Is your home starting to feel cluttered and cramped? Are you finding it difficult to find open storage space in your closets and cabinets? For a lot of people, the accumulation of stuff is inevitable since they deem it necessary to buy new things to replace items they’ve broken or outgrown, or to upgrade certain things—like electronics and gadgets—which will allow them to keep up with the times. However, all that stuff that have been replaced often don’t end up leaving the house. Instead, they clutter up the home as they’re shoved into every inch of available real estate, taking up valuable space in even the most obscure of corners. This 2020, give yourself and your family some room to breathe with these 5 ways to deal with all of the things you’ve collected over the years.
Put Them through the 4 R’s: Repair, Restore, Reuse, Repurpose
With a bit of elbow grease, determination, and imagination, everything old can become new again after a fashion. You can extend the lifespan of old and worn furniture by having them repaired, resprung, or reupholstered with new covers—a process that will cost you significantly less than buying all-new furniture. Other items that have outlived their original use may still be repurposed: glass jars can make for trendy drinkware, used as flower vases, or made to hold homemade candles, while old clothing and textiles can be made into quilts or repurposed as rags for cleaning around the house or in the garage.
Call a Rubbish Removal Service
Melbourne residential ratepayers are entitled to one free hard waste collection each year. Up to one cubic metre of hard waste can simply be left at the kerbside to be collected the next day. The end of the year could be a good time to put out all of your household white goods and broken appliances, as well as any furniture beyond repair, old mattresses, sofas and even barbecue grills you don’t use anymore.
If you’ve already used up your collection allowance for 2019 but still have old things you’d like to dispose of, it may be necessary to hire the services of a rubbish removal Melbourne contractor. These haulers are often full-service operations that will do the cleaning and loading for you before dumping the junk at the proper facilities.
Offload Them onto Friends and Family
One of the easier ways to get rid of things you no longer want in your home that are still in an acceptable condition is to give them away to friends or family members in need. Have a young cousin moving into his first apartment? He’s going to need some furniture and appliances! Does your mother-in-law need a washing machine? If yours is still good but you’d like to spring for a new model, why not let her have the old one?
If your loved ones are all settled up, you can still get rid of unwanted items in your home by listing them online on a site like Craigslist or by offering them up to strangers. You can negotiate to have these items picked up and hauled away at your convenience or arrange for a mover to transport them to their new home at the other person’s expense. Avoid leaving bulky items at the kerb, though, as this can net you an illegal dumping fine.
Give Them Away to Charitable Organisations
Charities and homeless shelters are always on the lookout for more donations, and your old things can become someone else’s treasure. For instance, you can donate furniture to organisations such as the Brotherhood of St. Laurence, West Welcome Wagon, or Family Life in Melbourne. Have a pile of shoes you no longer use cluttering up your shelves? They can still bring joy to someone else if you donate them to Shoes for Planet Earth, an Australian non-profit organisation that can transport them to crisis centres, orphanages, indigenous community sporting groups, and flood and disaster victims.
There’s a non-profit organisation that will be happy to take your old stuff—from bras, cosmetics, bags and work clothes to old mobile phones, computers and other electronics, and bedding and blankets. Many of them have multiple collection points around Melbourne, and all you have to do is look them up and drop your donations off.
Make Some Money off Them
You can quite literally turn your trash back to treasure by putting your old items up for sale if you’d rather not give them away. This way, you can recoup a bit of your investment and put it towards new things. Put together a garage sale, sell the items off to thrift shops, or list them online on popular sites such as Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree.
Start 2020 off right with a clean slate by responsibly disposing of your unwanted items. You’ll be able to enjoy your home more and begin the decade with a clear conscience!
Photo by Samantha Gades on Unsplash
