Timothy Large / iStock / thinkstock.com
It’s just too easy to exile that box of extra linens to the laundry room, pile the old kids clothes in the basement, or to temporarily stash those boxes of old baking pans in my garage. No, I’m not bitter, just frustrated. The hard thing is getting around to going through it all and actually getting rid of some of it.
Just Do It
You know you want to do it. You know you need to do it. You just can’t seem to get everyone on board. The Wife has the laundry room pretty much stocked with more linens, towels, and out-grown kids clothes than a family will ever need. Half the shelves I painstakingly built in my garage still hold boxes of baking pans yet no one, (and I think she knows who I’m talking about) has baked me so much has one single cake in over the 8 years since we moved in. Unless we are having more kids, which at 56 will be quite a surprise to me, I’m thinking the kid’s clothes can go. And unless she has some secret plan to open a Bed and Breakfast and baking the guests cake, I’m thinking the boxes of linens and baking paraphernalia can go too.
Garage Sale Anyone?
It is hard to just toss things in the trash so why not make some money? Garage sales are as American as apple pie and way easier to pull off. Throw a few signs up, maybe place an ad on Craigslist—which is free by the way—and they will come. Boy will they come. If you say it starts on Friday, they’ll be there Thursday. If you say it starts at 10 AM, they will be pulling up at 8, I guarantee it.
Free-Enterprise is Alive and Well
In our neighborhood, enterprising entrepreneurs cruise around in pickup trucks just looking for junk. I’ve set out broken toilets, rusting lawn-mowers and a three-legged table on the curb and had them gone in hours. If they don’t disappear, just put a sign on them that says “For sale” and it’ll be gone overnight. I don’t live in a bad neighborhood, but hey, everyone loves a bargain.
Just Give A Little
If you don’t want to go through the weekend hosting a garage-sale but have stuff too nice to toss in the trash, why don’t you donate it? Organizations like The Salvation Army, DAV (Disabled Veterans), and ARC will come by and pick it up right from your garage. Of course, now that you’re on their list they’ll call every other week but hey, it sure beats haggling over the price of that $2 lamp at your garage sale with the lady down the street.
Rent a Rolloff
For usually starting at around $200 and up you can have a dumpster dropped off in front of your house. These are usually rented for anywhere from a few days to a week. You have to make sure you get one big enough because you pay extra if they are over filled. You also have to watch out that your neighbors don’t cause that over-fill. In my neighborhood when folks see a roll-off, they act as though it’s a community service and start throwing in old lawnmowers, branches and anything else they want to get rid of. By the way, I swear I had permission.
Don’t be too Rash
My neighbor finally said he’d had enough and ordered a roll-off for all his junk. He told his wife anything that hadn’t been used in the four years they have lived there was going out. He emptied his crawl space, basement and garage of every box that had been sealed since they moved in. He also threw out all the old boxes they had stored for her mother and his brother-in-law. He is a hero among men in the neighborhood and now that he’s single again, we sure are going to miss that guy.
