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Archive for Donating & Recycling

Outgrown Kid Clothes

By Tanya Whitford, CPO® on August 1, 2015 No Comments

As every parent knows, kids go through a lot of clothes- and fast. My first child was 9 1/2 pounds at birth and basically skipped all the 0-3 month clothes we had for her. Did not see that coming! The amount of clothes and the constant turn over is enough to drive anyone crazy. Here are some ways to handle outgrown kid clothes:

1. Save: If you are on baby #1 and keeping clothes for future baby #2, put washed outgrown clothes away in bins labeled with sizes like 3-6 months, 6-9 months. I liked the Deep Sweater Box from the Container Store’s line of clear storage boxes. They were the perfect size for baby clothes and I could stack them in the closet.

2. Pass Along: If you are all done with babies, it is the perfect time to pass them along to a friend or relative who can use them. It works great when you know someone with a child 1-2 years younger than yours. You can keep passing things down the line- and hope they do the same.

3. Donate: Most charities are happy to take baby clothes. Some like Baby2Baby even specialize in them. You can also check with your local women’s shelter.

4. Sell: You won’t make much at yard sales for baby clothes- but they are popular if in good condition. If you have high end, name brand baby clothes in good condition, you can sell them on-line at places like ThredUp. Mail your clothes to them and they will send you some money for the ones they can sell!

5. Raise Money: My new favorite thing to do with my kids’ clothes is send them to Schoola. They send me a postage paid bag. I fill the bag with the good clothes and send it in. They sell them on-line and 40% goes to my kid’s school. A very easy way to raise funds! You can see photos of your clothes on their website, watch as items get sold across the country and see how much money is coming to the school.

6. Recycle: If your kids clothes are past their usefulness to anyone- don’t throw them in the trash. Use them as rags. Give blankets and towels to the local animal shelter. And recycle the rest at local H&M stores through their Don’t Let Fashion Go to Waste program. A fantastic way to keep textiles and clothes out of the landfills.

Whatever way you decide to part with kids clothes, just make sure you keep doing it. If you fall too far behind, you might get buried in clothes!

Categories : Closets/Clothes, Donating & Recycling, Kids

Yard Sales

By Tanya Whitford, CPO® on May 11, 2015 No Comments

I just had my 2nd yard sale in 6 months. I had one 10 years ago and it was such a miserable experience I swore I would never do it again. But as an avid donater and recycler, I’ve been a little disappointed to see dumpsters at some local donation places full of things that someone could still use even if the place couldn’t sell it or electronics that should be recycled. I started to think maybe a yard sale would be a good way to make sure my stuff went to someone who wanted it and not to a landfill. A like minded neighbor with 2 kids also wanted to try a yard sale so we did our first one together right before Christmas. There was a learning curve, but the experience was good enough for both of us to do it again.

Our second yard sale this past weekend was…pleasant! I am not a yard sale pro by any means- but here are some tips that have worked well for us:

Start a yard sale box or corner way ahead of time to start dropping things as you come across them in the weeks or even months beforehand.
Also start a box for freebies- anything that is still useful but you can’t really sell. No one is going to pay for a free mug from the dry cleaners that you don’t want either. Did you try a new shampoo and hate it so you stuck it under your sink to die? Put it here! Someone else will want them!
Knowing you can do another garage sale in a few months relieves some pressure to do it all now and try to go through your entire house at once. That is a lot of work!
Make it a multi-family yard sale if possible. More for people to buy and more fun for you to do with a friend.
Group like items together and display them on tables or blankets. If you have a clothes rack, use it!
Buy the sets of Yard Sale stickers or dots to write on. You can also just use painters tape to tag items.
Don’t put the yard sale sign up until you are ready and set up. On both of our sales, we did not advertise or post them anywhere. We set up at our own pace and when we were ready, we put out the signs on the corner. We live in a great area for yard sales because people start coming immediately. It is amazing!
Have change, shopping bags, a printing calculator, labels and a Sharpie for when you start to drop prices at the end.
Have the box of freebies available to people who bought a lot from you as a bonus.
As things get sold and the tables start to empty, reorganize and make it look nice again.
Towards the end, you have to start making decisions on prices you want to drop, what you will donate afterwards, and what you’ll try and sell next time. Keep in mind if it didn’t sell this time, you have to drop the price next time or admit that it might not be as great as you once thought it was.

