April 20, 2023 • 39 mins
Hi Friends!
In honor of Earth Day, today’s episode is all about responsible recycling.
We’re looking across 10 of the most popular areas and sharing the do’s and don'ts while sharing some resources of places for you to take your unwanted goods without adding to your carbon footprint.
This episode is chock full of insight into both WHY we often struggle letting go, as well as the practical side to decluttering your home.
Make sure to check out the links below for the resources we mentioned in the episode, and if you prefer to read the transcript, click here. Happy Spring!
XOXO-
L
LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Staples Recycling Program
Boston University Article on Clothing Consumption
Vox Article on Food Waste
Reducing Paper Usage Stuffed Animals for Emergencies
Terra Cycle for Toy Donation
Properly Disposing of Unused MedicineDrug
Take Back Days Article from EPA on How and Where to Dispose of Batteries
https://www.call2recycle.org/locator/Lowes Recycling Centers How to Properly Dispose of Paint (state specific)
Junklugglers
1-800-Got Junk
In honor of Earth Day, today’s episode is all about responsible recycling.
We’re looking across 10 of the most popular areas and sharing the do’s and don'ts while sharing some resources of places for you to take your unwanted goods without adding to your carbon footprint.
- Tech & Electronics
- Clothing
- Food
- Paper
- Stuffed Animals & Toys
- Medicine
- Batteries
- Paint
- Building Materials
- Furniture
This episode is chock full of insight into both WHY we often struggle letting go, as well as the practical side to decluttering your home.
Make sure to check out the links below for the resources we mentioned in the episode, and if you prefer to read the transcript, click here. Happy Spring!
XOXO-
L
LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Staples Recycling Program
Boston University Article on Clothing Consumption
Vox Article on Food Waste
Reducing Paper Usage Stuffed Animals for Emergencies
Terra Cycle for Toy Donation
Properly Disposing of Unused MedicineDrug
Take Back Days Article from EPA on How and Where to Dispose of Batteries
https://www.call2recycle.org/locator/Lowes Recycling Centers How to Properly Dispose of Paint (state specific)
Junklugglers
1-800-Got Junk
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to This Organized Life. Ifyou're a mom, wife, or coffee
lover seeking advice on how to reduceclutter and reclaim time, look no further
than your host, Laurie Hellou,founder Simply Be Organized, an author of
hot Mess, a practical guide togetting organized. For a lot of people,
clutter is their dirty little secret,but it doesn't have to be.
Each week, we will share practicaltips, chat with experts, and provide
(00:23):
strategies on how to keep you organized. I hope that by sharing our stories
you feel a little less alone andmore empowered to tackle the areas that are
holding you back. So let's getstarted. Hi everybody, and welcome to
today's episode of This Organized Life podcast. I am your host, Laurie Plow
(00:45):
and guess what, guys, I'mcoming to you today solo. Sorry to
disappoint, but this is going tobe a really fun episode. I guess
it's fun. I don't know ifyou will call fun. We're talking all
about recycling responsibily because it is EarthDay and we want to be talking all
things about spring cleaning, organizing,and what to do with all of our
(01:08):
stuff. Because I think one ofthe things that I hear most often from
people is a guilt around just throwingstuff in a landfill. And a lot
of times people don't declutter things ordon't get rid of things because they're not
really sure the best way to goabout doing it, or it just seems
(01:30):
like it's complicated. I know,a lot of times when you go to
make a donation, I've seen peoplethat want to make donations for I don't
know, certain charities and they're like, oh sorry, we can't take that.
Oh sorry, we can't take that. Oh sorry, we can't take
that. And then people just windup getting frustrated and say, forget about
it. I'm just going to keepit. So I made a list of
(01:53):
ten different categories. Some of themare going to overlap, but I just
want to go through them because Ithink they're some of the most popular categories
that people struggle with. So Iwant to just give an overview of each
of the ten and then we willgo back in and dive into each one
(02:14):
of them. All right, soundgood, Okay, So the first category
is tech in electronics. Right,So tech electronics you're going to think anything
from TVs, computers, old phones, copiers, all that kind of stuff.
So tech in electronics. Second oneis going to be clothing, obvious
(02:34):
clothing. Third one is expired food. Believe it or not. You would
think that that would be easy forpeople, but I see a lot of
people that are struggling with our expirationdates, even legitimate. How long can
you go over expiration dates? CanI just throw this in the trash?
Or should I compost it or whatever? So expired food, paper, papers
a big one, folks. Thefifth one stuffed animals and toy That is
(03:00):
a big one, stuffed animals andtoys. The next one is medicines.
Medicine, what do you do?Do you just flush them down the toilet?
Do you throw them in the garbage? What do you do with medicine?
Seventh is batteries. Batteries are abig one. Paint, so the
(03:20):
next few are like household items.So we've got batteries, we've got paint,
we've got building materials. And thenthe last one is old furniture.
So I try to cover the majorityof categories, and we're going to give
some links in this episode. Sothis is definitely one of those episodes that
you're going to want to head overto the show notes or our podcast page
(03:44):
and really find these resources that weare going to be talking about there,
so that way you don't have toworry about writing the stuff down if you're
listening. So I think the firstway I want to talk about it is
again just go through what we meanby each of these categories where people struggle
and where are some healthy, sensibleways that you can dispose of these items
(04:09):
that you no longer need, wantor use. Sound like a plan?
Okay? Good, And before weget into any further I did forget to
say at the top of the episode, if you're new to our show,
make sure to click the subscribe orfollow button wherever you're listening. We're obviously
on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. If
(04:30):
you prefer to read our transcripts,you can also download or read our transcripts
right off of our website on ourpodcast page. We come to you twice
a week, folks, once onMondays, which is our Tip of the
Week episode, and then on Thursdayswe have our long episodes. So in
total we've got like probably close tothree hundred and fifty episodes. So it's
(04:53):
crazy town, lots and lots ofcontent that is free for you guys to
help you at more organized. Okay, so now that I did that little
public of service announcements, let's getback to the topic at hand. What
to do with technology and electronics ifyou want to get rid of them.
(05:14):
As we know, there are somany different types of electronics that people have
in their homes these days, betweencomputers, desktop computers, laptop computers,
old iPods. We've got like kindlesMax, what iPads? I'm like,
I drew blank to what they are, different types of e readers. I'm
(05:39):
just even looking off this list,gaming consoles, even old flash drives,
modems, old monitors, cables,all of this stuff. It just adds
up and half of the stuff Idon't know about you, but half the
stuff you're like, I don't evenknow what this chord goes to. You
have all these random chords and you'relike this Mico to an kimp. It
(06:00):
might go to a computer. Itcould be for a game boy. I'm
not really sure. And so thefirst thing I would say is first identify
what do you want to keep andwhat are you getting rid of? And
if you're getting rid of stuff,one of the big concerns is safety,
Like people don't want to get ridof things that had their personal information on
it. And what I found whenI was like researching different places is surprisingly
(06:26):
what was surprisingly to me, Stapleshas a huge recycling program. Now this
might not come as a shock toall you, but it was surprising to
me of what they took. Iknew that they took certain things like old
printer cartridges and other devices, butI didn't realize the depth of all the
things that they take back. Andagain I'm going to link to it because
(06:47):
it's pretty comprehensive. You're definitely gonnawant to check the Staples near you to
make sure that they have a recyclingcenter, because not all of them do.
And I would hate for you todrag all of your stuff to find
out that they don't accept some orall of it. But they have a
bunch of different things that they accept, and they will wipe your devices clean.
