Resources

I thought it might be helpful to share some resources with you all to support you in your decluttering.

General Donation Pick-Up
There are a number of charities which will pick up donations.  A few years ago I cleaned out my attic and basement of all sorts of odd things which had accumulated.  Some of it was my stuff, some of it was from roommates who had moved out and left things behind.  It was a *crazy* amount of stuff, but I can't stress how awesome it was to have someone else pick it up and cart it away for me.

I used Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Boston as they had left a flyer on my door at one point. I was able to schedule the pick-up in advance and that gave me a few days to get my act together but also gave me a deadline.

You might want to schedule a donation pick-up for sometime in January - especially if you have some unwieldy items that might be difficult to move/transport on your own.  You can do a google search to find a local charity - or check out http://www.donationtown.org/.  You can enter your zip code and it will find charities that pick up in your area.

Electronics
Got some old electronics to get rid of but don't want to pay a fee?  Best Buy will take it all for free!  You can check out the details at their recycling website.

Cars
One of my favorite places to donate vehicles is Good News Garage which is a program of Lutheran Social Services of New England.  I encourage you to read about the great work they are doing.

Shredding Services
Iron Mountain provides secure shredding services.  They have partnered with a number of office supply stores to offer their services.  UPS, Staples, FedEx and Office Max are all partners.  Check with your local store to see if a particular location offers the service.  Or you can go to http://www.ironmountain.com/Partner-Search.aspx.

Medications:
If you have old medications to dispose of please review these handy guidelines: http://www.fda.gov/forconsumers/consumerupdates/ucm101653.htm.

Linens:
Many animal shelters appreciate blankets, towels and other linens to make cozy spaces for little furry friends.

Books:
Goodwill & Salvation Army will take books.  You can also take them to a used book store to get store credit or cash.  Typically, one will receive more in store credit than outright cash.  If you aren't going to just donate them to get the books out of the house, schedule an appointment to take the books in and then use the store credit at Christmas time to buy gifts for others!  Or, one could donate the store credit/gift card to a local school, library or other program.

Craigslist & Freecycle

You can put items out on the curb and post a "curb alert" in the Free Classified section to let folks know what items are there free for the taking.  This is good to do the day before trash day as whatever does not get picked up by other folks can then be picked up by curbside pick-up.

Freecycle https://www.freecycle.org/ is a place where you can post items you'd like to give away.  Others will contact you to come pick them up.  DO NOT get involved with this if you are unable to resist the temptation of "free" items.  You'll just end up hoarding more things...

If you have a specific item you'd like to donate somewhere and aren't sure how/where to go about it, let me know and I'll do some research for you!

Also, if you have other ideas and suggestions for donating or disposing of items, please leave them in the comments below.