In 4 hours, we were done with our yard sale. A lot had been sold. Leftovers were donated or held for the next time. (As long as we have kids outgrowing things at record pace- we will have stuff for a yard sale.) The boxes of free stuff had been taken by lots of appreciative people rather than added to a landfill. I don’t do this for the money but more for the process of clearing out things and watching them go to a new home with someone who is excited about them. It is also a great reminder to think before you buy something new and to realize the electronic gadget you spend $200 for today isn’t worth $5 at a yard sale 2 years later.

Categories : Donating & Recycling, My Blog

Halloween Candy Overload

By Tanya Whitford, CPO® on October 27, 2014 No Comments

I came across this picture recently and it made me laugh. Here I am in 5th grade sorting my Halloween candy as soon as I got home. Must put all Milky Ways together and Hershey Kisses together! A jumble of candy made no sense. I could better trade with my brothers when I knew exactly how much of each candy I had!

While I still love Halloween and chocolate, I have learned to not eat it so much- and to not allow Reese’s Peanut Butter cups in the house because I will eat them all. So what do you do when you have too much Halloween candy left? Here are 10 things to consider:

1. Don’t do as much trick-or-treating or only allow your child to take one candy from each house- no matter what is offered. They still get to trick-or-treat, but won’t end up with nearly as much candy as they would getting a handful at each house.

2. If your kids are back from trick-or-treating, have them go through their bags and right away give you the candy they don’t like. Add that to your bowl of candy for trick-or-treaters who are still coming to your door- and give away much bigger “servings”.

3. Put half of it away until Thanksgiving and put it out at the family gathering or save it to add to Christmas stockings.

4. Take it to work or the teacher’s lounge at your child’s school.

5. Put them in the freezer to use year round in milkshakes and ice-cream toppings or melt them down to use them for baking.

6. See if your local shelter or food pantry will take candy.

7. Put it on Freecycle. Someone else will definitely want the candy.

8. Donate it to Operation Shoebox or Operation Gratitude who send it our troops deployed overseas.

9. “Sell” it to Halloween Candy Buy Back which works with local dentists to gather extra candy for our troops.

10. Instead of handing out candy, try pretzels or fruit snacks. They sell them in Halloween packaging. Or try stickers or small toys. A treat doesn’t have to be candy.

Happy Halloween!

Categories : Donating & Recycling, Kids, Simple and Organized

Recycle When You Shop

By Tanya Whitford, CPO® on September 14, 2014 No Comments

I’ve seen this recycling center at Best Buy before and thought it was really cool. But I could never remember exactly what I could recycle there until I took a picture. I had a hard time finding a place to recycle empty DVD or CD cases- until now! I’ve never seen anyone else recycle gifts cards! This little recycle center is pretty handy!

I like it when stores make it easy for customers to recycle things that need extra care in recycling. Places like Lowes and IKEA take batteries and CFLs. All the plastic bags should be properly recycled at store bins. I never forget my own bags when shopping- yet I still amass a lot of plastic bags. They are everywhere! Around my newspaper, clothes from the dry cleaner, produce, bread, toilet paper- the list is endless! At least I can take them somewhere to be recycled.

Problem is, you usually arrive at the store empty handed and then see the display and get mad that you forgot those bags and batteries- again! I like to move them to my car once I have accumulated enough for a small bag. That way I have them with me next time I am in a store that recycles. Walking back to my car is a lot easier than forgetting them at home again. We need to make the extra little effort to recycle things that don’t go into our normal recycling bins at home. Thankfully a lot of stores you are in all the time can help! Just look around!

Categories : Donating & Recycling

Too Many Toys!

