Thursday 13

How to do you dispose of things you no longer want?

I have a bit of a clutter problem. It's not because I don't want to get rid of stuff. It's because I don't know how to get rid of it.

That's because it is not junk - not things that should be tossed in a dumpster. These are things like very nice Ashley end tables and a matching coffee table, glassware, etc.

So, what do I do?

1. Yard sale aka tag sale. I've already vetoed this, unless I pack up a truckload of items and haul them into town to a friend's yard. That is possible, I suppose. Except I don't have that many friends who live in large subdivisions or in town. Most of my friends live out here, on farms, too.

2. Estate sale aka auction. I could get an auctioneer to come and sell things, but I don't have enough to justify that.

3. Auction house. The alternative would be for me to load up a truck and take things to an auction house, which usually has a sale every Saturday or once a month, or whatever. No reserves, though, so you have to take whatever the bid is. Which means my $300 Ashley items could sell for $1. In that case, I might as well toss them in the dump.

4. Dump aka landfill. This is a good place for many items - clothes that are too yucky for a charity, old papers, that sort of thing.

5. Hazardous materials dump. My husband informed me this morning that our landfill now takes computers and similar items. I have several computers hanging around the house that no longer work but I had no idea what to do with them. Now I know I can take the hard drive out of them and toss the rest.

6. Recycle. I already do this with paper and plastic. Except for the multitude of excellent notebooks I have packed in a closet, the papers generally go. The notebooks, which I for some reason collect, I need to donate to a school.

7. Donate. This is a good way to rid yourself of items, but donations also bother me. I don't want to give things to Goodwill; I don't like reports about the organization that indicate it underpays people and overpays the CEO. That's the nearest donation spot for me, and easiest to get to, and I do drop things off there from time to time. But still, not everything I want out of my house is something I want to donate.

8. Sell it on Craigslist or Facebook. If I didn't worry about folks coming to my home, this wouldn't be so bad, I suppose. But I don't want people roaming around. And I don't want to drive the 8 miles to the nearest little village to meet folks at the coffee shop just to sell some little thing or to have the person not show up.

9. Freecycle. I have some things I could give away, but there again, I don't want people around my house and I am not able to haul things to the nearest little village.

10. Ebay. I don't have an account. I would have to learn to do it. But it has possibilities, I guess.

11 - 13 - I'm lost. No more ideas. So not a real Thursday 13 - maybe a first for me.

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Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 459th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.