Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Get-Rid-Of-Crap-Every-Month Club

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 120 posts

Re: The Get-Rid-Of-Crap-Every-Month Club

#31

Post by mixedbit »

Lewisham wrote: post #5

I do this all the time with Amazon's Trade-In Program. A couple of times a year, I look at my book shelf and video games. If I haven't read/played them within the last 6 months, and have no compelling reason to hold onto them for the foreseeable 6 months, into the box they go. Amazon then gives me a pre-paid shipping label. I find the whole process enjoyable. "How much will Amazon give me for this?" is an exciting ga…

Nice approach. I personally can't force myself to get rid of books that I've read, which is not very rational, because I very rarely reread books. But other stuff I try to get rid of, or not buy at all.

Re: The Get-Rid-Of-Crap-Every-Month Club

#32

Post by tenpoundhammer »

My problem is trying to cull the wheat from the chaff. I have so much crap and so many things mixed in with it that I don't have time to make sure I'm not throwing out my children’s baby pictures with my junk.

But this could definitely solve part of the problem, and provide some well needed motivation.

Re: The Get-Rid-Of-Crap-Every-Month Club

#33

Post by joecurry »

mixedbit wrote: post #31
Lewisham wrote: post #5

I do this all the time with Amazon's Trade-In Program. A couple of times a year, I look at my book shelf and video games. If I haven't read/played them within the last 6 months, and have no compelling reason to hold onto them for the foreseeable 6 months, into the box they go. Amazon then gives me a pre-paid shipping label. I find the whole process enjoyable. "How much will Amazon give me for this?" is an exciting ga…

Nice approach. I personally can't force myself to get rid of books that I've read, which is not very rational, because I very rarely reread books. But other stuff I try to get rid of, or not buy at all.

Extremely interested in this idea - I've gotten to the point of pricing out FedEx-Kinko's to cut the bindings off ($1/ book actually) and then scanning them dual-sided into Evernote with searchable text (if you're a Pro member it scans inside PDFs).

Still can get past the cognitive dissonance of letting my bookshelf go.

Re: The Get-Rid-Of-Crap-Every-Month Club

#34

Post by incision »

benguild wrote: post #11
Lewisham wrote: post #5

I do this all the time with Amazon's Trade-In Program. A couple of times a year, I look at my book shelf and video games. If I haven't read/played them within the last 6 months, and have no compelling reason to hold onto them for the foreseeable 6 months, into the box they go. Amazon then gives me a pre-paid shipping label. I find the whole process enjoyable. "How much will Amazon give me for this?" is an exciting ga…

You can make a little bit more money by shipping them to Fulfilled By Amazon and selling them at a higher price with Amazon Prime. It's great for things that people don't buy enough to warrant their trade-in program, and there's the risk of the occasional return, but it gets it all out of your house with really cheap shipping.

Good idea.

I make a point to check to see if any used, Fulfilled by Amazon copies are available when I'm about to buy a book.

It's used pricing and the weight of Amazon behind the purchase without the cost of shipping thanks to my Prime membership.

Re: The Get-Rid-Of-Crap-Every-Month Club

#35

Post by anigbrowl »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #13

> The cost of postage and the check along with all the processing costs are covered from the money generated from sales of valuable crap. Remember: one man’s crap is another man’s treasure. And yet, Goodwill doesn't hand out $10 checks for every donation. I suspect that the money earned from selling "another man's treasure" will rapidly decline. At first, you'll have the type of people we imagine other HN readers sen…

things that I'd send in - desk lamps that are 99% functional, but don't quite bend in the angle that you want. Paperbacks that have been dropped into a puddle one too many times. An old thermos.

I find this strangely endearing.

Re: The Get-Rid-Of-Crap-Every-Month Club

#36

Post by cpeterso »

joecurry wrote: post #33
mixedbit wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice approach. I personally can't force myself to get rid of books that I've read, which is not very rational, because I very rarely reread books. But other stuff I try to get rid of, or not buy at all.

Extremely interested in this idea - I've gotten to the point of pricing out FedEx-Kinko's to cut the bindings off ($1/ book actually) and then scanning them dual-sided into Evernote with searchable text (if you're a Pro member it scans inside PDFs). Still can get past the cognitive dissonance of letting my bookshelf go.

Or you could sell the books and use the proceeds to buy an e-book PDF of the same book. :)

Re: The Get-Rid-Of-Crap-Every-Month Club

#37

Post by rythie »

I think to make this stick you need to stop net accumulating stuff, for example:

- Have a one-in-one out policy on gadgets, clothes, toys, games etc.

- Don't buy DVD/BluRays (only rent or stream), CDs (Spotify/iTunes) or Books (Kindle) etc. (or use one in one out)

- Go paperless with your bills

Re: The Get-Rid-Of-Crap-Every-Month Club

#38

Post by Dove »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #13

> The cost of postage and the check along with all the processing costs are covered from the money generated from sales of valuable crap. Remember: one man’s crap is another man’s treasure. And yet, Goodwill doesn't hand out $10 checks for every donation. I suspect that the money earned from selling "another man's treasure" will rapidly decline. At first, you'll have the type of people we imagine other HN readers sen…

I used to work at a thrift store. The amount of value we could extract from the average box of stuff dropped off to donate . . . was nowhere near $10. In fact, a lot of it couldn't be sold at all -- it just got thrown away.

Broken toys, clothes with holes, dirty shoes, smoke-damaged, water-damaged, and just plain damaged stuff. Ugly nick-nacks, beat up plastic cups, dated books no one wants to read. We got so many tins and baskets! Everyone gets them full of cookies or gifts, no one wants to throw them away, and no one actually has a use for them.

My co-worker and I did the master sorting -- sending stuff to different departments or to the trash. I saw it all. Her summary? "People send us their garbage!"

And that's the stuff that people could be bothered to drive to the store, look a person in the eye, and drop off without too much embarrassment. This was stuff they genuinely thought was valuable.

A box you can fill with crap from your garage?

Well.

Paying $1 for that sight unseen is probably too much. $10 plus postage is . . . endearingly naive.

Re: The Get-Rid-Of-Crap-Every-Month Club

#39

Post by cpeterso »

Lewisham wrote: post #5

I do this all the time with Amazon's Trade-In Program. A couple of times a year, I look at my book shelf and video games. If I haven't read/played them within the last 6 months, and have no compelling reason to hold onto them for the foreseeable 6 months, into the box they go. Amazon then gives me a pre-paid shipping label. I find the whole process enjoyable. "How much will Amazon give me for this?" is an exciting ga…

Thanks! I had no idea Amazon did this.

The FAQ says they buy textbooks, but the page shows recent non-textbook books I've purchased as items I could "get up to $10.98". Have you sold books before? I usually sell my books to my local Half Price Books, but they pay a pittance.

Re: The Get-Rid-Of-Crap-Every-Month Club

#40

Post by bumbledraven »

cpeterso wrote: post #39
Lewisham wrote: post #5

I do this all the time with Amazon's Trade-In Program. A couple of times a year, I look at my book shelf and video games. If I haven't read/played them within the last 6 months, and have no compelling reason to hold onto them for the foreseeable 6 months, into the box they go. Amazon then gives me a pre-paid shipping label. I find the whole process enjoyable. "How much will Amazon give me for this?" is an exciting ga…

Thanks! I had no idea Amazon did this. The FAQ says they buy textbooks, but the page shows recent non-textbook books I've purchased as items I could "get up to $10.98". Have you sold books before? I usually sell my books to my local Half Price Books, but they pay a pittance.

I sold 50 or so of my books through Amazon when I moved. I usually got a great price through the trade-in program, which is nice because you get paid as soon as they receive the book from you, but if I didn't think the trade-in price was high enough, I just sold it through the Amazon seller program. This is a service where you ship your books to them, name the price you're willing to sell each one for, they warehouse them for you, and when someone buys one they ship it out and cut you a check. Pretty great.
Post reply on HN