By Tanya Whitford, CPO® on December 17, 2013 No Comments

I saw this interesting fact on the Container Store website. Wow! That is shocking but believable. I have kids and I don’t buy them many toys- but they have a lot anyway. Toys have been passed down from relatives and friends- which is my favorite way to get toys. And of course the birthdays and Christmas that often bring excess. So what do we do?

1. Pre-holiday Purge to Donate- A week or so before a gift receiving holiday or birthday, go through your child’s room WITH them. Not for them. Not when they are at school and can’t see what you are doing. It is extremely important that children learn the concept of letting go of things they no longer use or need. Donating also teaches them to share with children less fortunate than them.

2. Set limits- Sometimes it helps to create a certain amount of space for toys- and that is it. Cubbies, shelves, bins under the bed- whatever you decide is a good amount for toys. If there is no more room to fit new toys that are coming in, then something else has to leave. It is kind of like the one in- one out rule, but this helps kids prioritize what toys are most important to them. They may decide that getting rid of a huge stuffed animal is worth it if now 6 smaller toys fit in that space.

3. Trade- Ever notice that when you take your child to someone else’s house- they absolutely loves playing with all their friend’s toys? Organize a little trade amongst some families. Gather up the toys you want to let go of and come together in one place with all your give-aways. Then shop amongst the toys your friends no longer want. Just this weekend a friend mentioned her daughter wanted the Barbie Dreamhouse for Christmas- and sure enough another mom sitting right next to her was planning to get rid of the Barbie Dreamhouse her daughter no longer played with. Perfect! What a wonderful and green way to shop!

4. Buy less- Ever spend lots of money on a present and then watch your child have more fun playing with the box it came in than the actual toy? Have you watched your kid race through opening presents and they only want to play with one of them? More is overwhelming. Less helps you appreciate the special things you got.

Our children really do not need nearly as many toys as we get them. So buy less toys. Trade or give away the toys they have outgrown. Be selective of the toys that you do buy. Don’t go crazy for the hot new toy which usually turns out to be a flash in the toy hall of fame (or shame). Have more family experiences. Go for a walk together. Play at the park. Kids will remember the fun times they shared more than the toys they played with for 4 minutes.

Happy Holidays! May they be full of fun and loved ones.

Categories : Donating & Recycling, Kids

Broken Dishes- Trash or Treasure?

By Tanya Whitford, CPO® on July 28, 2013 No Comments

We had just moved into our new house. Rather than put all the pretty dishes we received as wedding gifts on the moving truck, I transported them myself in my car. I gently placed them in the display hutch in the kitchen. Then I realized the furniture was blocking the outlet by half an inch so I asked my husband if he could just push it a little to the right. My friend who was helping us unpack told me we should empty the hutch. I thought, “it’s only half an inch. It will be fine.” I was so wrong.

I thought my husband knew the hutch was not connected to the base as we had just seen the movers bring in the 2 parts. He didn’t remember, and I didn’t think to tell him. He pushed from the top and the whole hutch and everything in it went crashing to the floor. What a horrifying sound that made. I fought back tears. The fact that I was holding our 1 year old in my arms and no one was hurt was a sigh of relief, but seeing all those precious dishes broken on the floor was heart breaking. I had tried to be so careful with them and a single half inch mistake had broken them all.

I swept up all the pieces with sadness and disbelief. It was now trash to me. But I knew it wasn’t trash to someone else. In fact, there were quite a few artists on Freeceycle that really wanted my box of broken dishes to make mosaics. These beautiful dishes would live on in another form rather than be tossed and added to a landfill.

Every day, things most people would throw away have been given new life and a new owner by using Freecycle or Craigs List Free. Broken shredder? Someone else wants the motor? Broken glass door on microwave? Someone is willing to fix it? Bunch of old magazines? A teacher wants them for projects. The possibilities are endless! So next time you have something that is broken or not suitable for donation, try Freecycle or Craigs List Free. There is probably someone out there who is happy to turn your trash into their treasure. Everyone wins and it stays out of the landfill.

Categories : Donating & Recycling