(07:11):
A lot of them will wipe yourdevice clean. So if you have
a computer that you want to getmake sure that it doesn't have any personal
information on it, and you don'tknow how to do that yourself, you
can bring it there and they willdo it. I know personally, we've
got like some local places near usthat do that, so you can always
do a quick Google search wherever youlive to see a lot of people will
hold on two old computers or camerasbecause there's stuff on it, or they're
(07:34):
not even sure what's on it,and they just we don't know what to
do, so we just hold ontoit. You don't have to. You
can go to a place get extracted, either put on a thumb drive,
see if it's something that you want, or just say, you know what,
I haven't looked at it in Xamount of years, I don't need
it. I just want to getrid of it. But a lot of
these tech devices just wind up takingup space. And as we get new
(07:59):
computer, as we upgrade our cellphones or whatever we work, even as
the charging ports change when you gofrom a USB to a USBC or whatever,
it is a lot of times we'rejust holding onto these chords and they
don't even go to anything. So, just like back in the day when
we got rid of our VHS tapesand then our DVDs and CDs, just
(08:24):
it's really important to try to gothrough all of our tech stuff. So
again, check your local areas andyou could check like a best Buy but
also Staples has a really great program. And again they're not a sponsor,
they're not a paid sponsor. Thisis all editorial, So you're welcome Staples
for that. Okay, the nextcategory that I want to talk about is
(08:46):
clothing. So it's a big dealand we are going to probably do a
deep dive about fast fashion and buyingsustainably and responsibly. But a lot of
a lot of the problem that happenswith clothing is there's emotional clutter. People
(09:07):
are holding onto things because of that. What if I get lose weight,
what if I gain weight, whatif this comes back into style, like
all of these different emotional things.So the first thing I'm going to tell
you is obviously, anything that's notin your current rotation, you're going to
want to remove. You're gonna wantto put it elsewhere. So if it
(09:28):
is something that you are like,I want to hold onto it because I
might fit into it again, andyou're really not going to get rid of
it. At the very least,take it out of rotation, put it
in a bin, find out whereyou can figure out where you can store,
whether that's a basement or an atticor a guest room or wherever,
just so that you're only having thestuff that you're currently wearing or using in
(09:48):
your closet. That's just my ruleof thumb. But when it comes to
clothing, one of the things isthat you can and utilize a lot of
online online consignment stores or thrift stores, places like the Red Up that will
(10:09):
send you a bag you could sendtheir stuff back. There's also a lot
of different local donations places, specificallywomen shelters. I know there's a lot
of controversy about people donating to Goodwillor Salvation Army because they charge people.
I really don't want to get intothe ethics of this, but I do
find that there's are ways that youcan donate to places that matter to you
(10:35):
locally, and it can be somewhatsimple, whether they have a drop off
place that's convenient for you, oryou check a local listing online just googling.
I know, we've got some placesthat you can choose from your charity
and they will come and pick itup like a green drop, and you
have your choice to select what charityyou'd like it to go to. But
I think again the goal is onceyou get rid of things. When it
(10:58):
comes to Earth Day, and thefact that we want to encourage people to
not just get rid of things,but to think about moving forward. How
are you going to change your behaviorsmoving forward and shop less, buy more
sustainable stuff, buy more frequently whenyou are going shopping. How can you
(11:20):
utilize resale stores like thrift stores andconsignment stores to find things that are gently
used but again aren't contributing to landfills. And again, just like that whole
fast fashion where we have what Icall like disposable clothes, buying quality over
quantity. So again, clothing isnot my jam. And listen, my
(11:43):
best friend owns a clothing store,and any nice item of clothing that I
say I ever wear is from her, and I love it. But I
don't have a lot. I havea few key items. Even if you
watch our show on YouTube, you'llsee I wear the same clothes in a
lot of our episodes because I justcycle things through. And I think,
again, I'm not saying you haveto be a minimalist. If you're somebody
who enjoy shopping, that's fine,but just really about being responsible and passing
(12:11):
it down to people that you knowmight be a need as opposed to just
like chucking it and having it endup in a landfill. Okay, next
thing, as we're switching gears andwe're moving over to expired food. Now,
expired food is interesting. I wasactually looking at this article from Vox
(12:33):
that they had written, and itsaid that forty percent of food produced in
America winds up going to landfills andas otherwise wasted. And that goes for
a lot of things that are likethose if you've ever seen, like the
bruised or like ugly veggies that can'taren't the pretty ones, anything that is
a little bit danged or damaged thatcannot go into the grocery store. And
(12:58):
I know that there are like onlineprograms where you can buy the ugly vegetables,
and I think that's great, butsupermarkets have The article goes on to
say that supermarkets stock more food thanthey can sell, and they do that
on purpose because from a psychological standpoint, people want to buy from pack shelves.
(13:20):
And I found that to be reallyinteresting, and I think I was
thinking back to that whole scarcity mindsetduring the pandemic when we would go into
our grocery stores because of the supplychain issues and the stores were bare,
and it was like a little bitalmost oppressing, Like you would walk in
and you wouldn't see a lot ofthings when you walk into a store and
you see the abundance of things,and typically they're like neatly organized and lined
(13:43):
up, so it's not overwhelming.There is just this emotional safety that we
feel. And so what happens issupermarkets will overbuy so that you can have
this feeling. But then what happensis, especially when it comes to produce
and things that have a short orexpiration date, then they expire and then
what do we do with it?And there's a lot of food and security
(14:07):
in this country, and it's areal problem. And so anything that we
can do ourselves individually to try tomeal prep and so that we're buying just
what we need as opposed to wastingfood and substitute ingredients. If you don't
have to buy fifty thousand spices,if you just need a spice for a
(14:31):
particular recipe. I'll oftentimes substitute somethingif I know I'm only going to use
it once. I might be like, oh what else, what else could
I substitute or could I omit it? And just because I want to maintain
space in my home. I wantto not just spend money that I don't
need to spend. And again,I just don't want these things to end
up in waste. And I know, spices in particular, except for like
(14:54):
my tried and true spices that Iuse all the time, they expire,
they do have a shelf life.And again it's not like it's going to
necessarily be like taste, like you'renot going to get a upset stomach from
it. But what might happen iswhich is not going to have the potency
that you want, And so you'respending money on spices that are just going
(15:16):
to go bad, So just thinkabout them. And again, so really
my recommendation is think about the stuffthat you are going to be using,
how much you waste, what yourvolumes. And it's probably going to change
seasonally, Like I know, especiallyparents who have kids at are home in
the summer, your kids are goingto be eating more, or if you've
(15:39):
got college kids coming over the summer, they're definitely going to be eating more.
And so things change as you're makingschool lunches or not making school lunches
or whatever it looks like. Andif you're in a season where you're going
out more or you're grilling more becauseit's like, hey, we're quick eating
like burgers on the fly. Thenit's going to affect and impact how you're
shopping. So just think about thatand try to be a little bit more
(16:02):
proactive. Okay, So the fourthcategory that we're going to talk about is
paper, and the good news issixty eight percent of paper gets recycled,
which is good. But I wasreading an article from the folks over at
docu sign they're like an online digitalsignature company. Again, they're not a
(16:25):
sponsor of our show, and theywere talking about what else we can do
at home too or in our officesto reduce the amount of paper that we
use. One of the things isif you have a two sided printer,
print on both sides of the paper. A lot of times we're printing things
at home just for our own purposes, whether they're an article we want to
(16:47):
read or something that we're working on, if it's a project for school or
work and maybe a presentation, andwe'll just print on single side. And
if you're printer as the capability todo double sided, that would significantly cut
down on our paper waste. Thesecond thing is go paperless when you can.
