Sustainable Valentine's Day

I didn't want to close out February without a nod to Valentine's Day.

In keeping with my goal this year to reduce my intake of stuff, to celebrate V-Day, I applied a few of the suggestions from my Holiday Survival Guide.

The Intangible Gift

With my own krafty little hands, I created my version of the coupon/gift card:

Themed Origami Hearts

The design of each represented the sentiment I wished to express or something I promised to do for my True Love.

Best of all . . .

. . . No new materials were bought or brought into the house to make this gift.

I repeat: No new materials were bought or brought into the house to make this gift.

Drawing From The Stash

• designed my own origami paper using clip art and my handy dandy word processor
  
• printed the designs on paper already in my possession
  
• searched the Internet for folding instructions in order to make the hearts
  
• practiced the paper-folding technique using sheets from my Recycle Paper Pile, before finally folding with the paper I designed
  
• embellished the folded hearts with a bit of ribbon
  
• selected a gift box in which to place the hearts, from my collection of same (What!? You don't have a collection of gift boxes. . . ?!)

. . . and VOILA!

craigslist

Back in the fall I discovered craigslist!

Of course, I had heard of it. I'd viewed the occasional apartment listing and read articles about it's phenomenal, almost cult-like popularity, but beyond that I hadn't had occasion to actually use it myself.

That is, until receiving a less than enthusiastic response for something I posted on Freecycle™ one lazy Sunday afternoon. I remembered that my cousin had mentioned getting stuff through craigslist so, on a whim, I decided to give it a whirl. How bad could it be? I set up an account, posted my item in the "free stuff" section, and didn't give it too much more thought. However, when I checked my email later that day, I was astonished at the response my post had received, since the same item hadn't gotten so much as a nibble on Freecycle™.

I selected a respondent, made p/u arrangements, and the rest is declutter history. Let me tell you, I got rid of more stuff in the month after that than I would have ever thought possible. I'm talking even the odd or unusual stuff that mysteriously accumulates over time. The kind of stuff you can't imagine anyone else would want, but, therein lies the problem for the Packrat, eh?

That is not to say craigslist was not without its drawbacks, which I'll get to in a moment, but in spite of the pitfalls I encountered, it was like discovering a Secret Declutter Weapon, and craigslist remains an extremely vital tool in this Packrat's arsenal. Again, I only have experience with posting items in the "free stuff" section. I haven't tried to sell anything through the site, so I can't speak to what the experience is like using any of those categories.

The good news. . .

• there's no charge to set up an account and it is very easy to do
  
• you can upload photos of your item at the same time you enter your written description, also quite easy
  
• you can choose to anonymize your email so it is not exposed to the "elements". The site creates a unique email for that post which responders see, and their queries are then forwarded to your email. You decide whom to contact after that.
  
• although your posts remain available to you indefinitely on your Acct home page, they "expire" or are delisted from public viewing after a certain period of time. You can also manually de-list an item if you want. Alternatively, it is easy to relist an item as well. I find this feature to be hugely convenient, since on Freecycle™ this must be done manually.

. . .and the not so good news

• be forewarned, craigslist is strictly no frill's. If you are looking for a slickly designed site, with java script animations, flash displays, etc then turn back now! The craigslist interface is plain, Plain, PLAIN!

• for completing certain tasks, the site's design is less than intuitive, so it can be tricky to navigate or figure out how to do what you want, or why something occurred

• like Freecycle™ there is the problem of people indicating they are interested in an item, but then not following through when you contact them about P/U arrangements, however, I have been fortunate that given the number of items I've gotten rid of using craigslist, this hasn't happen too often.

• there are numerous craigslist communities for different cities or regions both in this country as well as all over the world. You must post to the one to where you (and your item) are geographically located. craigslist communities are "self-policing" and may vary in their thresholds for what they consider to be bad or inappropriate behavior. Community members can flag a post for removal if they deem it to be spam (i.e. advertisement or promotional in nature, or too many posts from one user within a certain timeframe) in violation of site policy, or otherwise inappropriate. If a post receives too many flags, it will most likely be removed.

  The problem is you have no way of knowing beforehand what that threshold might be, nor are you necessarily even alerted to the fact that a particular listing has been flagged, that is a message in your Acct while you are logged in as opposed to an email that may not be sent until sometime later. If you even get that. From what I could gather after wading into the help forum, some people said the didn't even get an email.

Fortunately (or unfortunately) I got the first email, perhaps 30 minutes after initially posting what I thought to be a mere four items (not a problem on Freecycle™). Up to that point I had just posted one thing at a time with a day or two in between. But Hey! It was the beginning of the New Year and I was feeling ambitious! I would later find out that apparently all four posts were flagged. Luckily only two received a threshold number of flags, but they were still up long enough that a few responses trickled through so I was ultimately able to carry out my Exit Strategy for them.

However, obtaining even that much information was a hassle. The email I received was an automated thingy with a boilerplate advisement stating that the vast majority of postings were usually removed because they violated craigslist guidelines and it suggested that I check the terms of use to make sure my post was in accordance with it (as far as I could tell they were). For a more detailed explanation I was directed to post a question in the appropriate craigslist help forum. After some minor difficulty figuring out how to access and post to the help forum, I was able to glean several possible reasons as to why my posts had been flagged, but It I was still left feeling a bit nebulous about the whole thing.

Be all that as it may, I have still found craigslist to be an extremely effective declutter tool. After My Experience I made sure to space my posts out or tried listing multiple items in one post and don't seem to have had any more problems.

Title Trader

I finally settled on Title Trader as my CD/DVD swap site of choice. Although I had some initial difficulty figuring out how to list my items, once I did, I was good to go, and was able to successfully trade the bulk of my items there. Also, Title Trader does not limit you to trading only CDs or DVDs. You can list all kinds of other stuff such as books, magazines, audio-cassettes, even household items ala Freecycle.

Here's how Title Trader stacked up against my criteria:

1. Shipping

   Alas, while you can print a shipping label, inexplicably, it is not paid postage!?! nor at this time, are you able to pay for it online via credit card. . .
   

2. Avoiding the Post-office

   . . .therefore you still have to go to the post-office, stand on line and deal with the quirks of the postal staff. Bummer!

   For example, I do not trust the postal service not to manhandle my CDs/DVD packages as they wend their way through the system. So, to decrease the chances of any damage during shipping, I err on the side of caution and try to pad the envelope really well. One postal clerk eyed my package suspiciously and asked what was inside. When I told him, he asked why was it so thick, was anything else in there . . .? But, after processing it he just carelessly tossed (more like hurled) it into the mail bin behind him, which is EXACTLY why I padded it to the hilt. I'm thinking to myself, "My package has hardly even gotten into the post office good, before it getting roughed up! Thankfully, so far the CDs/DVDs I've shipped seem to have arrived intact.

3. Liner notes, artwork & case

   At Title Trader you have the option to send as much or as little of the accompanying material as you want. Some traders will note this type of information in their listing, which I found helpful in choosing with whom to trade.

