The Adventures of Cindy Li

Things to do when you move

April 7 , 2007

Once upon a time...

I had too many hobbies and I wanted to fix things myself. Yes, I come from a long line of pack rats. My family tries to save, reuse as much as possible why? Well we spent money on that so it should be saved. I am trying to break this pattern now because it is time to move. Things are starting to get donated, recycled and then trashed if I couldn’t figure any other way around it.
Things I’ve learned while trying to move…

Hazardous Wastes

Be careful what you toss out. I had about 14 cans of paint and a bucket left over from refinishing furniture and I wanted to dispose of it properly. I located the Fairfax County, VA’s Household Hazardous waste disposal. I also needed to dispose of the propane tank I had. It cost $2. For the paints, solvents and bug sprays I didn’t have to pay anything extra. I learned you could drive your old appliances, grills, even bed frames. The facility had each section dedicated for your trash, I know its more excitement than most people can take.

Recycle

My neighborhood has recycling each week so that was easy enough to do but just in case the trash facility also had places to do that.
When I decided to put down more mulch I used rubber mulch. It’s a recyclable product plus it lasts longer than regular mulch. It is however a bit pricer. $18 at my local Costco for a 30lb bag.
Take your grocery bags to the local supermarket or use them for liners of your bathroom garbage cans. You can store some in an empty tissue box container as a dispenser.
Even the Environmental Protection Agency has a list of places you can recycle and donate eletronics.

Donate

I ended up making about 3 trips to the donation center that was closest to me. Goodwill: You can find a local store to drive up to and give them a ton of things. For tax purposes just keep a list of things you’ve donated. When you donate you get a form to fill out you can keep it general.

Need to get rid of art supplies?: I had a ton of art supplies and a friend of mine is an art teacher. I gave her a box full of old art supplies from paper to pastels I haven’t used since college.

Need to get rid of computer gear? You can donate it to Share the Technology, they have a list of places that need PCs, Macs.

Need to get rid of a cell phone? If you have old cell phones you can donate them at Verizon’s Hopeline Recycling. They go to domestic violence victims.  Other cell phone carriers like Cingular’s Reuse and Recycle plan.

Getting rid of more stuff

Now there are things such as Freecycle for when you really want to give it away and can’t be bothered to sell it.
Then of course the usual Craigslist or Ebay if you do want to sell it.

Piggy banks

Now what to do with all that extra change you’ve been saving? Chevy Chase Bank’s Change Express lets you bring in your change and has a counter in most of their lobbies. You do not need to be a member and they don’t take a cut of your money.  Just walk in and dump all your piggy banks savings into their machine’s conveyor belt (you don’t even have to roll up the coins) and then you get a receipt, take it to the counter and they will give you the money. It’s quite awesome. :) It will spit out your non-USA money too.

Word of mouth..

I got lucky and sold off a bit of stuff to friends. BTW: Does anyone need a weed wacker? If anyone wonders where I’ve disappeared off to.. hopefully I’m not trapped under a box.