(17:11):
Again, I've tried to get reallymindful of what I print out.
I obviously do a lot digitally.The majority of my work is done digitally.
I type up my show notes digitally, I do my contracts digitally.
All of my writing is done digitally. And yes, there are times where
I want to print it out sothat I can see it and make actual
(17:33):
handwritten edits, but a lot oftimes that isn't necessary. And so I
am really trying to be way moreproactive saying can I edit this electronically?
And so if it is something thatyou can do electronically, it's like building
a new muscle. Just start toget in the habit and routine of not
printing every single thing that you get. And a lot of times people would
(17:57):
do will print things as remote minders, and that's really not the best strategy
to try to remember things. Wewere like, if I print it and
I put it like physically right infront of me, I'm going to see
it, and I understand that,but I would rather see you put a
reminder in your phone or on yourto do list on your calendar to say,
(18:18):
hey, respond to that email ordon't forget to do X, Y
and z, as opposed to addingusing the physical clutter as a strategy to
stay on top of things. Andthat really just goes with my third one,
which is really about embracing technology.The more you can incorporate digital calendars,
(18:41):
cloud based storage like Google Drive ordrop Box for photos, presentations,
anything that you do collaboratively, whetherit's personally within your family members or if
it's work with your teammates, anythingthat you can do that allows the ease
of retrieval. Remember, folks,the whole point of developing any organizing system
(19:07):
anywhere is all about the ease ofretrieval. How quickly can I get this
if I need it? And sowith paper that is a really big one
and stuff falls through the cracks soeasily. So if you can start to
try to incorporate more digital usage andtechnology versus relying on paper, and it
(19:29):
will also help the environment. Sothere you go. Okay. The fifth
one stuffed animals and toys. Now, this was a really big thing in
our household when my girls were small, because both my girls were really into
stuffed animals. They, like mygirls, were not the types of get
kids to play with dolls. Thatwasn't our thing, but stuffed animals was
(19:52):
something that they both really gravitated to. And so there's an emotional relationship that
you a lot of times kids willdevelop with their stuffed animals, and so
getting rid of them is something thatgetting to that point is can be a
big deal. And I've told thestory before in the show, and I'll
tell it again for those of youwho have never heard it. I once
(20:15):
was working with a client who hada kid who was about ten years old
it happened to be ten year oldor boy, and they had moved and
he had a bunch of stuffed animalsand I had asked him, or I'd
asked the mom. They seems tobe ebsh the stucked animals that he had,
And I was like, does hereally want them in his room?
And she was like, he doesn'twant them in his room, but he
(20:36):
refuses to get rid of them.And I said, can I work with
them and just try to figure outwhat he wants because they were literally like
in a garbage bag, sitting inthe basement, like in a corner.
And she said, I couldn't getrid of them because he was adamant about
it, and so when he cameup from school, I was talking with
him and asked him if he wantedthem in his room, and again he
(21:00):
said no, he didn't. Theywere stuffed from his he was younger.
And I guess him if we coulddonate them or we could get rid of
them, and he said no,and I said well, and he goes,
I don't want them to end upin a landfill. And this kid's
now a gen Zer and obviously verymission driven generation. And I loved that
was his rationale. It wasn't thathe was even as emotionally attached to the
(21:21):
stuffed animals, but he didn't wantto be contributing to waste. And I
said, what if we were ableto donate them to either the SPCA for
the animals that were in there,or we were able to donate them to
the police and buyer rescue, becausethere are programs for stuffed animals for emergencies
where they accept for kids that comein crisis, and there's obviously certain parameters,
(21:45):
so you're going to want to checkyour local listings where you are.
And he his face lit up andhe loved the idea, and he said
absolutely, so it wasn't so muchthat he was so attached to the thing,
but it was what was going tobe the result if he donated the
thing. And so sometimes when youhave somebody that is bottlenecked with making a
(22:06):
decision, it really is because they'rejust not sure of the healthy or appropriate
way to dispose of something. Andso again I'm going to encourage you to
check your own local area, yourlocal listings for SPCA, your local fire
and police departments. Again, thereare some parameters of things they will and
will accept a lot of times theywill accept use, but you might just
(22:30):
need to clean them. But again, it doesn't have to be you're just
throwing them in the trash. Putthat as an option out there, especially
to your kids, and empower themto make an impact in the lives of
somebody else that might really need it. Nowadays, parents are constantly competing with
screens, not to mention that comingup with fun and innovative projects can be
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(22:52):
I was really curious to learn more. Kiwiko is a subscription box company that
creates super cool hands on projects acrossa bunch of different categories for kids of
all ages, from engineering and roboticsto learning about the science of cooking or
crafting. There is something for kidsof all ages. Not to be completely
(23:14):
transparent, I am not typically afan of subscription boxes, but between Kiwiko's
diverse product line, their ease ofshopping, their customized shipping schedule, and
their quality of their products, Igain a whole new perspective. And just
so you know, before we partnerwith anyone, we always test them.
And since my girls are out ofthe house, I chose to gift my
(23:34):
Kiwi crates to my operations manager,Kimberly, who has three girls ages nine,
eleven, and thirteen, so eachof her girls received a box with
activities based on their individual interests andages. Kiwiko has nine different product lines
to choose from, and if you'renot sure which option to go with,
they have a quiz on their websiteto help you determine which one would be
(23:57):
best for your kids specific interests.And like I said, these products are
super high quality so that you canreally feel good about the money that you're
investing in this best of all,Kiwi Code does all of the legwork for
you so that you can actually spendthe time to playing the projects with your
(24:18):
kids rather than wasting time shopping.We all want our children to be innovators
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(24:41):
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(25:07):
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All right, we're about halfway throughour our list, and the next one
(25:27):
on our list is medicines. Somedicines are big one because people are constantly
asking me how are they supposed todispose of expired medicines? And so I
was reading an article that was publishedby the FDA in twenty twenty one,
that was the most recent one thatI could find, and they said a
(25:48):
lot of pharmacies have donate them back. If you have old medicines, you
can always recycle the plastic containers.So the first thing you could do is
if you have medicines that are expired, you can take all of the medicines
and put them into a ziploc bagand just recycle the plastic containers. That's
like a no brainer. Check yourlocal areas for drug TakeBack days. That
(26:11):
again, I know it doesn't alwaysalign. Like when I'm in the mood
to declutter and get organized. Ifit's not an alignment, I want to
find something that's now, I'm like, I want it out now. I
completely understand. But if you're thinkingabout maybe tackling a specific area in medicine
cabinet, just do a quick searchand say does my local area have any
(26:33):
drug TakeBack days? And again,your local pharmacy might have it as an
ongoing things is that a lot ofpharmacies do, so just double check and
see. That way you have aspecifical to action of what to do.
And again there's I saw mixed things. I'm going to be totally honest,
guys, about flushing stuff down thetoilet, I've never really done it.
(26:53):
I've seen mixed things. Some articlessaid you can flush things down the toilet.
Other things said don't flush the downthe toilet because it can go into
the water stream. So I amnot taking a stance on that either way.
What I Am going to tell you, though, is I do encourage
you at least once a year togo through your medicine cabinets, even things
that aren't prescription. It just couldbe like tile on all motron, cold
(27:18):
and flu medicine over the counter stuff. This stuff does expire, and it
also gives you the chance to replanta shift. Oh, allergy season is
upon us and I'm out of allergymedicine, I can run to the to
the pharmacy and pick that. Soget in a practice of at least going
through your medicine cabinets once a year, and then again check your local pharmacies,
ask them about their what to dowith the expired medicines, and that
(27:42):
way you can recycle responsibly. Okay, batteries. Batteries was interesting because this
was a whole rabbit hole. I'mnot gonna lie, because there was n
nine batteries, all of these things. How to dispose of this one?