4. Simplicity

   It's very easy to set up an account. The site also loads quickly on my dial-up connection.

   Each book, CD, and DVD is worth one Request Point and can be used to request a book, CD, or DVD from Title Trader's collection once you have received positive feedback. An email notification is sent when one of your items has been requested and you can print a shipping label at that time. I listed several items, and got requests right away, but again, how quickly or how many of your items are requested will be dependent on what you have to offer.

   Although, at first I found Title Trader a little tricky to navigate (I couldn't figure out how to list my items) once I did, things went more smoothly. Searching by UPC or ISBN can also be a little tricky. Sometimes those number don't work, but then, plugging in the title or artist will yield the item. Just be forewarned that you may have to fiddle around with your search queries a bit.

   Also, in one case, I had a problem printing a shipping label because the recipient's address could not be verified in the USPS database. Although, I emailed the site for assistance on several occasions, as far as I can tell, I never received a response unlike the speedy one obtained from SwapSimple's customer service department. (see my post on that here) However, since shipping labels are not postage paid, you can manually create your own shipping label without losing anything, which is what I ultimately ended up doing.

All in all, even though the need to go to the post office is somewhat of a hassle, the site's overall ease of use and laid back feel is what won me over in the end.

One More Thing: Premium Features

Title Trader premium access costs $19.95/year. However, when you first sign up, they will give you a 30 day trial that includes a few of the site's premium features, most notably a daily, customizable, email listing newly added items

Other premium features include:

• Wishlist Notification - email alerts when items appearing on your wish list have been added to the Title Trader inventory
  
• Saved Searches - allows you to maintain a list of your most frequent searches. When an item is added to the site
• Buddy List - allows you to bookmark your favorite users so you can keep an eye on what they have listed.
  
• Safe Swap Premium Member - enhances you status as a reliable trading partner.

Again, please note that this reflects my particular experience ONLY! You're mileage may vary.

Swapsimple

Another swap site that I looked into as an Exit Strategy for my CDs and DVDs was SwapSimple. At SwapSimple you can trade books, DVDs and video games, but not music CDs (go figure!). Setting up an account was easy enough. I provided an email address, made up a password and I was in like Flynn. I then received an email confirming my registration which included a clickable link leading to a few other questions to answer, such as how I'd heard of the site, my age (you must be 18 years or older), and stuff like that.

However, for me, that's about where the "simple" part of SwapSimple hit the road, and what I will mostly be discussing in this post.

1. Shipping

   SwapSimple members can print a free shipping label, which to me was very appealing. 'Nuf said!

2. Avoiding the Post-office

   Of course the pre-paid shipping label also removes the need to go to the post office, so long as your item weighs less than one pound. Another plus!

3. Liner notes, artwork & case

   SwapSimple, members are expected to send all accompanying material, rather than just the disk alone, so that suited me as well.

4. Simplicity

   Now, here's where things started to fall apart.

   Although, I initially listed three items, I only actually ended up trading one of them. And while I was able to send out that one item without incident, I found the actual process of doing that to be so exacting, that shortly thereafter, I delisted the other two items.

   • Pop-up Panic!

     For one thing, to even list an item for trade, in addition to my name I had to provide my gender and telephone number, something I wasn't too wild about, and wondered why that was necessary. Then, some pretty specific and rather stern pop-up instructions appeared about using the site and what needed to happen when, in order to effect a successful trade.
     
     There were other, similarly dire, warning pop-ups at just about every subsequent step of the transaction, through finally printing the shipping label once someone requested one of my items.

     Don't Get Me Wrong! In and of themselves, none of the stipulations were at all unreasonable. I definitely understand that some people need to have such things spelled out as explicitly as possible, because left to their own devices they simply won't follow through. Still, as a fairly reliable sort, myself, I was left feeling vaguely anxious. Even with the best of intentions, we all can slip up at one time or another. I tend to pursue several Exit Strategies at a time in order to maximize the chances of actually getting rid of something! As far as I'm concerned, all bets are on until that item is out of my house and into the hot little hands of someone else. So, I was terrified that I might fail to remove a no longer available item from my SwapSimple inventory quick enough! Consequences for such a failure included possible penalty charges or the suspension of my account.

   • Point System

     SwapSimple says that their point system is straightforward, but it seemed a little complicated to me. The site figures out and assigns a "market" value to the items you post. You receive a fraction of that value immediately upon listing the item (aka Instant Trade Credits) and the rest of it upon successfully completing your trade. From this standpoint you begin accumulating points and can request items right away. Also, as long as you have points, you can trade for any category of item. For example if you trade a book, you are not limited to requesting another book. You can request a DVD or a video game of whatever value, so long as you have accumulated the necessary points.

     However, when I went back to check on my account after the one trade I completed, I was surprised to find out that I hadn't earned any credits! I contacted Customer Service about it and to their credit , they got back to me pretty promptly. They explained that my trade item had a "market value" worth less than $0.50 and that they only award credits in whole numbers. Unfortunately for me, they round down instead of up. So my traded item ended up being worth zero points instead of one. They further advised that there were many 0-credit items that could be requested. I checked this out this category, but there weren't all that many things available, at least on the date I looked. But, in honor of completing my first swap, SwapSimple credited my account five points. Still, if I had not contacted them, I probably would never have received these points.

     Also, swapping is not actually free, unless you are:

     • swapping within a personal swap network of friends, their friends, etc. or . . .
     • . . .swapping items worth 10 credits or less
     otherwise, trading items worth more than 10 credits with people outside of your network will cost you $1.00 (items worth 11-20 credits) or $2.00 (items worth 21 credits or more) per swap.

     While not completely inscrutable, I would not exactly call this system straightforward either.
     

   • Site Feel and Navigability

     Finally, swapping via the Internet is probably an inherently social activity, however I would say that this social networking aspect is very much accentuated at SwapSimple. Just to say, that this may not be everyone's cup of tea.

     Also, I am probably one of the few people left in the universe with a dial-up connection, so it took a bit of time for some of the site's graphics and doo-hickey's to load as I navigated through the site. This became a particular issue while I tried to figure out how to display my inventory. Me and my dial up connection spent more than a few frustrating minutes clicking various links and then waiting for the screens to load while I tried to figure it out what I was doing wrong.

Obligatory Disclaimer: Anyway, as I stated in last week in the SwapaCD post, this review reflects the criteria that are important to me and how this impacted my particular experience ONLY! You're mileage may vary and SwapSimple may suit your needs perfectly.

Next up: Title Trader: The CD/DVD swap site, I finally settled on.

SwapaCD

SwapaCD is a popular music CD swap site. I actually discovered this site while checking out Paperback Swap, with whom they're affiliated (I also see they've added a DVD swap site to their offerings. I'll have to check that out!).

I have not, as of yet, used SwapaCD for reasons initially outlined in My CD/DVD Cup Runneth Over and which I will discuss in further detail below.

