61–70 of 120 posts
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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.
Never get rid of books. I got rid of a lot of mine and thoroughly regret it. Why? I now have children who want to read them.
This treats the symptoms, not the cause. The ultimate solution is buying less shit and buying what you do need local and used (usually on Craigslist). If you do this, you get these great benefits: 1. You prevent all the waste included in manufacturing new shit 2. You can usually sell it later for about what you paid for it 3. Since you usually have to shop quite a bit to find what you need, it eliminates the highly a…
Or just let people decide what's worth buying for themselves. If they decide they'll get utility out of it, great. If not, then they don't have to buy it. No need to foist your desires on others.
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You can write off Goodwill donations for tax deductions
Sure, but that's not Goodwill giving you straight cash - the point being that any given box typically does not contain $10+ worth of stuff.
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 may check out the Amazon Trade In option mentioned upthread.
> 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 ti…
This treats the symptoms, not the cause. The ultimate solution is buying less shit and buying what you do need local and used (usually on Craigslist). If you do this, you get these great benefits: 1. You prevent all the waste included in manufacturing new shit 2. You can usually sell it later for about what you paid for it 3. Since you usually have to shop quite a bit to find what you need, it eliminates the highly a…
But even if you treat the cause, these symptoms won't disappear...
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The ultimate solution is buying less shit Unfortunately some of us have relatives who insist on gifting us shit, regardless of how tactfully we try to ask them not to. I'd love to join a club like this. (Right now Goodwill suffices, but there's definitely non-cheap stuff we give away just because we don't have time to deal with it.)
Craigslist the non-cheap stuff. It only takes a few minutes to post something there (less time than going to Goodwill, probably), and you'll get some cash. But yeah, the gifting culture drives me kind of bonkers too. I intend to establish Gift Truces with as many people in my life as possible come January 1st of 2014 (since, mathematically, I should be even with most people at that point). Or, if a person won't go fo…
I think its a nice idea, the core problem is what others have identified: people will send crap. What about charging people $120 / year to sign up? and then they get their $10 /month back. No one will make money, but if you're motivated by helping out, and by relieving yourself of crap, it still could be worthwhile. And there's still tax write-offs (if it's made as a charitable org).
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