You could dispose of this one thisway and this one another way lows or
home depot have. Apparently you candispose of the bigger batteries, like any
(28:07):
bigger batteries that you have. TheEPA, I'm going to read right from
this it is the EPA recommends tosend alkaline and zinc carbon batteries to battery
recyclers or check with your local stateor state solid waste authority. So again,
going back to those bigger batteries thatyou have, I'm not talking about
(28:30):
your like triple A double a's,but all of those bigger batteries that we
don't want to just throw them away. We want to make sure that they're
going back specifically to a to arecycling depository. And I'm going to include
this link in the show notes,but it's call the number two recycled dot
(28:51):
Org call cl the number two recycleddot Org backslash locator, and that should
be able. You can plug inyour zip code, and you should be
able to find out where near youyou can donate or recycle batteries responsibly.
Again, I saw some mixed things. Something said your double A batteries,
you can throw them in the trash. Other places said that you can't.
(29:14):
I'm probably gonna get a eight mail. I will tell you, guys,
I throw them away in the trash. Just my regular everyday batteries I do.
I had not until I came acrossthis. Did it seem like that
was a problem. Again, ifyou have bigger things specifically for kids,
cars like there's electronic cars or scootersor whatever, those things are different.
But check your local listings. Andagain I believe Staples is part of their
(29:40):
program. You can do batteries aswell as lows at home depot. So
I would say, just have ifyou want to have, if you want
to be like uber responsible, havea little box or bin that you have
and every time you cycle out yourbatteries, you just put them in there
and then maybe once a month youtake a run over to that place and
(30:00):
drop them off. And that ishow you can do your part when it
comes to batteries. All right,paint this, I actually know about because
my best friend's a house painter,so I actually know a thing or two
about disposing of paint. A lotof this also, and this might go
through when it comes to building materials. A lot of them are state regulated,
(30:22):
so the rules in one state mightbe different than another one. That's
why again my underlying theme is thatwent in doubt. Just google it for
your own area. But latex paintcan actually go into the regular trash.
But here is the caveat folks,it has to be dried, has to
be dried at you. It isnot You are not allowed to throw liquid
(30:45):
paint away. Kitty letter if youdid not know this, kitty letter will
dry out paint. So if youhave an old paint, either it's old
and just not using it, orit's like a color that you're not going
to use or whatever, you canopen it up, throw kitty litter in
the can. Once it dries up, you can then take that paint,
(31:11):
throw it in the trash and go. It can go right into the regular
garbage. That's if it's latex paint. Oil based paint is totally different.
That needs to go with hazardous waste, and that goes along with like turpentine
and other of those strong chemicals.So if you are and I see this
a lot with people that are goingthrough like garage or basement cleanups where they
(31:34):
have things like old paint that's eitherexpired or old and crusty, or just
from we painted this room ten yearsago and we still have the paint for
it. If it's latex, youcan just take a little time, dry
it out and then dump it inthe trash. But any of these other
high chemical hazardous waste have to behave to be disposed of properly, and
(32:00):
if you don't have a place nearyou, there are places that will come
and pick it up. Now,they will charge you. They will charge
you, and we're going to getinto things like you could call a one
eight hundred got junk, You cancall a local or junk lugglers, or
a local person that near you thatdoes any type of like house clean outs.
(32:22):
There's a lot of these services here, and yes they charge for it,
but the one thing that finds whenyou hire these companies is they will
make sure that the contents are disposedof properly. So it is yes,
you are paying to remove your stuff, but you are saving time because they
(32:42):
are doing the leg work of makingsure that the right items are getting recycled
to the right places. And again, it just takes the guesswork out of
it for you. So that's adeal with paint. Now, building materials
again or somewhat similar if you haveall built materials, if it's new stuff.
And again, this happens a lotwhen people do home renovations. You've
(33:04):
got file or extra flooring or extrawood pieces or whatever it is that you
are that you were doing, anda lot of times it just sits in
your house. And again, Iunderstand you want to keep some in Cayse.
You know, you might need topatch something, but a lot of
times we don't need the volume.Or maybe you updated your kitchen and you
(33:27):
have the old kitchen cabin and they'retotally in good shape, but you don't
want them anymore. What do youdo with them? The Habitat for Humanity
is my favorite place to go dothat, so they have restores all over
the country. Again, you cangoogle Habitat for Humanity restore. You can
also look for where can I donatelocal building materials near you? And there
(33:47):
should be places that you can goto donate them. The thing. With
a lot of them, you haveto take them, so there is that
extra legwork of you having to takeit. There't always pick up, they
might depending on where you live.I know by us the Habitat for Humanity
or the restore, we have tobring it. So that does add an
(34:07):
extra step for you as the homeownerto be able to say, Okay,
I'm decluttering and now I have tomake time to drop off this donation versus
just scheduling a pickup. But itis something that this is it's a great
it's a great way for you tobe able to help other people. You
can also check out and this goesalso building materials an old furniture also,
(34:31):
which is our last category, womenshelters. A lot of these domestic violence
places for women who are coming outof abusive situations are they're getting rehomed and
they need things. They need housewears, they need clothing, they need appliances,
(34:51):
they need all kinds of things.And so if you're donating, there's
some great local shelters near us thatwe donate to a variety of things,
and you always check with them tosee what they're looking for, because again
seasonally they may or may not betaking things, and it all depends on
what their warehouse inventory looks like.A lot of times places if they have
(35:14):
a big warehouse, they can holdextra stuff. But some of these places
that support these local women shelters don'thave huge warehouses and they might not have
the space to hold onto a tonof things. But it's always worth checking.
I think it's really important to beable to know that if we can
(35:36):
contribute something that we're no longer usingto help somebody else, not only does
it help this person, but italso again helps the environment. But again
this whether it's any of these thingsthat will that you're not sure where they
should go calling an expert like awhen I hate call them junk removal places
(35:59):
because a lot of it is andjunk might not be stuff that you're using.
But these companies like a Junk Logoer'sone eight God Junk. Again,
none of these guys are paid sponsorsof our show, but all of these
people have relationships with hazards, wastematerial, paper recycling, a lot of
(36:20):
times with tech and electronic recycling,and they will do all of the heavy
lifting. So if you call themand say this is what I want removed,
they will take it, they willthen sort it on their own after
they leave and make sure that everythinggets recycled responsibly. So although you are
paying for this service, it issuch a great way for you to reclaim
(36:45):
your time not have to worry aboutthe mental bandwidth of trying to figure out
where things go, and you're helpingother people in need. So really,
my takeaway for this whole episode iswe can't control the stuff that's already been
brought into our house, either bydefault or by design, but we do
(37:07):
have a say of what we continueto bring in and how responsible we are
making the choices of buying things withpurpose, buying things with meaning, buying
things sustainably, and thinking about thelongevity of this piece of whatever this is
that we're going to be doing,and is this something that is going to
(37:29):
ultimately be contributing to future clutter oris this something that's really going to be
serving us. And again I'm notsaying don't buy things. I'm not saying
don't go shopping, but I reallyjust want to encourage all of you guys
to be responsible with the stuff that'scoming in and leaving your house. And
so again we're gonna have links toall these different things in the show notes.