1. Shipping

   While not necessarily a complete deal breaker, ideally, a swap site would allow me to generate a postage paid shipping label (either free of charge or for which the costs can at least be prepaid by credit card). SwapaCD members must pay the shipping costs when responding to requests, as well as a charge of 0.49 per trade, plus 1 CD credit. SwapaCD provides a downloadable template for a paper envelope mailer, which pulls the recipient's address information, however at this time, it does not also include the postage.

2. Avoiding the Post-office

   In terms of ease and convenience, I would prefer to avoid a trip to the post office or waiting on a long line there. If you just send the CD in their special mailer as recommended, SwapaCD estimates that postage costs will probably be little more than a first-class stamp, give or take, and you can just drop it in the mailbox. However, if you add the goodies (jewel case, liner notes, artwork) it will probably be more. Depending on what you decide to ship, unless you have a scale at home or are comfortable guestimating the charges, a post office visit could be in your future. Which brings me to my next point.
   

3. Liner notes, artwork & case

   Not so much with DVDs, but for music CDs I like having the artwork and liner notes, which can often include song lyrics or information about the artist and other musicians. A jewel case makes it easier to store, but those are otherwise easy enough to get elsewhere, if you want them.

   While SwapaCD members are certainly free to ship as much of a CDs accompanying materials as they like, in order to keep mailing costs to a minimum, SwapaCD recommends that they only ship the CD itself, using the aforementioned envelope mailer. However, they also provide tips and information about the approximate costs for various other shipping options and configurations.

   Incidentally, I have to say that at the particular time that I was considering SwapaCD, I was skeptical that a mere paper envelope would allow a CD to be delivered through the mail unscathed, while shipping them in their protective, plastic jewel cases might actually increase the likelihood of their being damaged (this in spite of proper padding which adds to the shipping costs). But, that was before I discovered and joined a popular DVD rental club and have since come to experience the efficacy of the paper envelope mailer, as paradoxical as it may seem! So far, in about a year's time, I have only had one DVD to arrive damaged.

4. Simplicity

   Finally, a swap site should be as simple as possible to use, not only in terms of listing and tracking items for trade, but in comprehending the point scheme. Of primary concern would be

   • How is value assigned to the items being traded?
   • How do you accrue the necessary value to make requests?

   In all fairness, since I did not end up joining SwapaCD, I can't really speak to how easy or not, it is to use the site, but based on the information I was able to read there, it seemed easy enough. Of course, you'll need to take my comments here with the necessary grain of salt.

   The point system in use seems quite straightforward. As previously mentioned, each CD trades for one SwapaCD credit along with the 0.49/trade charge. You can earn one free credit after posting your first ten CDs. If you want to request CDs before you have accumulated enough points you will need to purchase SwapaCD credits available in increments of $5.00.

   Now, depending on your reasons for trading, the point scheme may be less important to you. Perhaps you have a glut of CDs you just want to get rid of and don't care so much about acquiring others. On the other hand, you may get into swapping as a way to acquire and enjoy new content, while avoiding the accumulation of stuff that you don't like so much. As I explained in Something for the Bibliophile, swap sites allow you to hold onto an item for as long as you want (forever, if that's the case), or trade it back once your finished with it.

   So again, logistical matters such as these are something to be aware of and keep in mind when considering a swap site.

Obligatory disclaimer: These are the criteria that are important to me and how they played out in evaluating this particualr site, however your needs may be quite different.

Next up: My experience using SwapSimple, another media swap site.

twigghugger turns 1 years old!

A year ago today, I took the plunge and began this blog (see What Yet Another Blog). Why? Well, for one thing, I had finally finished grad school and consequently, had time to turn my attention to other matters. Since me and my tiny apartment harbor an Inner Packrat, paramount was the need to reduce my accumulation of stuff.

Over this past year, slowly, but surely I have made great strides in achieving just that. While constantly chanting the twigghugger mantra to myself over and over (...and over!)

• Identify
• Gather
• and Remove!

I searched the Internet for donation, reuse and exchange options. I was delighted to find that there were many more such choices available than had even been the case just five years prior.

Space cleared, has miraculously, remained so! Let me tell you that I consider this to be a huge accomplishment! Before, I was basically just shifting the piles around, but the Secret to My Success has been the gradual, but actual removal of excess things. Now, not only does it look more neat and orderly, it stays that way. I even survived the holiday frenzy without too much disruption to this hard fought for turf.

If you are as serious, a packrat as I am (was...?), reaching this point may seem daunting, if not impossible, but by breaking it down into many, tiny steps over time you will gradually see results, like I did. As I stated last year, maybe the idea of hugging a tree is overwhelming, so start off small and do it one twigg at a time, and you'll get there! Also over this past year, consciousness about the environment has grown phenomenally, so I'm hoping my approach to decluttering will continue to grow easier as well.

Now, I'm not quite out of the woods yet! There are still a few things to tweak here and there, as well as working on a couple of projects like my Magazine Mountains, better clothing organization and Oh! A special mission impossible type project I've been procrast…that is saving for last: Kitchen!: the Final Frontier! (aka as 2008: A Lack of Space Odyssey).

But, this year, for the most part, will be about Accumulation Control. I plan to maintain last year's gains, by giving careful consideration to what gets brought into the house in the first place.

Anyway, in honor of twigghuggers first birthday, shout outs to

• Barbara Sher - for issuing the Jolly 2007 Challenge which was to pick a project for 2007, something fun and enjoyable, and to write about it.
  
  R. Walker - at murketing.com (a blog I stumbled across in December 2006), who posed the question Can getting rid of stuff feel as good as getting it?.

A year later, I can definitely answer, "Yes it can!"

Holiday Postscript: The Wrap Party

Before the New Year gets under way, I just wanted to share a few pix from my very own wrap party where I used some of the tips revealed in the Holiday Survival Guide, pt.2. When I get into this mode I give my Inner Packrat time off and my Inner Krafty Kat Wrapper gets pressed into service.

First: The Stash...

As a self-confirmed packrat I've accumulated quite a bit of wrapping paraphernalia over the years, but I do make an effort to reuse it when it comes time to wrap a gift. In The Stash I have

• wrapping paper (stored more or less neatly in a "wrapping paper carrier" as well as an old shopping cart)
• assorted bows and ribbon
• accumulated tissue paper
• assorted and accumulated boxes
• a variety of stickers obtained from numerous sources (not shown)
• greeting cards which I re-use to make gift tags (not shown)

It took me nearly 12 hours to wrap all my gifts this year (Phew)! But, I also enjoyed expressing my artistic side. Below are examples of a few of my creations. Note, that with one exception, all of the wrapped items shown here re-use items from The Stash List.

...And The End Result!

The Santa Wrap

To wrap this gift I used the technique I described in the Holiday Survival Guide, pt.2, but which I originally got from the Wrap Art site. It allows you to use those leftover bits and pieces of paper that by themselves are not big enough to wrap something, but when combined, give you more wrapping mileage.

After wrapping this gift, I added ribbon to "dress up" the seams between the two wrapping papers. The ribbon was then topped off with a gold "Santa" seal sticker.

