This is the perfect time to move your bounty forward – Here are a few tips to help you clear your clutter, donate to your favorite charity and dispose of hazardous eWaste responsibly.

Appliances 

When you get a new appliance to replace the old, make sure to let go of your old one!

Old Electronics

Recycle at your local Goodwill. This helps the environment and your community

The Dell Reconnect Program - Dell is the first major computer manufacturer to ban the export of non-working electronics to developing countries as part of its global policy on responsible electronics disposal.

Reconnect has recycled nearly 96 million pounds of computer equipment to date.

What they recycle:

Monitors

Computers (Desktop & Laptop)

Printers

Scanners

Hard Drives

Keyboards

Speakers

Cords & Cables

Ink & Toner Cartridges

Software

Xbox®

Microsoft Zune®

Televisions

Cell Phones

Appliances

Electrical Cords 

If you end up in that box of electrical cords do a quick assessment. Are all of the electric and electronic gadgets you own hooked up and working? If so, you can let go and donate your jumble of old cords.

Dead Batteries 

The SD County Library system recycles old batteries. Collect them in a bin and take them to your local library. If you live outside of this area, check this website to find out where you can recycle.

Prior to dropping off the batteries, residents should cover the positive ends of the batteries with tape and place them in a sealed plastic bag.

Lightbulbs

Bring in a sealed bag with your old lightbulbs to your local IKEA for recycling. They can even be donated once broken.

Your old bulbs go through a separation process into glass, powder and mercury. Separated mercury goes through a process of triple distillation which takes away all contamination (mercury has a tendency to attract other materials).

After the triple distillation is finished the mercury is reused.

Boxes and Old Gift Wrap

Don’t just throw in your regular trash bin, Recycle them!

Peanuts, foam packing nuts

Take these to your local pack and ship store. This helps support local business and recycles at the same time.

Hangars 

Metal - Take to your local dry cleaner. Supports local business and keeps them out of landfills.

Plastic - donate to your favorite charity

Old Cell Phones 

Domestic violence programs accept old cell phones. The Hopelines program through Verizon also brings old cell phones to those in need.

Treecycling

Artificial Christmas trees have a negative effect to our environment. They are manufactured with PVC which is a non-biodegradable, petroleum-derived plastic. In addition, many older tree varieties may contain lead.

The Christmas tree industry employs more than 100,000 Americans and now almost every community in the US recycles live trees after the holidays into mulch.

Old Holiday Cards – My personal favorite!

St. Jude’s Ranch Recycled Card Program, which benefits the St. Jude’s Ranch for Children. Launched more than 30 years ago as a thank-you to donors by using the previous year’s Christmas cards to turn them into “new” cards, the special cards are sold to raise money for the ranch’s programs. People from all over the world send their used greeting cards for all occasions.

Children at St. Jude’s Ranch learn entrepreneurship skills and participate in making the new cards by removing the front and attaching a new back so that customers receive “green” holiday cards for their use.

The address is St. Jude’s Ranch for Children, Recycled Card Program, 100 St. Jude’s St., Boulder City, NV 89005, and the phone number (877) 977-7572.

Other Recycling Tips

If you dont see the recycling location you need, check out www.earth911.com

One of the biggest contributors to paper clutter is the amount of reading material that people collect on a regular basis. It can become overwhelming knowing what to do with all of it. The suggestions below are meant to help you deal with the reading material by having a plan and systems in place to manage it.

• Take your name off of catalog lists by going to www.catalogchoice.org. Control the catalogs, coupons, credit offers, phone books, fliers, circulars, newsletters, and other unsolicited mail you receive.
• Manage your magazine subscriptions by first deciding if you really want to receive all of them. Ask yourself, “Do I have the time to read them?” If they are piling up then you can probably answer no to this question. If you see that you can’t keep up with the reading, cancel the subscription.
• Decide on a plan to tackle the reading of your magazines. When the new issue comes in, throw out the oldest one. Keep moving them on a rotating basis so that you can easily manage and read what comes in.
• If you like to save articles for future reference, clip out just the important article and throw the rest of the magazine away. Have a system to contain the articles such as a folder or binder.
• If you keep lots of books for reference, periodically go through them and get rid of (donate to your local library and get a tax deduction) the ones that are no longer useful to you. This can be applied to fiction books as well. Many places have book exchanges that would welcome gently used books.
• To easily manage your book collection, put like topics together. You can go even further by alphabetizing them by author’s last name.
• To manage your paper mail, put items that you need to read through more carefully into a folder and decide on a time and place to read the material. Take action on the information and/or throw it away after you have read it.
• If you print out a lot of information from your computer to read, again contain it in a folder and decide on a place and time to read through it more carefully. This folder can be labeled and kept on your desk.
• Another great idea for busy people who have little time to read because of their daily schedules or activities, is to take your reading folder with you when you go on errands, especially to doctors’ appointments. The down time you have to wait for the appointment to begin can be easily used to catch up on reading material.

Planning ahead and creating systems for your reading material is crucial to feeling in control of all that you receive. Take time to set up your system before the piles begin.

This article was written by Barbara Boone from Your Productivity Solution

Situation
This client loved to read and had a massive collection of books. She had so many that they did not fit on her floor to ceiling, wall to wall bookshelf. This caused many books to wind up on the floor and surrounding surfaces, ready to topple at any given moment. There were also too many papers scattered on the floor that could easily make this elderly woman slip and fall.

Solution
We reorganized the existing bookshelf so that it could hold the maximum amount of books. After that we cleared out as many books as necessary to make it a safe environment. We donated all excess books to the local library. They were ecstatic to receive so many books that were in such excellent condition.

Keep this in mind for your old books – libraries will either  add  your titles to their catalog or sell them at their bookstore to collect money for newer titles.