(37:52):
I know we can get overwhelming,and I think for most part we
all want to be responsible with ourstuff. Nobody wants to be part of
the problem. And if you wantto be part of the solution, check
out these places that are helping toreduce the amount of waste that end up
in landfills and shop responsibility guys.So until next week, I am Laurie
(38:15):
Palau, peace out. Thanks fortuning in. If you like this episode,
please spread the love and share itwith your friends. If this is
your first time joining us, makesure to click the subscribe button wherever you're
listing so you never miss an episode. And while you're there, please leave
us a review so other people knewthat our show is worth to listen.
You can also find us on YouTubeand Instagram at This Organized Life Podcast,
(38:38):
and if you'd like to connect withus, you can head on over to
our website at simply the letter,b like boy organized dot com, which
is filled with tons of resources,including free downloads, checklists, links to
our amazing organizing partners, and allof our digital offerings. I'll see you
next week for another episode of ThisOrganized Life
Welcome to This Organized Life. Ifyou're a mom, wife, or coffee
lover seeking advice on how to reduceclutter and reclaim time, look no further
than your host, Laurie Hellou,founder Simply Be Organized, an author of
hot Mess, a practical guide togetting organized. For a lot of people,
clutter is their dirty little secret,but it doesn't have to be.
Each week, we will share practicaltips, chat with experts, and provide
(00:23):
strategies on how to keep you organized. I hope that by sharing our stories
you feel a little less alone andmore empowered to tackle the areas that are
holding you back. So let's getstarted. Hi everybody, and welcome to
today's episode of This Organized Life podcast. I am your host, Laurie Plow
(00:45):
and guess what, guys, I'mcoming to you today solo. Sorry to
disappoint, but this is going tobe a really fun episode. I guess
it's fun. I don't know ifyou will call fun. We're talking all
about recycling responsibily because it is EarthDay and we want to be talking all
things about spring cleaning, organizing,and what to do with all of our
(01:08):
stuff. Because I think one ofthe things that I hear most often from
people is a guilt around just throwingstuff in a landfill. And a lot
of times people don't declutter things ordon't get rid of things because they're not
really sure the best way to goabout doing it, or it just seems
(01:30):
like it's complicated. I know,a lot of times when you go to
make a donation, I've seen peoplethat want to make donations for I don't
know, certain charities and they're like, oh sorry, we can't take that.
Oh sorry, we can't take that. Oh sorry, we can't take
that. And then people just windup getting frustrated and say, forget about
it. I'm just going to keepit. So I made a list of
(01:53):
ten different categories. Some of themare going to overlap, but I just
want to go through them because Ithink they're some of the most popular categories
that people struggle with. So Iwant to just give an overview of each
of the ten and then we willgo back in and dive into each one
(02:14):
of them. All right, soundgood, Okay, So the first category
is tech in electronics. Right,So tech electronics you're going to think anything
from TVs, computers, old phones, copiers, all that kind of stuff.
So tech in electronics. Second oneis going to be clothing, obvious
(02:34):
clothing. Third one is expired food. Believe it or not. You would
think that that would be easy forpeople, but I see a lot of
people that are struggling with our expirationdates, even legitimate. How long can
you go over expiration dates? CanI just throw this in the trash?
Or should I compost it or whatever? So expired food, paper, papers
a big one, folks. Thefifth one stuffed animals and toy That is
(03:00):
a big one, stuffed animals andtoys. The next one is medicines.
Medicine, what do you do?Do you just flush them down the toilet?
Do you throw them in the garbage? What do you do with medicine?
Seventh is batteries. Batteries are abig one. Paint, so the
(03:20):
next few are like household items.So we've got batteries, we've got paint,
we've got building materials. And thenthe last one is old furniture.
So I try to cover the majorityof categories, and we're going to give
some links in this episode. Sothis is definitely one of those episodes that
you're going to want to head overto the show notes or our podcast page
(03:44):
and really find these resources that weare going to be talking about there,
so that way you don't have toworry about writing the stuff down if you're
listening. So I think the firstway I want to talk about it is
again just go through what we meanby each of these categories where people struggle
and where are some healthy, sensibleways that you can dispose of these items
(04:09):
that you no longer need, wantor use. Sound like a plan?
Okay? Good, And before weget into any further I did forget to
say at the top of the episode, if you're new to our show,
make sure to click the subscribe orfollow button wherever you're listening. We're obviously
on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. If
(04:30):
you prefer to read our transcripts,you can also download or read our transcripts
right off of our website on ourpodcast page. We come to you twice
a week, folks, once onMondays, which is our Tip of the
Week episode, and then on Thursdayswe have our long episodes. So in
total we've got like probably close tothree hundred and fifty episodes. So it's
(04:53):
crazy town, lots and lots ofcontent that is free for you guys to
help you at more organized. Okay, so now that I did that little
public of service announcements, let's getback to the topic at hand. What
to do with technology and electronics ifyou want to get rid of them.
(05:14):
As we know, there are somany different types of electronics that people have
in their homes these days, betweencomputers, desktop computers, laptop computers,
old iPods. We've got like kindlesMax, what iPads? I'm like,
I drew blank to what they are, different types of e readers. I'm
(05:39):
just even looking off this list,gaming consoles, even old flash drives,
modems, old monitors, cables,all of this stuff. It just adds
up and half of the stuff Idon't know about you, but half the
stuff you're like, I don't evenknow what this chord goes to. You
have all these random chords and you'relike this Mico to an kimp. It
(06:00):
might go to a computer. Itcould be for a game boy. I'm
not really sure. And so thefirst thing I would say is first identify
what do you want to keep andwhat are you getting rid of? And
if you're getting rid of stuff,one of the big concerns is safety,
Like people don't want to get ridof things that had their personal information on
it. And what I found whenI was like researching different places is surprisingly
(06:26):
what was surprisingly to me, Stapleshas a huge recycling program. Now this
might not come as a shock toall you, but it was surprising to
me of what they took. Iknew that they took certain things like old
printer cartridges and other devices, butI didn't realize the depth of all the
things that they take back. Andagain I'm going to link to it because
(06:47):
it's pretty comprehensive. You're definitely gonnawant to check the Staples near you to
make sure that they have a recyclingcenter, because not all of them do.
And I would hate for you todrag all of your stuff to find
out that they don't accept some orall of it. But they have a
bunch of different things that they accept, and they will wipe your devices clean.
(07:11):
A lot of them will wipe yourdevice clean. So if you have
a computer that you want to getmake sure that it doesn't have any personal
information on it, and you don'tknow how to do that yourself, you
can bring it there and they willdo it. I know personally, we've
got like some local places near usthat do that, so you can always
do a quick Google search wherever youlive to see a lot of people will
hold on two old computers or camerasbecause there's stuff on it, or they're
(07:34):
not even sure what's on it,and they just we don't know what to
do, so we just hold ontoit. You don't have to. You
can go to a place get extracted, either put on a thumb drive,
see if it's something that you want, or just say, you know what,
I haven't looked at it in Xamount of years, I don't need
it. I just want to getrid of it. But a lot of
these tech devices just wind up takingup space. And as we get new
(07:59):
computer, as we upgrade our cellphones or whatever we work, even as
the charging ports change when you gofrom a USB to a USBC or whatever,
it is a lot of times we'rejust holding onto these chords and they
don't even go to anything. So, just like back in the day when
we got rid of our VHS tapesand then our DVDs and CDs, just
(08:24):
it's really important to try to gothrough all of our tech stuff. So
again, check your local areas andyou could check like a best Buy but
also Staples has a really great program. And again they're not a sponsor,
they're not a paid sponsor. Thisis all editorial, So you're welcome Staples
for that. Okay, the nextcategory that I want to talk about is
(08:46):
clothing. So it's a big dealand we are going to probably do a
deep dive about fast fashion and buyingsustainably and responsibly. But a lot of
a lot of the problem that happenswith clothing is there's emotional clutter. People
(09:07):
are holding onto things because of that. What if I get lose weight,
what if I gain weight, whatif this comes back into style, like
all of these different emotional things.So the first thing I'm going to tell
you is obviously, anything that's notin your current rotation, you're going to
want to remove. You're gonna wantto put it elsewhere. So if it
(09:28):
is something that you are like,I want to hold onto it because I
might fit into it again, andyou're really not going to get rid of
it. At the very least,take it out of rotation, put it
in a bin, find out whereyou can figure out where you can store,
whether that's a basement or an atticor a guest room or wherever,
just so that you're only having thestuff that you're currently wearing or using in
(09:48):
your closet. That's just my ruleof thumb. But when it comes to
clothing, one of the things isthat you can and utilize a lot of
online online consignment stores or thrift stores, places like the Red Up that will
(10:09):
send you a bag you could sendtheir stuff back. There's also a lot
of different local donations places, specificallywomen shelters. I know there's a lot
of controversy about people donating to Goodwillor Salvation Army because they charge people.