The Art of Wrapping the Gift Card

As I discussed in the Holiday Survival Guide, pt.1 the giving of Gift Cards may seem a bit impersonal. So, I tried to take a creative approach to wrapping this gift, a gourmet food store gift card. After finishing up one of my rolls of wrapping paper, I used part of the inner tube it was wrapped around (which now-a-days is more like paper than cardboard) to make a mini brown paper grocery bag (remember those!?). To jazz it up I also used some green tissue paper along with a gold seal sticker from The Stash.

Festive Gift Box

In this case the item came with the blue box you see in the picture. I thought the box itself was already attractive and decided to just add some simple green ribbon and a gold seal to give it that extra special something.

Poinsettia Power!

Wrap fixin's for this gift included the box, the pretty poinsettia tissue paper and ribbon. The contents were a little larger than the box itself so I couldn’t put on the top (it's actually on the bottom), however because the tissue paper is so pretty it worked out. Also, the box itself was a pretty peach color so I felt it didn't need to be wrapped.

Let it Snow!

Of the gifts shown, these two items were wrapped with newly bought paper. I had to wrap a gift for a grab bag at work, which I didn't have a chance to wrap it at home. I ended up having to run out at the last minute to get some paper, however the ribbon and seal are from The Stash.

So, another holiday season has come, gone and been survived.

After this post my Inner Packrat returns.

See you in the New Year!

My CD/DVD Cup Runneth Over

One of my decluttering projects from August (Wow! That was awhile ago already!) involved weeding. I think of weeding as a complimentary strategy to decluttering. The way I see it, decluttering has more to do with identifying objects for eventual removal OR allowing you to reorganize what you have so that it is neater. Weeding, on the other hand, involves reviewing a category of things you have, such as books or clothing, selecting particular items to get rid of, while keeping certain other items. This is what I did with various music CDs, DVDs and audio cassettes.

There are a number of options for dealing with CDs or DVDs. You could give them away to friends or relatives, or via The Freecycle Network™ or craigslist, or donate them to a non-profit organization, which they in turn sell to raise money. Again, be aware that the criteria of accepted items can be very specific, which may or may not coincide with what you want/need to get rid of at any given time. So, you'll need so keep that in mind should you go that route. Here are a couple of organizations I came across that accept such donations, however I have not tried myself:

• Eco Encore
• Housing Works Used Book Cafe (also accepts records and CDs)
• Neighborhood Coalition for Shelter's Amazon.com Shop, Emporium Online

As with my books, I decided to go the swap route again and checked out the following three sites:

• SwapaCD
• Swap Simple
• Title Trader

Creating an account at each of these sites is free and fairly simple to do. However, on SwapaCD you will be charged 0.49/trade plus one SwapaCD credit.

I'm sure at this point, with the growth of the Internet, there are hundreds of swap sites to choose from, so you may be aware of others that you prefer. In fact let me offer this disclaimer right now:

My upcoming reviews of these sites strictly reflect my particular experience ONLY! (as does everything else discussed on twigghugger!) You're mileage may vary, so the sites described here (and elsewhere on twigghugger) may or may not end up being your cup of tea.

Having by now accumulated a bit of swapping experience under my belt, my ideal swapping situation

• allows me to generate a shipping label (free, or the allowing the postage to be prepaid by credit card)
  
• allows me to drop the item in the mailbox, thus avoiding the lines at the post-office or dealing with cranky postal clerks
  
• allows the option of sending/receiving all materials (jewel or DVD case, liner notes, artwork, etc)
  
• is as simple as possible to use in terms of listing and tracking items for trade

None of the three CD swap sites that I considered had all three qualities together. So far the only swap site that I have used that meets all these criteria is Bookins (see Something for the Bibliophile), but alas at this time you can only swap books through them.

Be that as it may, for my purposes, one CD/DVD swap site did emerge as my preferred site. Here is a quick and dirty chart summing up my overall opinions.

but I will discuss them all in more detail in separate, upcoming posts. Stay tuned!

BookMooch

I was poking around the Internet, and came across BookMooch. I was immediately intrigued! The site's look and feel is delightfully whimsical, but at the same time uncluttered and easy to use. As you know by now, All Qualities I Like!

So, I signed up and listed my available titles. Thus far I have sent out three items.

When someone requests your book, you get a detailed email with a lot of helpful information, but directly relevant to sending out the item are:

• the requestor's name
• the book they want
• the address to which the book should be sent
• the points you' ve been awarded for the immediate request at hand, as well as a tally of the total points you have earned so far

Also conveniently included in this email are links allowing you to

• log-in to the site and accept, delay, reject or indicate that you have sent the request
• visit the USPS.com site's postage cost calculator page

However going to your BookMooch inventory page and clicking into any of the links for your listed titles will allow you to perform these tasks as well.

Another element that some may find appealing to swapping through BookMooch is a philanthropic one. BookMooch members have the option of donating the points they accrue through swapping, to charity thereby subsidizing book requests for such organizations (See http://www.bookmooch.com/charity).

A couple of logistical considerations. I found the BookMooch point system used a little confusing, but since I'm more interested in finding new homes for the books I already have rather than requesting books, understanding it was less important to me. But, if it is important to you, you can read more about it at the site: http://www.bookmooch.com/about/interview. Also, at BookMooch the sender pays for and arranges the shipping.

Happy Mooching!

twigghugger's Guide to Surviving the Holiday Season - Part 2: The Art of Wrapping "Nothing!"

So! You've decided that transitioning away from giving and getting stuff that will contribute to clutter, is for you. However, at the same time, perhaps you are also a little concerned that the actual giving experience could be a little underwhelming and impersonal.

Nothing could be farther from the truth!

Because you won't be frantically running around shopping, that should leave you with more time and energy to take a more creative approach to "wrapping" or presenting your intangible gifts. With a little imagination, you can have a lot of fun doing it. You can also put all those little "couldn't bear to part with" snippets of wrapping paper, old greeting cards, bits of ribbon, small gift boxes and other baubles you have stowed away to good use.

Imagine, de-cluttering and giving gifts at the same time! If I'm not mistaken, that's a two-fer right there!

Printer Prowess

If you've got a laser or ink-jet, color printer, NOW is the perfect time to take a moment to actually check out some of those e-newsletters you've probably been receiving but ignoring, from your printer vendor each month! Or, to take a second look at those inserts that accompany your ink-cartridges. Both often describe all sorts of fun, exciting and hopefully simple projects you too can make with your very own printer.

For our purposes, this will mostly involve designing and creating unique certificates or note cards in order to inject a little something special into your "personal favors" or gift card exchanges. I'm sure you will be quite amazed at what you can come up with and that your printer can gracefully jump through your artistic hoops.

In The Ultimate Cardmaker: 180 Card Ideas & 20 Essential Techniques" edited by Sarah Crosland (ISBN-13: 978-0-7153-2596-4), there's a wealth of card ideas that you could probably adapt for non-tangible gift presentations. I picked it up last week (ah yes...craft books are one of my weaknesses!)

