Most of us have stuff lying around our house that either doesn’t work properly or at all or is just no longer useful to us and you’re just counting down the days till you have the courage to toss it in the trash. It could be books, clothing, appliances, electronics, furniture, you name it. You know something needs to be done with it but you’re not sure what. If you’re hesitating, its probably because you think there might be some value in the stuff and you don’t want to be wasteful. So before you throw anything away or spend any money on replacing anything, ask yourself these 5 questions to make sure you’re getting all of the value out of what you have.
Question #1 – Is it returnable? Sometimes we buy things, after a couple of months they stop working, or maybe those shoes didn’t quite fit right when you tried to wear them even though you tried them on in the store – then we toss it aside and go buy something else to replace it. A little time passes and you think its probably too late to return it. But just check, because you might find that the items are still within the return window. A number of stores have 90-day return policies and you can get a refund with a receipt or you can make an even exchange of the product if you don’t have a receipt. And a lot of items particularly appliances and electronics come with 1 and 2 year manufacturer warranties and you can contact the manufacturer explain the problem and they will let you know if it warrants them repairing or replacing the item at no charge to you. So as a tip, you should always keep the receipts and manuals that come with your purchases.
Question #2 – Is it repairable? No matter what the item is that you’re thinking about tossing out, take a little time to consider a few things – can the item be fixed, do you have the ability to fix it yourself or learn how to fix it yourself and how much it would cost, how much it would cost to have someone else fix it for you and is the cost of repairing it is low enough compared to the cost of just replacing the item. My rule of thumb is don’t toss it and replace it, repair it and keep it – but only when it’s the most time and cost effective option.
Question #3 – Is it resellable? We have things like old laptops, appliances, cars that don’t work as well as they used to or don’t work at all and you’ve determined that it wouldn’t be worth it for you to pay for it to be updated or repaired. But that doesn’t mean that its not worth it to someone else. And there are people, organizations, companies who are willing to buy your old stuff and refurbish them or use them for parts or maybe your old version of something is new to them because they have any version of what you have. You can sell your used items at local flea markets or on Ebay or on Facebook Marketplace. You can even participate in a Trade-In program like Amazon’s where you can receive an Amazon.com Gift Card in exchange for a variety of used items like cell phones, Amazon Devices, video games. The gift card amount is dependent upon the trade-in value of the item and would just be credited to your Amazon account. And if you shop on Amazon like I do, that’s a good deal. Then you can just use the money or value you get from selling it or trading to help offset the cost of replacing the item. And -Bonus – did you know that in many areas, the electric company will give you money for your old refrigerator or freezer? About 5 years ago, someone we knew was giving away a stainless steel fridge. We had a refrigerator that worked already, but parts were falling off of it, it didn’t match our kitchen anymore, so we took the free one and just called our local electric company who not only came and picked up the old fridge, buy they paid us $75 for it! Check it out in your area!
Question #4 – Is it receivable? Maybe you don’t want to go through the process of listing items for sale and shipping them to customers or attending flea markets and selling your stuff for a profit. If what you have is still in decent condition, then the next question to ask is if its something that someone else would be glad to receive? You can give them to people you know – people you work with, people in your neighborhood. I’m good for cleaning and bagging up my kids clothes and giving them to people I know that have kids younger than mine. And over the years I’ve received countless clothing items, collections of children’s books and car seats from other people after their children have grown out of them. You can be a blessing to someone else with a variety of things that were once a blessing to you instead of throwing them away. And if you don’t know anyone that you can give those things to, you can find thrift stores, social service organizations and churches that take donations to make them available to the community.
Question #5 – So you’ve got this item and you’ve already asked all the other questions and found out you can’t return it, you decided that its not worth it to you to repair it or update it, you can’t seem to find anyone who wants to buy it from you, maybe its not even good enough to give away and you think its just time to throw it away. Think again and ask one more question – Is it Repurposeable? If you’ve watched more than one of my videos you already know my favorite way to avoid waste and spend less money is to repurpose. So even though you might have to spend money to replace that one item you’re getting rid of, you might be able to use that item to save you money by turning it into something else you need or want. You can repurpose all kinds of things from small home décor items and old socks to large pieces of furniture. You can take things apart, change the look, add things to it and make it useful in a new way that still meets a need you may have. If you need some inspiration for how to repurpose some of the things that you’re thinking about throwing away, check out this post on repurposing.
Then, when its all said and done, if you’ve concluded that its time to throw whatever it is away, just make sure you dispose of it properly. You can look online for where to take old electronics and appliances so they are recycled and safely disposed of at appropriate recycling facilities. If you have large furniture pieces, contact your area officials so you know where and how to place them for pick up on bulk trash days. And as you wave goodbye to your old stuff rolling away on the garbage truck, you will know, without any guilt, that you did all you could to avoid being wasteful, that you were careful and thoughtful about your spending, and you explored creative ways to find new value in what you already have.