I really don't want to get intothe ethics of this, but I do
find that there's are ways that youcan donate to places that matter to you
(10:35):
locally, and it can be somewhatsimple, whether they have a drop off
place that's convenient for you, oryou check a local listing online just googling.
I know, we've got some placesthat you can choose from your charity
and they will come and pick itup like a green drop, and you
have your choice to select what charityyou'd like it to go to. But
I think again the goal is onceyou get rid of things. When it
(10:58):
comes to Earth Day, and thefact that we want to encourage people to
not just get rid of things,but to think about moving forward. How
are you going to change your behaviorsmoving forward and shop less, buy more
sustainable stuff, buy more frequently whenyou are going shopping. How can you
(11:20):
utilize resale stores like thrift stores andconsignment stores to find things that are gently
used but again aren't contributing to landfills. And again, just like that whole
fast fashion where we have what Icall like disposable clothes, buying quality over
quantity. So again, clothing isnot my jam. And listen, my
(11:43):
best friend owns a clothing store,and any nice item of clothing that I
say I ever wear is from her, and I love it. But I
don't have a lot. I havea few key items. Even if you
watch our show on YouTube, you'llsee I wear the same clothes in a
lot of our episodes because I justcycle things through. And I think,
again, I'm not saying you haveto be a minimalist. If you're somebody
who enjoy shopping, that's fine,but just really about being responsible and passing
(12:11):
it down to people that you knowmight be a need as opposed to just
like chucking it and having it endup in a landfill. Okay, next
thing, as we're switching gears andwe're moving over to expired food. Now,
expired food is interesting. I wasactually looking at this article from Vox
(12:33):
that they had written, and itsaid that forty percent of food produced in
America winds up going to landfills andas otherwise wasted. And that goes for
a lot of things that are likethose if you've ever seen, like the
bruised or like ugly veggies that can'taren't the pretty ones, anything that is
a little bit danged or damaged thatcannot go into the grocery store. And
(12:58):
I know that there are like onlineprograms where you can buy the ugly vegetables,
and I think that's great, butsupermarkets have The article goes on to
say that supermarkets stock more food thanthey can sell, and they do that
on purpose because from a psychological standpoint, people want to buy from pack shelves.
(13:20):
And I found that to be reallyinteresting, and I think I was
thinking back to that whole scarcity mindsetduring the pandemic when we would go into
our grocery stores because of the supplychain issues and the stores were bare,
and it was like a little bitalmost oppressing, Like you would walk in
and you wouldn't see a lot ofthings when you walk into a store and
you see the abundance of things,and typically they're like neatly organized and lined
(13:43):
up, so it's not overwhelming.There is just this emotional safety that we
feel. And so what happens issupermarkets will overbuy so that you can have
this feeling. But then what happensis, especially when it comes to produce
and things that have a short orexpiration date, then they expire and then
what do we do with it?And there's a lot of food and security
(14:07):
in this country, and it's areal problem. And so anything that we
can do ourselves individually to try tomeal prep and so that we're buying just
what we need as opposed to wastingfood and substitute ingredients. If you don't
have to buy fifty thousand spices,if you just need a spice for a
(14:31):
particular recipe. I'll oftentimes substitute somethingif I know I'm only going to use
it once. I might be like, oh what else, what else could
I substitute or could I omit it? And just because I want to maintain
space in my home. I wantto not just spend money that I don't
need to spend. And again,I just don't want these things to end
up in waste. And I know, spices in particular, except for like
(14:54):
my tried and true spices that Iuse all the time, they expire,
they do have a shelf life.And again it's not like it's going to
necessarily be like taste, like you'renot going to get a upset stomach from
it. But what might happen iswhich is not going to have the potency
that you want, And so you'respending money on spices that are just going
(15:16):
to go bad, So just thinkabout them. And again, so really
my recommendation is think about the stuffthat you are going to be using,
how much you waste, what yourvolumes. And it's probably going to change
seasonally, Like I know, especiallyparents who have kids at are home in
the summer, your kids are goingto be eating more, or if you've
(15:39):
got college kids coming over the summer, they're definitely going to be eating more.
And so things change as you're makingschool lunches or not making school lunches
or whatever it looks like. Andif you're in a season where you're going
out more or you're grilling more becauseit's like, hey, we're quick eating
like burgers on the fly. Thenit's going to affect and impact how you're
shopping. So just think about thatand try to be a little bit more
(16:02):
proactive. Okay, So the fourthcategory that we're going to talk about is
paper, and the good news issixty eight percent of paper gets recycled,
which is good. But I wasreading an article from the folks over at
docu sign they're like an online digitalsignature company. Again, they're not a
(16:25):
sponsor of our show, and theywere talking about what else we can do
at home too or in our officesto reduce the amount of paper that we
use. One of the things isif you have a two sided printer,
print on both sides of the paper. A lot of times we're printing things
at home just for our own purposes, whether they're an article we want to
(16:47):
read or something that we're working on, if it's a project for school or
work and maybe a presentation, andwe'll just print on single side. And
if you're printer as the capability todo double sided, that would significantly cut
down on our paper waste. Thesecond thing is go paperless when you can.
(17:11):
Again, I've tried to get reallymindful of what I print out.
I obviously do a lot digitally.The majority of my work is done digitally.
I type up my show notes digitally, I do my contracts digitally.
All of my writing is done digitally. And yes, there are times where
I want to print it out sothat I can see it and make actual
(17:33):
handwritten edits, but a lot oftimes that isn't necessary. And so I
am really trying to be way moreproactive saying can I edit this electronically?