That's a Wrap!

As hinted above, wrapping intangibles can provide excellent opportunities for making use of the odd bit of wrapping paper and various other gewgaws. In "Simply Green Giving: Create Beautiful and Organic Wrapping, Tags, and Gifts From Everyday Materials" (ISBN-13: 978-0-06-112277-4), Danny Seo has a variety of clever gift wrapping ideas that make use of items you might find around the house (for you or I they’re clut-ter-ing the house) or which can be picked up inexpensively at flea markets or thrift stores.

It's a small book with only four chapters, but I think it packs quite a wallop:

• Chapter 1: Cards and Tags
• Chapter 2: Boxes
• Chapter 3: Gift Wrap and Bows
• Chapter 4: Handmade Giving

Check out Chapter 4, p.102 for a cute way to gussy up that otherwise, innocuous little gift card.

In addition to his book, Seo has a blog with a never-ending parade of creative and innovative, but inexpensive gift or reuse ideas.

Another website with fun wrapping ideas is WrapArt, but, I'm sure there are plenty of other sites like it out there.

Below are some examples of my Inner Krafty Kat in action. Be forwarned! The pix ain't fancy, but they should give a more visual idea of what I'm talking about. These are a few items from my very own wrapping stash: ribbon, tissue paper, bows, and a box! And then, what I did with those items (MacGyver eat your heart out!)

Here is another gift that I wrapped using a technique from the Wrap Art site:

Now, Tag IT!

Old greeting cards are a great alternative to those drab, store bought gift tags so go through that stash (and I know you've got one!) and see what you can come up with. Colorful, shiny, or sparkly cards are good choices. With a hole punch and some ribbon you'll be good to go. You can cut them up into rectangles and take advantage of the random, colorful patterns that emerge, or cut out elements of the card itself, which might lend themselves to making unique or decorative tags. There will probably be snowman, ornaments and other holiday icons a-plenty to get the job done.

If you're feeling particularly ambitious you might have a go at re-using....are you ready for this one....? Old business cards to make a more elaborate gift tag! Because you and I both know, you can't seem to order less than 10,000 of them at a time and invariably the information will probably change before you can possibly use them all. Head right over to Chapter 1 , p. 2 of Seo's "Simply Green Giving" to get the low down on making these tags, as well as a host of other innovative gift tag ideas.

Anyway! That should keep you busy (and clutter free) for the moment!

Happy Wrapping!

twigghugger's Guide to Surviving the Holiday Season - Part 1: Giving, Getting and How!

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted, but my decluttering activities have outstripped my ability to keep up with writing about them. More on that in the future, but for now...

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving has already come and gone! But, perhaps even more significant for the Packrat, is the day after Thanksgiving, aka Black Friday, which has traditionally marked the official start of the holiday shopping season. All those shoppers lining up at the crack of dawn, waiting for the stores to open....I shudder at the thought of what this means for folk like us. If you (or someone you know) have been diligently working all year long to declutter your space AND can actually see some progress, then this time of the year could represent a serious setback to your hard earned success.

Below are six suggestions to help keep that momentum going. It is by no means an exhaustive list, but should at least get the wheels in your brain turning for “giving” alternatives. Because these ideas may represent a dramatic departure from what you’ve done in the past, it may be a good idea to discuss it first within your giving circle. This way everyone understands what is trying to be accomplished, is on the same page and awkward surprises or disappointments are avoided. To my mind the ultimate goal is to keep the holiday clutter in check.

1. Exchange the intangible instead of the physical - give or make gift certificates for:
   • services: a day at the spa, a manicure, a hair salon visit, cell phone minutes, ring tones or whatever other doo-dads are hot this year for the mobile communicator
   • an entertainment or event experience: theatre or movie tickets, a Netflix gift certificate (to those who know me...hint...hint...;-) ), dinner for two at a local restaurant
   • personal favors: promises to baby-sit, shovel snow, rake leaves, or keep the [pick an area of the house] tidy

2. The Gift Card - heck, with perhaps the exception of the personal favors, there's probably a gift card to be had for anything else in the other categories I just listed. You can get them easily enough at the particular establishment or order them from the merchants’ websites (e.g., Barnes & Noble, Starbuck's, Trader Joes, Target's, Red Lobster (yeah!) to name a few). Recently, I've even noticed kiosks at my local pharmacy, displaying all manner of gift cards for sale!

   The main take-away here is that this option facilitates targeted giving, allowing the recipient to choose their very own heart's desire (and from their favorite store to boot), rather than your having to guess at what that might be. How can either of you go wrong?!

3. Give the Gift of Blog - encourage the writer in your midst. Creating a blog is easier than falling off a log, at least on Blogger it is. I've given the Gift of Blog twice already! My Inner Packrat took a vacation day and I pressed my Inner Krafty Kat into service. In each case, I created and designed a special blog gift card, recycling bits of leftover gift-wrap and greeting cards to create something new and fabulous!

4. Snacks! - gifts of food are inherently un-cluttery, since they will likely need to be consumed within a specific period of time. As a result, they won't wear out their welcome by taking up too much space, at least for very long. Gifts of food can be store bought or for a nice personal touch, made with your own two little hands! Think mini quick breads, muffins, cakes, cookies, jams or jellies, fruit baskets, cheeses, wine and other beverages, munchie packs for movie night...the possibilities are really endless.

   Two books that survived my Great Book Purge were Gifts of Good Taste and Gifts That Taste Good both edited by Anne Van Wagner Young (Leisure Arts (c) 1989.

   

   A quick search at either of the two big online booksellers revealed that used copies of these (and other similar) books are still available. Of course, I got my copies before the Internet came along, but I'm sure there's a website or a blog out there that's chock full of ideas to suit your tastes (and yes the pun was intended! {{giggle}}

5. Charitable Donations - Sites such as Just Give.org or Network For Good.org (also known as "charity portals") offer a variety of options for charitable gift giving such as:
   
   
   • charity gift certificates
   • ability to create wedding registries or charity wish lists
   • shopping via charity malls
   • charity auctions

   Options such as these will allow others to make a donation in your name or to have a portion of the proceeds from actual goods purchased through a charity mall, to be donated to an organization or cause (e.g. mycause.com) of your/their choice.

   Just Give provides a variety of tools that enables someone to search and identify organizations to donate to, and which have also been screened as fitting certain criteria, defined at their site (see also Check Out That Charity for additional tips on selecting and evaluating a charity).

   Please Note: that in order to provide this service to non-profit organizations, charity portals do deduct a small fee from each donation transaction (in the case of Just Give it's 3%). This is just something to be aware of and keep in mind when deciding how much to donate or even whether a given charity agrees with this condition and will accept donations generated through portal sites.

   Perhaps you're thinking that charging such a fee might impose a hardship on organizations already strapped for funds, however for some it is actually more cost effective to do it this way then to recruit, retain and pay personnel to provide e-commerce functionality for themselves.

