
I love the idea Spring Cleaning.
While the calendar turns over at the end of December, I’ve always felt that the spiritual new year begins in the spring.
Bud are appearing on trees, neighbors are out walking, windows are open, and clocks are turning, which means it’s time for decluttering.
I love a good purge. Nothing rejuvenates me more than going through all the closets, drawers, and storage containers in my house and ruthlessly dispatching items that have outlived their usefulness.
Then comes the most critical part of the process—you have to get the stuff you no longer want out of your house, and you have to do it fast.
There’s nothing more annoying than spending a weekend decluttering, only to find yourself tripping over the piles of stuff you’ve marked for removal. If you don’t act quickly, you’ll find yourself going back through the pile and reconsidering whether you really should get rid of the sweat stained t-shirt from your freshman year of high school, twenty-seven ChapSticks that are so worn down you can’t get the stuff on your lips, or the return address labels from a place you no longer live.
If the items are broken, torn, unusable, or unfixable, it’s easy. You toss them into the recycling or trash bins, drag them to the curb on the appropriate day and wash your hands of them. Clothes, shoes, and blankets with life in them take only slightly more effort—bag them up and donate or sell them to your local Goodwill, second-hand shop, or animal shelter. Make a little cash or a least feel good that you’re moving them out of your closet and into the hands of someone who can use them.
Then we get to electronics.
Old cellphones, laptops, computers, televisions, monitors.
All I can say is, good luck.
As of last weekend, I still had every cell phone I’d ever purchased, all the way back to my initial silver flip phone that was the height of cool back in 2004. Most are so old they have zero value on the resale market. I found a place to donate the flip phones that recycled and reused them, but I was wary of my oldest smartphones—they had personal data on them, and I’d lost their chargers, so I couldn’t turn them on to wipe them.
I ended up buying a tiny little screwdriver to open them up and pulled out the motherboards. I smashed up the motherboards, then donated the rest of the phone.
I have no idea if this was overkill or not enough in terms of protecting my privacy.
But I did feel better.
Desktop and laptop computers are easy—they can be resold or donated.
But I have an old television and a computer monitor that no longer work.
Since the last time I needed to get rid of these types of items, apparently Pennsylvania has enacted strict recycling rules to protect the environment. I’ve got no beef with recycling or protecting the environment. But one of the (likely unintended) consequences of these laws is that it’s impossible to find a convenient place to donate or recycle these items.
None of the places that took my phones and laptops would touch the monitor or television. Each gave me the name of a place where I could take my items and pay to have them recycled. I called each of these places and found them out of business, or open for only one day every three months for collection.
And after seven days of trying to get rid of them, I was beginning to think they’d be with me until the day I died…and possibly buried with me.
Eventually, I found a place in downtown Pittsburgh that accepts such items—for a fee—and is open for about two hours a week and requires an appointment.
So I’ll be going down there at two in the afternoon this Sunday, emptying my trunk and wallet to dispose of these items.
Then—and only then—will my Spring Cleaning be complete.
Yup, we’re on the same (rubbish) tip here; they’ve made it impossible to visit a recycling centre without an appointment and proof of residence, so that should stop the ‘save the planet’ movement in its tracks! Pesky recyclers! Who needs their do-gooding! We’ve clearly got all the resources we need, right?
Do these bags have bodies in them? I can clearly see a shoe…
A torso there and a forearm there. . . .
I think the one on the left above the computer tower has the dismembered head, t seem to have a hat on it.
Oh, so Melanie is the one that bagged the head of Boba Fett for Jabba.
I know nothing about Boba Fett.
Hahahaha. Alrighty, then. There we go!
Yeah! It does look like a fedora under there!
There’s nothing like three people in three different countries discussing a photo of someone else’s binbags. This is the internet!
We were born for this!
Yes and only on the internet would I be questioned as to the authenticity of my trash photos!
Come come, I’m hearing many fan theories that these bin bags are computer generated, and not at all convincing. But I’m hoping to use this image for a new website I’m developing for people to share images of and talk about garbage. Working title; Binstagram.
Chargers are the worst! Manufacturers keep changing the male-female ends from model-to-model so no charger or power pack can be used on another. (If Andy Rooney was around, he’d do a “60 Minutes” segment about it!) Sometimes I’d get lucky in second hand stores: one had an actual bin filled with chargers, packs and transformers (9v, 12v, or whatever volt!) for printers, you name it.
Spring cleaning: I time that event around our town’s “Electronics Recycling Day” events twice a year. They’ll also take paint, dead extinguishers and propane grill tanks, and other various chemicals, as well. I’m the official family hauler of the bio-hazards! (The town, in return, gives you city-official pads of paper and pens, n’ pencils, a refrigerator magnet, a calendar, and a couple logo-canvas tote bags for your trouble.)
Televisions: I have a few family members kicking themselves for cleaning out their emergency TVs when analog stations went kaput. Now, with over-the-air digital TV, those old emergency/battery TVs will work, to a degree: no subchannels, but still great for the main channels.
Oh, I was wondering: Is that a stock photo or your actual junk n’ trash?
I guess we won’t get a firm answer until Interpol sign off on it.
Haha, okay…..these are indeed my real trash bags….some are for donation and some are to be junked. That cowboy hat I haven’t worn in ages and is off to the donation center….I kept the cowboy boots.
There are no body parts in there and nobody can prove any different as I’ve already destroyed the evidence—ahem, I mean disposed of the body–I mean taken them to the landfill and donation center!
Oh, we NEED to see this “C&W Night” photo (I’m assuming) of you in the cowboy hat and boots!
P.S. The fine folks at Film Authority can explain the errant Boba Fett reference.
I’ve heard the words “Book of Boba Fett” but their meaning is beyond me!
As to the hat in question, you can see it in action here:
https://melanienovak.com/2018/04/22/the-ham-sandwich-from-heaven/
though the boots are missing……
How can you bear to throw out the hat?? All those happy memories of doing the Fuzzy Duck Slide in ye olde saloon!
Honestly, I shouldn’t have found that picture. I’m sort of regretting giving it away and it’s already gone…. maybe I can buy it back from the donation center!
You gave the photo away??? 😲 and the hat?? 😳 You need an intervention!
Just the hat! I still have the photo. Don’t think I’ve worn the hat since that photo was taken
But you still have the boots right?
Still have the boots! The hat was a knock off, the boots are the read deal 🙂
Oh, man. That’s kills it!
Nothing compares to the Route 66-styled kitsch of bipedal horses.
This all jumped up a notch.