And so if it is something thatyou can do electronically, it's like building
a new muscle. Just start toget in the habit and routine of not
printing every single thing that you get. And a lot of times people would
(17:57):
do will print things as remote minders, and that's really not the best strategy
to try to remember things. Wewere like, if I print it and
I put it like physically right infront of me, I'm going to see
it, and I understand that,but I would rather see you put a
reminder in your phone or on yourto do list on your calendar to say,
(18:18):
hey, respond to that email ordon't forget to do X, Y
and z, as opposed to addingusing the physical clutter as a strategy to
stay on top of things. Andthat really just goes with my third one,
which is really about embracing technology.The more you can incorporate digital calendars,
(18:41):
cloud based storage like Google Drive ordrop Box for photos, presentations,
anything that you do collaboratively, whetherit's personally within your family members or if
it's work with your teammates, anythingthat you can do that allows the ease
of retrieval. Remember, folks,the whole point of developing any organizing system
(19:07):
anywhere is all about the ease ofretrieval. How quickly can I get this
if I need it? And sowith paper that is a really big one
and stuff falls through the cracks soeasily. So if you can start to
try to incorporate more digital usage andtechnology versus relying on paper, and it
(19:29):
will also help the environment. Sothere you go. Okay. The fifth
one stuffed animals and toys. Now, this was a really big thing in
our household when my girls were small, because both my girls were really into
stuffed animals. They, like mygirls, were not the types of get
kids to play with dolls. Thatwasn't our thing, but stuffed animals was
(19:52):
something that they both really gravitated to. And so there's an emotional relationship that
you a lot of times kids willdevelop with their stuffed animals, and so
getting rid of them is something thatgetting to that point is can be a
big deal. And I've told thestory before in the show, and I'll
tell it again for those of youwho have never heard it. I once
(20:15):
was working with a client who hada kid who was about ten years old
it happened to be ten year oldor boy, and they had moved and
he had a bunch of stuffed animalsand I had asked him, or I'd
asked the mom. They seems tobe ebsh the stucked animals that he had,
And I was like, does hereally want them in his room?
And she was like, he doesn'twant them in his room, but he
(20:36):
refuses to get rid of them.And I said, can I work with
them and just try to figure outwhat he wants because they were literally like
in a garbage bag, sitting inthe basement, like in a corner.
And she said, I couldn't getrid of them because he was adamant about
it, and so when he cameup from school, I was talking with
him and asked him if he wantedthem in his room, and again he
(21:00):
said no, he didn't. Theywere stuffed from his he was younger.
And I guess him if we coulddonate them or we could get rid of
them, and he said no,and I said well, and he goes,
I don't want them to end upin a landfill. And this kid's
now a gen Zer and obviously verymission driven generation. And I loved that
was his rationale. It wasn't thathe was even as emotionally attached to the
(21:21):
stuffed animals, but he didn't wantto be contributing to waste. And I
said, what if we were ableto donate them to either the SPCA for
the animals that were in there,or we were able to donate them to
the police and buyer rescue, becausethere are programs for stuffed animals for emergencies
where they accept for kids that comein crisis, and there's obviously certain parameters,
(21:45):
so you're going to want to checkyour local listings where you are.
And he his face lit up andhe loved the idea, and he said
absolutely, so it wasn't so muchthat he was so attached to the thing,
but it was what was going tobe the result if he donated the
thing. And so sometimes when youhave somebody that is bottlenecked with making a
(22:06):
decision, it really is because they'rejust not sure of the healthy or appropriate
way to dispose of something. Andso again I'm going to encourage you to
check your own local area, yourlocal listings for SPCA, your local fire
and police departments. Again, thereare some parameters of things they will and
will accept a lot of times theywill accept use, but you might just
(22:30):
need to clean them. But again, it doesn't have to be you're just
throwing them in the trash. Putthat as an option out there, especially
to your kids, and empower themto make an impact in the lives of
somebody else that might really need it. Nowadays, parents are constantly competing with
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(22:52):
I was really curious to learn more. Kiwiko is a subscription box company that
creates super cool hands on projects acrossa bunch of different categories for kids of
all ages, from engineering and roboticsto learning about the science of cooking or
crafting. There is something for kidsof all ages. Not to be completely
(23:14):
transparent, I am not typically afan of subscription boxes, but between Kiwiko's
diverse product line, their ease ofshopping, their customized shipping schedule, and
their quality of their products, Igain a whole new perspective. And just
so you know, before we partnerwith anyone, we always test them.
And since my girls are out ofthe house, I chose to gift my
(23:34):
Kiwi crates to my operations manager,Kimberly, who has three girls ages nine,
eleven, and thirteen, so eachof her girls received a box with
activities based on their individual interests andages. Kiwiko has nine different product lines
to choose from, and if you'renot sure which option to go with,
they have a quiz on their websiteto help you determine which one would be
(23:57):
best for your kids specific interests.And like I said, these products are
super high quality so that you canreally feel good about the money that you're
investing in this best of all,Kiwi Code does all of the legwork for
you so that you can actually spendthe time to playing the projects with your
(24:18):
kids rather than wasting time shopping.We all want our children to be innovators
and creative thinkers, and each projectwith Kiwi code just then. And also
it doesn't have to be just foryour kids. You can think birthdays,
holidays for your niece's, nephews,cousins, all the other kids in your
lives. And there's tons of flexibility. In addition to our monthly subscriptions,
(24:41):
they also offer a quarterly subscription.You can get a six month subscription or
really a twelve month subscription box ifthat's really what you want, and you
have total flexibility just which product linespause or canceled at any time. You
can redefine learning with play. Explorehands on projects that creative confidence and problem
solving skills with Kiwiko. Get fiftypercent off your first month plus free shipping
(25:07):
on any create line at Kiwiko dotcom blash t o L. That's fifty
percent off your first month at kiwiico dot com flash t o L.
All right, we're about halfway throughour our list, and the next one
(25:27):
on our list is medicines. Somedicines are big one because people are constantly
asking me how are they supposed todispose of expired medicines? And so I
was reading an article that was publishedby the FDA in twenty twenty one,
that was the most recent one thatI could find, and they said a
(25:48):
lot of pharmacies have donate them back. If you have old medicines, you
can always recycle the plastic containers.So the first thing you could do is
if you have medicines that are expired, you can take all of the medicines
and put them into a ziploc bagand just recycle the plastic containers. That's
like a no brainer. Check yourlocal areas for drug TakeBack days. That
(26:11):
again, I know it doesn't alwaysalign. Like when I'm in the mood
to declutter and get organized. Ifit's not an alignment, I want to
find something that's now, I'm like, I want it out now. I
completely understand. But if you're thinkingabout maybe tackling a specific area in medicine
cabinet, just do a quick searchand say does my local area have any
(26:33):
drug TakeBack days? And again,your local pharmacy might have it as an
ongoing things is that a lot ofpharmacies do, so just double check and
see. That way you have aspecifical to action of what to do.
And again there's I saw mixed things. I'm going to be totally honest,
guys, about flushing stuff down thetoilet, I've never really done it.
(26:53):
I've seen mixed things. Some articlessaid you can flush things down the toilet.
Other things said don't flush the downthe toilet because it can go into
the water stream. So I amnot taking a stance on that either way.
What I Am going to tell you, though, is I do encourage
you at least once a year togo through your medicine cabinets, even things
that aren't prescription. It just couldbe like tile on all motron, cold
(27:18):
and flu medicine over the counter stuff. This stuff does expire, and it
also gives you the chance to replanta shift. Oh, allergy season is
upon us and I'm out of allergymedicine, I can run to the to
the pharmacy and pick that. Soget in a practice of at least going
through your medicine cabinets once a year, and then again check your local pharmacies,
ask them about their what to dowith the expired medicines, and that
(27:42):
way you can recycle responsibly. Okay, batteries. Batteries was interesting because this
was a whole rabbit hole. I'mnot gonna lie, because there was n
nine batteries, all of these things. How to dispose of this one?
You could dispose of this one thisway and this one another way lows or
home depot have. Apparently you candispose of the bigger batteries, like any
(28:07):
bigger batteries that you have. TheEPA, I'm going to read right from
this it is the EPA recommends tosend alkaline and zinc carbon batteries to battery
recyclers or check with your local stateor state solid waste authority. So again,
going back to those bigger batteries thatyou have, I'm not talking about
(28:30):
your like triple A double a's,but all of those bigger batteries that we
don't want to just throw them away. We want to make sure that they're
going back specifically to a to arecycling depository. And I'm going to include
this link in the show notes,but it's call the number two recycled dot
(28:51):
Org call cl the number two recycleddot Org backslash locator, and that should
be able. You can plug inyour zip code, and you should be
able to find out where near youyou can donate or recycle batteries responsibly.
