From Junk to Green

During exams I lamented over much of the junk around my house. I admit, I keep a fair amount of junk, yet I ironically value cleanliness and functionality. So as I begin my New Year's cleaning, I'd like to share some of my finds/ideas for greening junk that is around the house.

1) Salvation Army/Rescue Mission Donations

Start a bin of nice stuff that you don't want to throw away. I started my bin last year and I was angry at myself for not emptying it sooner, but I found that dropping off all of my random, lightly used clothes and other stuff were much needed and appreciated in the month of December when people need cheap, nice stuff to give others. I hate to say it, but I guess I'll blame it on my staffworker Rachel, if you don't like some of the gifts you get, take it back!!! Or if that is too much of a hassle for you like it is for me at times, just put it in the box for someone else's Christmas next year. This shouldn't matter, but you do get a nice tax-deductible for your donation. So there is no excuse NOT to get involved.

2) Recycle your denim!!

For just the shipping fee, you can get rid of all of those jeans that have holes in them that you think you'll wear, but you wouldn't dream of giving them to someone else. Keep in mind that the homeless really do need jeans, especially men's jeans, so I prefer to send my whole-ly ones. I found a place that recycles jeans and turns them into insulation for homes!!!

Fair Indigo Denim Drive
c/o Green Jeans Insulation Inc.
1109 W. Milwaukee Street
Stroughton, WI 53589

3) Broken Technology

So if you can't send your computer stuff to a donation center (like Habitat for Humanity) because it is broken, take it so a Staples store. There is a small fee (like $10). It is definately cheaper than Municipal Solid Waste Management fees and it isn't put in a landfill.

4) Books

I LOVE books, and I will NOT purge unless it is for a good cause. And purging as you all know is actually a good thing. Invisible Children, one of my favorite charities, has a book drive campaign that ends January 31, 2009. Send a book to one of the drive locations and the resell value of the books go to funding the re-establishment of schools in war-torn Uganda. When the campaign is over, you can steal send your books to the company that does the resell for other goods causes: Better World Books. I'll be honest, I've never seen books be a hit in thrift stores or in the places where books or donated (even when I worked in a non-profit U.S. school), so this operation is brilliant. If you are a book-a-holic, you can resell your own books to local bookshops and get store credit for new ones. Then give away your usual budget allotment surplus to a charity of your choice.

5) T-shirts

Do you have a t-shirt that you'd be embarressed to send to a thrift store? Cut the shirt along the seams until you have a front and a back. Cut each a few inches below the arm pits and wah-lah you have 4 cleaning cloths from one t-shirt! Forget having to use paper towels and nasty sponges for cleaning sinks, dusting furniture and windexing windows. I keep an old grocery bag in the laundry room and I wash all of the cloths when the bag fills up.

As I continue with my cleaning and organization efforts, I'll continue to post. If you have good ideas, please comment!!