June 03, 2009

Labeling Boxes

If you have boxes or bins in your basement or attic, you should label the contents so that its easy to find things later on. This is pretty obvious, but most people don't do it and they pay the price when it comes time to look for things.

Use White Duct Tape
I highly recommend using White Duct tape to label the storage containers. This makes it easy to identify what's in the storage containers as the tape is strong enough not to fall off in the heat and cold. The tape can be easily removed or replaces as contents of the storage container changes. I tried using labels and they fall off pretty easily.

You should tape one side and the top of the box so that its easy to identify stacked storage containers. Also be sure to label exactly what's in the box, saying "Christmas Decorations" isn't too vague. A better solution would be, "Snowmen and Raindeer for fireplace." The more descriptive you are to what's in the container the better off you will be to finding what your looking for.

Boxes of Books
If you have a box full of books, take the time and record the title of the books and tape it to the box. The few minutes that you spend on doing this will save you a lot more time later! Also you may find that some of the books aren't worth keeping anymore.

May 02, 2008

Clutter Quote

From the book Stop Clutter From Stealing Your Life by Mike Nelson:

"Hearses don�t have trailer-hitches"

April 29, 2008

Busy Cleaning Weekend

This past weekend we did some serious cleaning in our apartment, here's what were able to accomplish:

• 150lbs of trash on Saturday
• 7 Bags of Clothes donated to St. Vincent de Paul
• 12 Small Boxes of Misc Items to Goodwill

Overall it was a very successful weekend, We were able to remove a lot of things that we just don't need anymore. Note that we have been cleaning all week and just did several trips on Saturday to the Recycle center and Goodwill.

We saw a lot of people out and about doing spring cleaning but none were as aggressive as we were. Spring Cleaning is well underway.

We aren't done yet, we still have a lot more things to get rid of and still have some things in cue ready for this weekend trash and goodwill run.

Later this week I'll be putting things on eBay to see if there's some demand for some of the things I have been collecting over the years. I have done some basic research and have found that some of the stuff isn't as valuable as I thought they would be.

April 28, 2008

Goodwill Rejects

Goodwill is an excellent service for decluttering as they will take just about anything. However there's two things that I have seen that they will not accept:

• Children Toys
• USB Printers

They won't accept Children Toys because of all the reported lead recalls. I guess they don't want to have to figure out which toys are safe and which ones have been recalled. Solution: I guess the best thing to do is to trash any toy that you don't want anymore. If you know its safe you could always ask around at work to see if anyone needs it.

Not sure why they won't take USB Printers. I guess they have so many of them that they can't get rid of them, or they don't have any means to test to see if the printers work. Can you image the number of printer drivers they would need to have on a computer? Solution: If your printer is in good shape, use Freecycle to get rid of any printer you don't need. I wouldn't bother putting any cheap USB printer on eBay, you probably won't get much for them.

April 25, 2008

Recycle Books

If you have a lot of books, you should consider removing some of them so they don�t clutter your library. There�s no reason to keep a lot of books that you�re not going to use anymore.

GotBooks.com is a great service because, not only will they take any books that you have, but they will even comes to your house to pick them up. This is perfect service for us since we have a couple of flight of stairs from the street level. On Wednesday, we left nine boxes of books and they took all of them!

If you don�t want to donate your books you could always visit a used book store and resell your books. This is a good option if you have some first editions or some valuable books.

In 2002, when I moved from San Jose to Boston, I sold a few books to the �Recycle Books Store� in San Jose. They gave me $30 for 10 of my books. I am pretty sure that my books are someplace in the store today. Not all my books were accepted since they were outdated technical books or were old travel books. I guess having Photoshop 5.5 Visual Quick Start and 1996 Florida Travel wouldn�t sell very well.

I discarded most of the remaining books in the recycle bin at the Woods Apartment complex in South San Jose.

If you�re in the San Jose area, you should check out the unique book inventory at the Recycle Book Store.

Recycle Book Store
1066 The Alameda
San Jose, CA 95126
(408) 286-6275