Sunday, January 4, 2009
Starting on My First Bag to GW
Very conveniently I got a brown paper sack (advertising a 15% off everything you can fit in this bag at Office Max) in with my Sunday paper this morning. That reminded me that I am supposed to be getting rid of at least one bag per month of accumulated junk as part of my paring down committment. I am having a very, very hard time of knowing where to start. The most logical would be my clothes but I'm pretty sure that any clothes I get rid of will end up in the landfill and not on a resale rack as I'm not the most fashionable person to start with and most of the clothes I'm willing to get rid of will be 10 years old or more (and purchased at a thrift store even then). My next choice would be books. I know that my library really only wants recent (within 5 years) PBs for their resale shops but what about Goodwill and other thrift stores? I don't want to just pass off a bunch of unsellable books that they will then have to process and possibly pay to get rid of. Any suggestions?
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Your old clothes won't go to a land-fill. Even junk clothes are useful as rags and as pulp for paper. Ditto, I assume with the old paperbacks...but I could be wrong there (the acids that make cheap paper turn yellow might make it undesirable as pulp.)
ReplyDeleteAs far as where to start, I have found that getting a divorce, moving into a smaller house, and then making room for a housemate has been very helpful for downsizing.
Moreover, unfashionable clothes are often sent to Africa. A friend of mine spent some time in Kenya, and she said the locals called these garments "Dead People's Clothes," because they figured the only reason to get rid of perfectly good clothing would be if the owner were dead.
ReplyDeleteBesides, I'm not sure I see the virtue in simply storing clothes or books that would otherwise go into a landfill, in your home. That makes your home a landfill. You've already doubled the life of the items by purchasing used; don't worry about where they go after they leave you.