6. The Wish List - Finally, if you must or still want to give actual "things" the wish list is another way to more effectively focus gift giving by getting items a recipient truly wants or needs. If you've done any kind of online shopping you will probably be familiar with the wish list. If not, the wish list, is similar in concept to the bridal or baby shower registry, allowing you to add selected items from the site to a list for future reference. The drawback is that if there are several sites that a person frequents, gift givers will have to be directed to multiple places, which could be tedious.

   Not to worry! I came across a couple of sites (and undoubtedly there are many, many more) that allow you to coordinate and manage wish lists from multiple sources and share them with others.

   froogle.google.com/shoppinglist

   This link basically takes you to the "Google Product Search" page. In the upper right hand corner is a link to "My Shopping List". If you already have a Google or Gmail account, then you're pretty much already in business to use the service, otherwise you'll need to create an account. This service is in beta, so it was difficult to find any written explanation for how the wish list part works, but it's pretty easy to figure out if you poke around a bit.

   …and no, I’m not a shill for Google! I just either already use or happened to stumble across these services, but if you find or use something you like better, that’s fine too!

   thethingsiwant.com

   Another site I came across was The Things I Want.com I haven't actually tried it, but according to the site "...TheThingsIWant.com is an all-occasion universal gift registry site that enables users to add any item from any site to their wish list. "

So there you have it. I hope these suggestions have given you some ideas to keep from re-accumulating too much stuff over the holidays.

Good Luck and Good Giving!

Next up: twigghugger's Guide to Surviving the Holiday Season - Part 2: The Art of Wrapping "Nothing!"

Scaling Your Magazine Mountains

Last week in Magazine Madness I discussed my attempts to find solutions for dealing with old magazines. Other than recycling, I really didn't find too many, but I did figure out a better way to organize what I had. In the absence of actually getting rid of stuff, organizing it can be the next best thing to help make clutter more manageable.

My magazines used to be stacked about in various and precarious piles, which I would shift from one place to the other or have to restack. Finally, I decided to go out and get some magazine holders, which come in all sorts of flavors: plastic, metal, cardboard, wicker, translucent, opaque, snazzy colors and so on. I settled on a simple cardboard version, readily obtainable at my local office supply store and easy to assemble by folding together. Also, although I didn't think about this at the time, if my magazine collection ever appreciably dwindles, I can just as easily break them back down for easy storage until they're needed again.

As I said, I had a lot of magazines so to make it less daunting, I would buy a package or two (2 to a package) each week, until I had enough. By doing it this way, I was able to break the task down into smaller segments, and actually see visible progress in moving from a state of disorganization to one that was more orderly. I say unto you, the ability to trick one's Inner Packrat by any means necessary is a skill that should not be underrated.

Now that the magazines are no longer toppling over, I am better able to select which ones I want to review and then determine those I want to keep and those I will get rid of. For example, I had about eight year’s worth of PC World! However, I finally faced up to the fact that there was just no point to that. With the way technology changes so quickly, a lot of the information in them was just plain out of date.

Also, you may or may not have noticed this, but many magazine article topics recur every few years. They are either perennial favorites, or are updated to give them a new spin to address contemporary issues. This is another very good reason to stop hoarding old magazines! At some point what has come around once will go around again.

Yes, I know, for a Packrat things are never quite that easy. In spite of everything I've just said, one thinks they're might still be some useful tidbit of information which might never be written about again. In the case of my PC Worlds there were indeed some tips that I haven't seen again in later issues, so to satisfy myself, I went through them a little at a time, clipping the articles I wanted to save and tossing the rest.

I've just about finished! Whoo Hoo! My ultimate goal is to just keep the most current 3 years of this magazine and drop the oldest each year (sort of like what you're supposed to do with your old bills and banking statements every so often...you are doing that right...!?)

Anyway, happy climbing!

Magazine Madness

Researching ways to reduce my magazine clutter was one of the things that originally propelled me onto my DeKlutter Quest. In this blog's inaugural post What Yet Another Blog!? I wrote about the difficulty of finding new homes for still usable stuff, and I have definitely found this to be the case when it comes to magazines.

After scouring the Internet for magazine donation, reuse or exchange options, what I have mostly found are articles with generic laundry lists of theoretical suggestions such as senior citizens' homes, medical office waiting rooms, or your local library, but very few references to individuals or organizations who are actually accepting such donations in practice. Organizations tend to have specific needs and wants that don't necessarily include or overlap with the Packrat's need or desire to get rid of things.

Libraries, for example, to the extent that they accept magazine donations at all, tend to be very specific about either the titles they are willing to take or how old they can be. They prefer magazines of a substantive or serious nature such as National Geographic or Architectural Digest as opposed to more popular fare like Cosmo or People. They will probably also require that magazines be no more than 6 months to a year old, (Hahahahahaha! Yeah right!). Depending on the title and a given library's particular needs, they may incorporate such donations into their existing collections, but it is more likely that they will be used in a "Friends of the Library" type group book sale to raise money.

I was able to get rid of several years' worth of back issues of Threads, a high-end sewing magazine in this manner (also a component of my fascination with fabric, written about in these here pages; see also A Fair & Square Send Off). I listed them at Throwplace.com® (see Throwing Away at Throwplace.com® . Oddly enough, an animal rescue non-profit took them to sell on eBay! I'm hoping to strike similar gold with a stash of Brill's Content.

Other places may be looking for vintage magazines or those published before a certain date. One site that I found was only looking for magazines published before 1945. Thankfully, I don't have anything that old! There's also the swapping alternative, either locally based where you can bring the magazines you don't want and trade them for something else, or via an Internet forum where people post their magazine wants and offers. Haven't tried that yet. Of course, if you have the fortitude you too can try the eBay route. As for myself, I haven't quite felt up to that either.

Anyway, together, the two criteria of time and topic may tend to rule out a substantial number of options for many of us, so the traditional paper-recycling route may be the only alternative. However, your mileage may vary depending on the needs of organizations in your particular community, so it doesn't hurt to investigate first. Helpful search terms might include:

• magazine donation programs
• magazine donations
• reading material(s) donation(s) programs
• reading material(s) donations

Good luck!

Next up, Scaling Your Magazine Mountains. Why? Because they are there and in the way!

Card Shark

Up until now, I have mostly described projects that involve the removal of an item. However, as discussed in Weeding, even though you are paring down your belongings, there will still be some things that you want to keep or are not quite ready to get rid of just yet.

This summer one such project that I undertook was to pull out and examine the collections of cards and letters I had squirreled away. I am sure you know how that kind of stuff can accumulate! The insidiousness of this kind of accumulation is the strong sentimental attachments that may be associated with it.

Never-the-less, into the fray of sentiment I plunged, pulling the cards and letters from the various spots where I had stashed them. There were

• letters to and from friends sent and received while in college and shortly after that period (this was before email y'all)
• Christmas cards
• birthday cards
• Valentine's Day cards
• graduation and other congratulatory cards
• wedding invitations, souvenir bride & groom photos, and other related ephemera
• thank you notes
• unused greeting cards, some purchased while in college! (oh yeah. . .BUT, I have since found new homes for those)
• etc. (of course a Packrat's always got an etc. category!)