Again, I saw some mixed things. Something said your double A batteries,
you can throw them in the trash. Other places said that you can't.
(29:14):
I'm probably gonna get a eight mail. I will tell you, guys,
I throw them away in the trash. Just my regular everyday batteries I do.
I had not until I came acrossthis. Did it seem like that
was a problem. Again, ifyou have bigger things specifically for kids,
cars like there's electronic cars or scootersor whatever, those things are different.
But check your local listings. Andagain I believe Staples is part of their
(29:40):
program. You can do batteries aswell as lows at home depot. So
I would say, just have ifyou want to have, if you want
to be like uber responsible, havea little box or bin that you have
and every time you cycle out yourbatteries, you just put them in there
and then maybe once a month youtake a run over to that place and
(30:00):
drop them off. And that ishow you can do your part when it
comes to batteries. All right,paint this, I actually know about because
my best friend's a house painter,so I actually know a thing or two
about disposing of paint. A lotof this also, and this might go
through when it comes to building materials. A lot of them are state regulated,
(30:22):
so the rules in one state mightbe different than another one. That's
why again my underlying theme is thatwent in doubt. Just google it for
your own area. But latex paintcan actually go into the regular trash.
But here is the caveat folks,it has to be dried, has to
be dried at you. It isnot You are not allowed to throw liquid
(30:45):
paint away. Kitty letter if youdid not know this, kitty letter will
dry out paint. So if youhave an old paint, either it's old
and just not using it, orit's like a color that you're not going
to use or whatever, you canopen it up, throw kitty litter in
the can. Once it dries up, you can then take that paint,
(31:11):
throw it in the trash and go. It can go right into the regular
garbage. That's if it's latex paint. Oil based paint is totally different.
That needs to go with hazardous waste, and that goes along with like turpentine
and other of those strong chemicals.So if you are and I see this
a lot with people that are goingthrough like garage or basement cleanups where they
(31:34):
have things like old paint that's eitherexpired or old and crusty, or just
from we painted this room ten yearsago and we still have the paint for
it. If it's latex, youcan just take a little time, dry
it out and then dump it inthe trash. But any of these other
high chemical hazardous waste have to behave to be disposed of properly, and
(32:00):
if you don't have a place nearyou, there are places that will come
and pick it up. Now,they will charge you. They will charge
you, and we're going to getinto things like you could call a one
eight hundred got junk, You cancall a local or junk lugglers, or
a local person that near you thatdoes any type of like house clean outs.
(32:22):
There's a lot of these services here, and yes they charge for it,
but the one thing that finds whenyou hire these companies is they will
make sure that the contents are disposedof properly. So it is yes,
you are paying to remove your stuff, but you are saving time because they
(32:42):
are doing the leg work of makingsure that the right items are getting recycled
to the right places. And again, it just takes the guesswork out of
it for you. So that's adeal with paint. Now, building materials
again or somewhat similar if you haveall built materials, if it's new stuff.
And again, this happens a lotwhen people do home renovations. You've
(33:04):
got file or extra flooring or extrawood pieces or whatever it is that you
are that you were doing, anda lot of times it just sits in
your house. And again, Iunderstand you want to keep some in Cayse.
You know, you might need topatch something, but a lot of
times we don't need the volume.Or maybe you updated your kitchen and you
(33:27):
have the old kitchen cabin and they'retotally in good shape, but you don't
want them anymore. What do youdo with them? The Habitat for Humanity
is my favorite place to go dothat, so they have restores all over
the country. Again, you cangoogle Habitat for Humanity restore. You can
also look for where can I donatelocal building materials near you? And there
(33:47):
should be places that you can goto donate them. The thing. With
a lot of them, you haveto take them, so there is that
extra legwork of you having to takeit. There't always pick up, they
might depending on where you live.I know by us the Habitat for Humanity
or the restore, we have tobring it. So that does add an
(34:07):
extra step for you as the homeownerto be able to say, Okay,
I'm decluttering and now I have tomake time to drop off this donation versus
just scheduling a pickup. But itis something that this is it's a great
it's a great way for you tobe able to help other people. You
can also check out and this goesalso building materials an old furniture also,
(34:31):
which is our last category, womenshelters. A lot of these domestic violence
places for women who are coming outof abusive situations are they're getting rehomed and
they need things. They need housewears, they need clothing, they need appliances,
(34:51):
they need all kinds of things.And so if you're donating, there's
some great local shelters near us thatwe donate to a variety of things,
and you always check with them tosee what they're looking for, because again
seasonally they may or may not betaking things, and it all depends on
what their warehouse inventory looks like.A lot of times places if they have
(35:14):
a big warehouse, they can holdextra stuff. But some of these places
that support these local women shelters don'thave huge warehouses and they might not have
the space to hold onto a tonof things. But it's always worth checking.
I think it's really important to beable to know that if we can
(35:36):
contribute something that we're no longer usingto help somebody else, not only does
it help this person, but italso again helps the environment. But again
this whether it's any of these thingsthat will that you're not sure where they
should go calling an expert like awhen I hate call them junk removal places
(35:59):
because a lot of it is andjunk might not be stuff that you're using.
But these companies like a Junk Logoer'sone eight God Junk. Again,
none of these guys are paid sponsorsof our show, but all of these
people have relationships with hazards, wastematerial, paper recycling, a lot of
(36:20):
times with tech and electronic recycling,and they will do all of the heavy
lifting. So if you call themand say this is what I want removed,
they will take it, they willthen sort it on their own after
they leave and make sure that everythinggets recycled responsibly. So although you are
paying for this service, it issuch a great way for you to reclaim
(36:45):
your time not have to worry aboutthe mental bandwidth of trying to figure out
where things go, and you're helpingother people in need. So really,
my takeaway for this whole episode iswe can't control the stuff that's already been
brought into our house, either bydefault or by design, but we do
(37:07):
have a say of what we continueto bring in and how responsible we are
making the choices of buying things withpurpose, buying things with meaning, buying
things sustainably, and thinking about thelongevity of this piece of whatever this is
that we're going to be doing,and is this something that is going to
(37:29):
ultimately be contributing to future clutter oris this something that's really going to be
serving us. And again I'm notsaying don't buy things. I'm not saying
don't go shopping, but I reallyjust want to encourage all of you guys
to be responsible with the stuff that'scoming in and leaving your house. And
so again we're gonna have links toall these different things in the show notes.
(37:52):
I know we can get overwhelming,and I think for most part we
all want to be responsible with ourstuff. Nobody wants to be part of
the problem. And if you wantto be part of the solution, check
out these places that are helping toreduce the amount of waste that end up
in landfills and shop responsibility guys.So until next week, I am Laurie
(38:15):
Palau, peace out. Thanks fortuning in. If you like this episode,
please spread the love and share itwith your friends. If this is
your first time joining us, makesure to click the subscribe button wherever you're
listing so you never miss an episode. And while you're there, please leave
us a review so other people knewthat our show is worth to listen.
You can also find us on YouTubeand Instagram at This Organized Life Podcast,
(38:38):
and if you'd like to connect withus, you can head on over to
our website at simply the letter,b like boy organized dot com, which
is filled with tons of resources,including free downloads, checklists, links to
our amazing organizing partners, and allof our digital offerings. I'll see you
next week for another episode of ThisOrganized Life
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