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On-demand pick up of your unwanted items. $5 a bag

goodandtidy.com

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11–20 of 59 posts

Re: On-demand pick up of your unwanted items. $5 a bag

#11

Post by roywiggins »

Where I last lived, there was at least one charity that had free pickup by truck. Not on demand exactly, but they could take anything useful if it was boxed- or furniture. You could leave your stuff on the porch and they would shift it for you.

This seems strictly worse and very expensive if you want to get rid of any significant amount of stuff.

Re: On-demand pick up of your unwanted items. $5 a bag

#12

Post by verelo »

I'm struggling to find a privacy policy, is there one? This could be the cynic in me, but I feel there is more to learn from my unwanted items than almost any other data source (aside from my email?). Gaining information about people from what they discard is possibly a great business model, but I think the situation should be made clear in a privacy policy.

Edit: Changed trash to "unwanted items"

Re: On-demand pick up of your unwanted items. $5 a bag

#14

Post by imjk »

I live in Boston and literally just spend the better part of my day trying to make a donation. I packed everything up and dragged my stuff downstairs to the concierge desk in my building, walked 15 minutes to my parking garage to get my car, drove back to my building on a busy street and double parked to quickly load up the trunk. Then I drove what should have been a 10 minute drive to the Kenmore Square Goodwill but turned into a solid 30 min because of all the traffic from BU's graduation ceremony. When I got there, all the parking spots were blocked off and police were forcing traffic to keep flowing. I went around the block several times looking for parking before deciding it was pointless. I quickly Googled the next closest Goodwill store, which is in Jamica Plain, and decided to go there instead. There's no graduation in Jamaica Plain today but the Goodwill store there is also on the main road with very little parking...

Re: On-demand pick up of your unwanted items. $5 a bag

#15

Post by vinhboy »

I would use this. I have a bunch of old batteries, light bulbs, and random machine parts thats I been meaning to recycle but never get around to it. If these guys would properly recycle those things for me, I would pay more than $5 because I am trying to be conscious about what I put in the landfill.

Re: On-demand pick up of your unwanted items. $5 a bag

#16

Post by mmcwilliams »

imjk wrote: post #14

I live in Boston and literally just spend the better part of my day trying to make a donation. I packed everything up and dragged my stuff downstairs to the concierge desk in my building, walked 15 minutes to my parking garage to get my car, drove back to my building on a busy street and double parked to quickly load up the trunk. Then I drove what should have been a 10 minute drive to the Kenmore Square Goodwill but…

You can always donate to Boomerangs with a little more ease. They're a few buildings away from the Goodwill on Centre and you can pull into their back parking lot while you are dropping off. Cool store, too.

Re: On-demand pick up of your unwanted items. $5 a bag

#17

Post by dunham »

"Anything that fits into a bag."

I've got a propane torch, a fire extinguisher, various household cleaning supplies, and about 100 lb of ceramic tile to get rid of. And I have some 3 mil "contractor bags" than can handle more weight than I can carry.

My current plan is to drive the hazardous waste to recology. If someone could do it for me it'd be nice, but I'm not sure that's even legal. Still working out the tile thing. Not sure Habitat would want it. I've also got a bunch of paint, but I know where to take that.

Re: On-demand pick up of your unwanted items. $5 a bag

#18

Post by moot »

I just returned home from hauling most of my clothing to the local Goodwill. On a related note, I look forward to seeing more people wearing startup/conference t-shirts around NYC, since they comprised the lion's share of my wardrobe...

I've been researching these services for the past few weeks since I've committed myself to liquidating most of my belongings (I live in a small apartment with no closets -- thanks New York! -- and was inspired by this blog post: http://www.raptitude.com/2011/01/i-dont-want-stuff-any-more-...), and would prefer to see them in the hands of friends and those in need rather than a landfill.

Does anyone have recommendations for where/how to donate more valuable items? For example, I want to donate an expensive drone I never use, but would prefer to see it go to a classroom/after-school program. Thinking I'll search DonorsChoose.org and offer things to teachers, but is there another service?

Re: On-demand pick up of your unwanted items. $5 a bag

#20

Post by mrestko »

dunham wrote: post #17

"Anything that fits into a bag." I've got a propane torch, a fire extinguisher, various household cleaning supplies, and about 100 lb of ceramic tile to get rid of. And I have some 3 mil "contractor bags" than can handle more weight than I can carry. My current plan is to drive the hazardous waste to recology. If someone could do it for me it'd be nice, but I'm not sure that's even legal. Still working out the tile t…

Latex paint can usually be disposed of in normal garbage. Just open the cans and let the paint dry out first.
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