After all this time, I thought I would be able to part with the letters at least, but it turned out to be harder than I thought (Ahhh, sentimentality! The archenemy of the Packrat). But that's okay! Not to worry. If you find it particularly difficult to part with something, don't force it. Getting it sorted and/or organized can be the next best, workable compromise, and might help make stabs at future removal a little easier.

So, while I only managed to get rid of a small portion of the letters and cards, I organized what remained a little better.

• all correspondence to and from a particular individual is now all together
• the cards are now organized by type (birthday, Christmas, etc)
• everything has been put into shoeboxes which are much easier to neatly store in the closet, than the plastic bags they were in before.

If/when I am ready to finally get rid of them they will now all be together in one place, making it much easier to review and at once, rather than unexpectedly stumbling across stashes here or there every so often.

Check-out That Charity!

As I mentioned earlier this week a clutter Exit Strategy will often involve donating your no-longer-needed items to a non-profit or charitable organization. In this entry, I will discuss a couple of tools available to help you learn more about the organization to whom may have chosen to donate your stuff. They will help you to determine

• whether an organization is a legitimate non-profit or charitable operation
• an organization's particular mission and the communities or constituencies it serves
• an organization's tax-exempt status (useful, if you would like your donation to be tax deductible)
• if any complaints have been filed against an organization and whether they were satisfactorily resolved

Two of the tools that I have previously used are GuideStar and the Better Business Bureau's (BBB) Wise Giving Alliance at Give.org.

GuideStar

GuideStar is a comprehensive source of information regarding organizations operating within the non-profit sector. Their database includes information on hundreds of thousands of charitable and non-profit organizations across the country. Note: Some of the information in a organization's profile is only available with a premium access subscription, but what is freely available should be more than sufficient for the purposes identified above.

At the search page just type the name of the organization you are looking up into the search field and click the search button. A list of possible organizations from which to choose will be displayed. There are also classification codes (the NTEE Classification System) that you can search by, if you want to pinpoint organizations involved in specific types of activities (e.g. youth, the environment, the arts, etc.) For a more complete listing of those codes visit NCCS.

Anyway, click a link to see additional information. Be forewarned that you will need to register with GuideStar in order to click through to this basic record! Yes, this is a little inconvenient, but registration is free and is much less inconvenient than finding out later that those clothes you realized you were never going to wear again didn't end up getting to other people who could really use them.

Once you have registered and logged in, a free, basic search will yield the following types of information:

• the organization's name and address
• a contact person along with a telephone and fax number (email address info in the profile is, unfortunately, only part of premium access. . .)
• a website if available (. . .however you may be able to pick that up here)
• a brief description of the organization and its goals
• the type of tax-exempt status an organization has (there are nearly 40 categories!) and whether contributions to the organization are deductible, as provided by law
• whether they are required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ with the IRS and if available, links to .PDFs of those previously filed
• when the organization's GuideStar profile was last updated
• whether an organization makes its audited financial statements available to the public

Other information included in the basic profile if available and which might be of interest is

• year founded
• location(s) served
• additional detailed information about an organization's programs and achievements

For additional tips and information to keep in mind when investigating a charity see GuideStar for Donors.

Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance

Give.org also provides information to help you evaluate a charity. Additionally, they maintain a list of organizations that solicit funds on a national basis (the National Charity Reports Index) with links to reports evaluating them in terms of the BBB's voluntary charity standards. To find information regarding regional or local charities, you will need to visit the corresponding BBB for that region or locale. Go to the BBB Look-up page.

Now you will be better able to make an informed decision about choosing a new home for your stuff.

Happy Giving!

End of Summer Update!

Greetings to my fellow Packrats out there! Hope you all had a pleasant summer. I took a bit of an unplanned break in August! This is the first summer in four years that I have not been in school and towards the end I got a little lazy, basking in my new-found freedom.

Be that as it may, my I have not been idle. During this brief hiatus from the blogosphere, I began several projects:

went through, sorted and organized an accumulation of old letters and greeting cards.

continued my ongoing magazine weeding project

decluttered my bathroom rolly cart

I'm steeling myself to tackle the kitchen! But one thing at a time.

Anyway, as you can see the past month has still been a busy and productive time and I'll be describing these efforts in greater detail in upcoming weeks.

But before I get to all that good stuff, I will talk about the charity check. Quite often an Exit Strategy for your clutter will involve donating the no-longer-needed items to a non-profit or charitable organization. So, I thought it would be helpful to discuss a couple of ways you can learn more about an organization to whom you have selected to donate your things.

More on all these topics soon!

A Fair & Square Send Off

I was poking around in one of my closets again, doing DeKlutter Assessment, that is, reconnaissance for possible, future deklutter projects. Ohhhhh, the forgotten things I found up on my closet shelves! Birthday presents for example! I called myself trying to be proactive so I wouldn't end up running around at the last minute, and then forgot they were up there! So, I probably ended up running around at the last minute, anyway! But that's a tale for another time.

Identify

Anyhow, while I was so engaged, I found another shoebox of fabric swatches!

If you recall, in Fabric Free, I talked about the swathes of fabric that I had accumulated when I belonged to not one, not two, but three fabric clubs(!) and that I had stashed this bonanza away up on a closet shelf, but that I finally managed to part with it (well most of it) by donating the fabric to Materials for the Arts. You may also recall that I had also accumulated the swatches (about 2" x 2" square) the fabric clubs would send once or twice a month, and that I had come across a whole shoebox full of them in another closet!

Gather

Well, I found another box of them this week! Yes I did.

What I didn't tell you, was that back when I found the first box, I was actually able to identify a new home for the them. Since I will be sending this more recently discovered stash to the same place, I thought it would be useful to share my Exit Strategy for these goodies, in case someone out there in the blogosphere finds themselves in a similar predicament. Don't look so skeptical. It could happen!

Unlike the lengths of fabric, I ended up sending the swatches somewhere else. A woman named Joyce, had posted a small classified ad at one of the reuse/recycle websites I frequent. Apparently she works at a senior center or a nursing home and she was looking for beads and "findings" to use the beading classes she teaches there. At the time, I wasn't exactly sure what "findings" were, but I decided to contact her about the fabric swatches to see if she might have any use for them. It turns out that she did!

They have various arts & crafts and sewing classes for the seniors and Joyce advised that they could use the swatches to make lap robes for people in wheelchairs at the nursing home. Having found this other box of them, I followed up with her to see if she could still use them and she assured me that she could.

As I also learned, findings are the different accent beads that are used in making jewelry. For example in a necklace, there may be five beads of one type, then an accent bead of another, to provide contrast. At the center, the seniors will take old necklaces apart, use the beads, and create something different. Even chain-type necklaces can be taken apart and the sections used in a new necklace. Earring wires and clip-ons are also considered to be findings.

I had some old necklaces I knew I was not going to wear again, so I threw those in along with the swatches. Joyce was very happy to receive everything.

