s a sort of organized chaos.

I’m taking the easy road (not that a garage sale is easy…why call it a garage sale? I’m not selling my garage?).  Not that pricing everything and running a sale is going to be easy, but it will be well worth the effort!  I want to give you some other ideas of things you can do with things as you get your Spring Cleaning on.  When I really started thinking about all of my options, I started to wonder why I didn’t get rid of this stuff sooner.

20 things.jpg

  1. Have a Garage/Yard sale.
  2. Donate gently used, good condition items to Goodwill.
  3. Donate gently used, good condition items to the Salvation Army.
  4. Donate to Homeless shelters. Need help finding a homeless shelter?  Check the list on homelessshelterdirectory.org. Don’t forget to call them and ask about their donation policies before you drive stuff over to them, they may not be in need of it or may not be able to take it.
  5. Sell on Craigslist.  This is a great way to sell items within your area, but if you do, please take safety precautions and always meet in a populated, neutral area rather then at anyone’s home.
  6. Donate to clothing bins. I don’t know about your area but we have bins set out all around our city with guidelines written on the side. Here is an example of one. clothing drop off
  7. Donate old eyeglasses. You can donate to organizations such as the Lions Club, or contact a local vision clinic and often they will take them off your hands as well.
  8. Post on Freecycle.org. This is a great site to both find things you may want and get rid of things you don’t.
  9. Recycle old cell phones. There are actually a lot of things you can do with your old cell phones.  Donating them to Cell Phones for Soldiers, or if you’d like to see your cell phone refurbished for a good cause, how about sending it to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.  If you want your cell phone to go to someone in need, consider donating it to the 911 Cell Phone Bank, where law enforcement and victim services can get cell phones for people in need to call emergency services if they need to.
  10. Recycle old computers.  You can take them to Best Buy or even contact www.forerunnerrecycling.com to get rid of your old computers.
  11. Sell on eBay.  This might cost a little money for the listing fees, but if you have something worth a lot of money you want to sell, or maybe a collection you know is popular this could be a great option for you.
  12. Donate to animal shelters. I once donated an old futon mattress to a shelter to be used as a bed for the dogs.humane society.jpg
  13. Sell on Facebook Buy/Sell/Trade Groups for your area. You can just do a search for your area with buy sell trade typed with it on the Facebook search.  My advice for dealing with any of these is to sit back and watch the group you join for a bit. Is it active, does anything look shady? Get a good feel for it before you jump in, then like the Craigslist advice, keep safety in mind.
  14. Sell used books to book resellers. You can find resellers in your area if you have used bookstores such as Half Price Books or even local small businesses, or check online.  You can use Cash 4 Books to sell online if you want, or even try selling them yourself on Amazon.com.
  15. Donate used books to the Library. This is easy.  Just call your local library and ask what guidelines they have and if they are currently accepting donations. Even if they aren’t, they may have some other suggestions of local organizations who are accepting book donations.
  16. Donate used books to schools. Again this is an easy one, just call your local school and ask who you would need to talk to about book donations.  Follow the guidelines they give you from there.
  17. Donate to Books for Soldiers.  This is a great organization who takes requests from troops and helps you get a care package and books to those soldiers.
  18. Donate to Vietnam Veterans of America. This is a great site because you can go online to schedule a pick up, then they will come get your donation from your front door.
  19. Donate to Dress for Success.  If you have some gently used business attire, this is a wonderful organization to help underprivileged women gain employment.  The organization will train women with career development skills, provide them with attire for a job interview and offer a support system to help them get on their feet.
  20. Habitat for Humanity. If you’re cleaning out your garage you may find surplus building supplies, or tools, or even some furniture through the rest of the house.  These are all great items to donate to your local Habitat for Humanity ReStore.

There are a lot of other places you can donate your used items, just do a quick search online for the specific item you are thinking about getting rid of.  These are the ideas and locations I thought of off the top of my head.

What other ideas do you have for getting rid of the clutter you decide you don’t want anymore?

Tweet
Share
Share
Pin2
2 Shares

Filed Under: Home & Family

Previous Post: « March Organizational Challenge: IT’S DONE!!!
Next Post: Care Bear Birthday Party »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kelly

    April 5, 2013 at

    I would say I go through my closet 2-3 times per year and I always bring the clothes to a clothing drop box. They are all over! I have also donated cell phones to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. All great advice. Your Classroom looks great by the way!

    Reply
  2. Gina

    April 12, 2013 at

    Great resources and encouragement! I do a daily purge of 5 items, and I have boxes in my basement for sell/donate/Freecycle so that I’m always moving things out of the house.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Hi, I'm Mary (she/her). Positive inspiration lifestyle blogger living in Nebraska. Check out the blog, get to know us, and find a little inspiration along the way. Please comment on the blog posts or shoot me an email if you have anything to share. We'd love to get to know you too! You can send an email to Mary@livingasunshinelife.com

Affiliate Marketing Course Review

Check out our homeschooling blog!

Footer

About Us

About Living a Sunshine Life
Meet the Family
Terms of Service/Privacy Policy
Disclosure
VIP Facebook Group
Contact Us

Copyright © 2022 · Foodie Pro & The Genesis Framework

We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Do not sell my personal information.
Cookie SettingsAccept
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT