Once you have decided what you want to use your garage for, you may find there are items that need to be removed from the garage. If you are keeping them, find a new home for them that makes sense. If you are not keeping them, remember to reuse and recycle.

If you are not going to reuse the items, allow other people to reuse by selling items or giving them away. Options for selling items include:

  • Yard Sale
  • Craigslist
  • eBay – advice from a local eBay seller, Amy Weintraub of Shop It LA , suggests only selling something on eBay if it is worth over $100 – otherwise you spend a lot of time posting on line, packaging and posting the items for not much return.
  • Wertz Brothers– buy high end furniture (located in Santa Monica)

 

Consider donating directly to charities in your area, but give them a call first to find out if they need them. Some great places to donate to in the Los Angeles area are:

  • Baby2Baby, collects and redistributes gently used baby and young children’s items
  • Beyond Shelter, accepts all manner of in kind donations to assit the homeless in transitioning to homes.
  • LA Shares, redistributes working electronic goods to schools and other non-profit agencies in the area.
  • PATH, People Assisting The Homeless
  • Soles4Souls, reusing your shoes that you don’t wear any more.

You can also donate to charities that sell your items such as:2011-03-15 Donation Photo

 

Check with your local charity about what they do with items they cannot use. Some are better than others in recycling. For instance, clothing that is donated to Goodwill but is not salable here is given to the rag trade and is either sent to developing nations or recycled.

If the items are no longer usable, then recycle them. If you have a lot of items to recycle and you’re just not sure where to go with them, consider a junk removal firm like Go Junk Free America that recycles more than 80% of the items they receive, or 1-800-Got-Junk.

Remember to dispose of hazardous waste in the proper manner. If you are in Los Angeles, you can search the SAFE website for drop off locations near you. Hazardous waste includes, but is not limited to:

  • Solvents and paints
  • Automotive oil
  • Flammables
  • Electronics – TV’s, computers, printers, batteries, etc

 

Hopefully you can see by this certainly not exhaustive list that there are many places your “junk” can go where it can be used right now. Give yourself some breathing room. Take a load off the environment by allowing the things you are not using to be used by others.