Clear Clutter While Helping the World

Posted on September 2nd, 2010 by Paulina Aguilera

Before moving day arrives, there is an exhaustive list of chores to follow to make your relocation successful. One of the things you’ll be doing the most of is sorting through the piles of junk you’ve accumulated over the years and picking out what moves with you and what stays.

Staying green with your unwanted goods is easy, and with three terrific eco-friendly businesses recycling your clutter, you can feel good about knowing that your old cell phone is helping a mother of three with low to no income stay in touch with her family.

Here are three organizations for you to turn to that are clearing the world of clutter, while saving the Earth, one junk pile at a time:

Freecycle
Ah, the joys of free items! But you’re trying to de-clutter, so don’t get too carried away with this Website. The Freecycle Network is a grassroots nonprofit organization that boasts over seven million members. Membership to this generous community is completely free, and is a fantastic way to clear your home of the bulk of your clutter. Basically, how it works is relatively simple. Community members post their unwanted goods based on their location, and other locals quickly respond to take those items off their hands. If you are in need of something, like a garden hose, then you can post what you’re looking for and expect a kind neighbor to reply to you with a like-new hose. Organizing the pick up or drop off is the most time-consuming part of using Freecycle, so if you want to keep your stuff from ending in the dumpster in a last minute frenzy of cleaning, start posting your items at least two months prior to your move.

Computers with Causes
This fantastic American nonprofit organization takes your unwanted computers off your hands, refurbishing and reconfiguring laptops and PCs to give to a slew of different people in need. Your old laptop could end up in the hands of an Iraq war veteran, a low-funded public library, or a disadvantaged youth.

Flipswap
This eco-friendly, tree planting company will help you get rid of all of your old model cell phones. All you have to do is find your phone, answer a few questions about it, and Flipswap will send you a shipping label that is already paid for. For every phone that can’t be refurbished, Flipswap recycles it in an environmentally responsible way, while planting a tree in honor of the recycled phone. But the best part about sending your old phones to this company isn’t just it’s green practices – you also get money back for your phone!

Related Articles:

1. Get Rid of Clutter Once and for All by Asking These Questions
2. Save the Planet Next Time You Move
3. Choosing which Method of Communications is Best for Your New Home: Cell Phone or a Landline?

Tags: clutter, free, organizing

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 at 10:09 am and is filed under Moving Experts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.