Remove

I popped the fabric into a small mailer and headed to my favorite place, the post office!

So if have any old jewelry or necklaces that you don't want and don't know what to do with, send these items her way. She can definitely use them! Joyce can be reached at

tiredted [at] comporium [dot] net

New Tricks for Old Cell Phones: CollectiveGood

There are millions upon millions of cell phones either lying around collecting dust in people's homes, waiting to be recycled, or which may have already been tossed intot the trash. Millions more will be added to one of these three categories with each passing year. In A Tale of Two Computers, I talked about how recycling electronics was relatively easy compared to other items, because of the existence of numerous ways and opportunities to responsibly dispose of such gadgetry (also referred as "e-waste" or "technotrash", see Green Disk)".

There are

• periodically scheduled municipal drop-offs (see A Tale of Two Computers)
• manufacturer or retail store "take-backs". Check out
  • the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Plug-in Partners page
  • Staples' ambitious, recently launched program
• various non-profit organizations that collect them for recycling or that refurbish and redistribute them for use by others (throw the terms +"recycle" and +"cell phone" into your favorite search engine and take your pick)

So, I'll say it yet again:

There is really no good reason not to make the effort to responsibly dispose of your unwanted electronics!

Furthermore, cell phones as well as other electronic equipment, contain toxic materials such as lead, mercury, cadmium, and arsenic which the EPA has deemed to be hazardous waste. Therefore, simply throwing your cell phone into the trash is a bad move. If it ends up in a landfill those toxic materials can leach into the ground and seep into local water supplies. This is an even better reason to make the effort as much as possible, to responsibly dispose of your cell phone.

The existence or establishment of processes, policies or programs that facilitate and encourage consumers to responsibly dispose of a product at the end of its useful life is known as "product stewardship" or "extended product responsibility". This helps to minimize a product's impact on the environment. You can read more about this concept at the EPA's Extended Product Responsibility page.

Identify

Well, of course I had a couple of old cell phones taking up space and decided it was time to divest myself of them. One of the cell phones that I got rid of was what I fondly refer to as a Nokia brick, circa 1997, as opposed to today’s sleeker and infinitely more compact models. Check out these pictures at the Museumsstiftung Post und Telekommunication's Telefone 1863-2000 page, to get an idea of what it looked like! Now, when's the last time you saw anyone pull out a cell phone like that? Yet, Packrat that I am, I had one up until late last year.

GreenDisk, which I talked about in an earlier post, accepts a variety of electronic waste, including cell phones and PDA's. However, for the two cell phones that I was getting rid of, I decided to use another organization called CollectiveGood. They deal specifically with cell phones, PDA's, pagers and related accessories such as battery chargers, and say they accept all makes and models. In fact, they are partnered with Staples to handle the free recycling service for cellular phones, PDAs, pagers, digital cameras, and chargers that the store offers to customers (one component of Staple's big takeback program, which I mentioned above). CollectiveGood will refurbish this equipment for reuse, and will donate a portion of the resulting proceeds to charity. Anything they cannot refurbish will be properly recycled in accordance with the EPA's guidelines.

Gather

CollectiveGood's process was pretty simple, which as you know by now, is just the way I like it. At their site all you have to do is:

1. select a charity from one of those listed with CollectiveGood (your donation will be credited to this organization)
2. fill out and submit the online form with your contact information so you can receive an acknowledgement of your donation (takes about 10-12 weeks)
3. print the information/instructions that display once you submit this form and enclose it with your shipment to ensure that your selected charity is properly credited
4. pack up and send your phone(s) in accordance with those same instructions

Also note!: that whenever, wherever and however you end up donating or recycling a cell phone or similar device, just like a computer, you need to "prep" it. That is, you need to make sure that you have

• disconnected any services associated with the equipment that you are donating or discarding
• deleted, erased and/or removed any personal information on such devices (e.g., email addresses, telephone numbers, passwords, photos, etc)

otherwise you run the risk of incurring unauthorized charges or misuse of that personal information. You are responsible for any subsequent mishaps if you fail remove it, not the organization you or donating them to, or any subsequent recipients!!! You can read more about CollectiveGood's polices in this regard at their FAQ page.

The documentation that accompanied your cell phone should have information about how to clear this data from your phone. If by some chance you no longer have the manual (or can't find it) try visiting the manufacturer's website. WirelessRecycling.com, another cell phone recycling site (I've never used them) has a handy database for finding data removal instructions for a wide variety of cell phone manufacturers and models. Click on the "Erase Your Personal Data" link.

Remove

I sent each phone that I had at separate times, however, you can also send multiple items at once. Just make sure to pack them securely. I happened to still have the original boxes they came in, along with the manual and other peripherals that came with them (now, don't even act surprised!), so I packed everything back up in those,I then placed them inside of another cardboard box, just to be on the safe side.

All that was left after that, was to take myself off to the post office, and send them on their merry way.

The Exit Strategy Made Easier

A couple of weeks ago, I was poking around the NYC WasteLe$$ site and came across a page that I think is a very cool and invaluable tool for the Packrat. It's the NYC Stuff Exchange. According to the website:

This website offers a quick and simple way for NYC
residents to search for places in their neighborhood
and throughout the city where they can donate, sell,
buy, rent, or repair different types of gently used goods

But of particular interest is the Events Calendar!

What this means, is that for those of you in the NYC area, you can search for possible Exit Strategy opportunities from the comfort of your browser!

You can search

1. within the following four categories:
• donation drive
• rummage sale
• used book fair
• swap meet
2. within specific date ranges
3. by keyword

It will list the event, the date and time, and the sponsoring organization.

You can also click on the listing for more details such as the specific location of the event, contact information, a website if available, and a little blurb about the items being accepted.

Wowee! I think this is terrific!

Weeding

In the upcoming months I will be undertaking a variety of weeding projects.

What is this? Well, many deklutter projects involve getting rid of those things you no longer need or use, however you will still end up having to keep some stuff, just not as much of it! For example clothing, magazines, CDs, audio-cassettes (anyone remember mix tapes....!?) Things like that.

Weeding involves the same underlying drill (see Getting Started (Part 2)):

• Identify
• Gather
• and Remove

but is generally undertaken once you begin to tame or gain more control over your klutter. At this stage, it is no longer the overwhelming and undifferentiated mass of stuff it once was. It has hopefully become a little more organized or neater, making it easier to zero in and drill down on really specific deklutter projects.

For example, all those magazines you may have had are now in neat piles (or even better, magazine holders!) and in one area of the living room rather than scatted all over the house. You may have even already gotten rid of a lot of them, but there are still some left that you'd like to go through more closely. Perhaps there are individual articles you would still like to keep. Now you can!

Since I've had quite a bit of success in clearing a few larg-ish swathes of klutter (those extra computers for one thing! See A Tale of Two Computers), I can now begin to do "touch-up" work like this.

So, at my leisure, I will slowly be going through some of my stuff for a second round of cuts.

Stay tuned!