How to get rid of your stuff (and find some great bargains)

Summer 2003 is here. People are shedding clothes, dogs are shedding fur, businesses are shedding employees, and maybe, when you look at the stuff bulging out of your closets, you are shedding some of your worldly possessions. Maybe, for those of you reeling behind the one-two punch of Bush-Pawlenty, the brutal assault of federal tax cuts for the rich and state budget cuts for the poor find you facing a metro area with a whole lot of people in a whole lot of need. Then again, maybe you finally came to grips with the fact that you look like a dork in that Shaft-wannabe pleather coat.

Hopefully, some of the donation resources listed will make your mission easier; apologies to those fine organizations that have been unintentionally left out. You’ll find some old tried and true places listed here (Salvation Army), and also a few new resources on the scene (just who is the Green Guardian, anyway?). Although the focus is how to get your unwanted stuff (or “gently used items,” as they say) into the hands of those who want or need it, there are also plenty of places listed where you can find some great stuff for cheap. (For example, read on to find out about the U of M ReUse Program Warehouse, a best-kept-secret for broke college students and fancy-pants antique dealers alike.)

Oh, and before we get started, please remember that some of the places listed must spend thousands of dollars every year having garbage hauled away that people “donated.” Broken toys, furniture and electronics shouldn’t be donated, they should be recycled (if possible) or trashed. Stained and ripped clothes can be converted into rags, but shouldn’t be donated. Several organizations specifically mentioned to please spread the word on this; it’s probably how the word “gently” has been added to “used items” in recent years.

Now on with the reuse show!

Drop-offs & Curbside Pickups

Who ya gonna call if you need help finding places that take charitable donations? United Way 211 is an invaluable resource for locating social service agencies and is a clearinghouse for charitable donations. “Anyone in the 12-county metro area can call by dialing 2-1-1 and be directed to one of over 20,000 services in the Twin Cities,” says Denise Stahura, Director of Marketing for the Greater Twin Cities United Way. “To find the best place for donating gently used items, dial 2-1-1 and the service representative will ask you what you want to donate, where you live, and whether or not it’s more convenient to drop the item off or have it picked up outside your home.”

If you don’t leave the house because that whole Code Orange-duct tape thing is still freaking you out, grab the phone and call these places for curbside pickup. Be sure to double check about what they do and do not take and where and how they want it left outside. Call ahead, because some of these organizations even take small appliances.
•Salvation Army, 612-332-5855.
•Disabled Vets, 651-292-1707.
•Vietnam Veterans of America, 651-778-8387.
•The Arc of Hennepin County, 612-866-8820.
•Epilepsy Foundation, 651-641-0011.

“We were the first organization that came up with the thrift store concept, and have kept on doing it for over 100 years,” says Society of St. Vincent de Paul Executive Director Ed Koerner. “Our charter in St. Paul is dated 1856. We try to work as the middleman; we take from the people with too much and give to the people who don’t have anything.” Call the number listed above for their three locations. (St. Vincent de Paul is also starting a book collection project. Even old text books are being accepted, oftentimes to be shipped down to Mexico, Central and South America.)
• Salvation Army, 612-332-5855
• Bridging, 952-888-1105.
• St. Vincent de Paul, 651-602-0478.

The big daddy of them all is Goodwill Industries/Easter Seals Minnesota, 651-646-2591 with 13 stores in the metro area. No personal care products or large appliances, please. There are several Savers stores around, too; you can call the St. Paul and Minneapolis stores at 651-488-6293/612-729-9271.

Getting rid of computers

Computers are kind of tough to get rid of. Nonprofits and schools are getting savvy and don’t want any old clunker, but you shouldn’t just trash computers because of the toxic materials inside. Please call the following businesses and organizations for specific items accepted and to see if there is a small recycling fee.
•St. Vincent de Paul 651-602-0478
•Asset Recovery Corp 651-602-0789
•Waste Management Electronic Recycling Drop-off 651-774-1311
•Terra Tech Computer Recycling/ Computer Graveyard 651-771-2636.

Terra Tech Owner Fred Hedervare says they will even do pick up sometimes. “We’re an environmentally friendly company and do our best to get rid of the stuff for people.” Worried that John Ashcroft might make a play for your hard drive? Fear not. “We format the hard drive seven times so that the information is completely gone,” Mr. Hedervare says.

Building and landscaping Materials

In the course of the victory over locating a garbage transfer station in their area, residents of the Phillips neighborhood in South Minneapolis learned a great deal about solid waste management and their ability to create economic opportunity.
The ReUse Center store at 2216 East Lake Street (in the same strip mall as Savers and across the street from the Midtown Farmers Market!) emerged from this experience. Give them a call at 612-724-2608. The ReUse Center sells salvaged, reusable building materials such as doors, windows, cabinets, plumbing fixtures, lumber, millwork, metals, flooring, every variety of hardware and more. That equates to hundreds of thousands of tons of reusable construction materials kept out of our alleys, off the streets, and ultimately, out of landfills.

Amazing Online Resource for Organizations

If you are a business, nonprofit, church, school—basically an entity considered “non-individual,” the Minnesota Materials Exchange (www.mnexchange.org • 612-624-1300) is THE place for you to post the stuff you want to unload. The Minnesota Materials Exchange program is a free service that links organizations that have reusable goods they no longer need to those who can use them.

In the last five years, the Materials Exchange program has helped businesses save over $2 million and exchange 5.88 million pounds of material.

Coordinator Barb Nesheim gave an example of how the system works: “Recently a large health care organization was getting all new cash registers and needed to get rid of their used ones. They called us up and we posted the information on our site. Then, when a business or organization needs registers, they get the information from us and then make arrangements directly with the health care organization to pick the registers up.”

Anybody can scroll down the hundreds of listings and learn about contacting an organization about their items; the listing will indicate whether the items are free or if a small payment is required. Items often go quickly; when you create a listing for your donation, your listing will be included on the Web site and in the newest listings e-mail. The e-mail generates a lot of interest after it goes out to approximately 1,500 people throughout the state.

“People need to realize that we don’t have a warehouse or a big physical space to store things,” Ms. Nesheim emphasized. “We’re just sitting in our little cubicles here, and don’t have anywhere to take or put stuff. Using our services, we simply match up businesses and organizations trying to get rid of surplus items with organizations and individuals who want them.”

Most common items? “We do a lot of office furniture,” says Ms. Nesheim. “People call up and want to get rid of one desk, 10 desks, a set of 20 desks. We also have a lot of packing materials—bubble wrap, packing peanuts, boxes, drums, and pallets.”

Weirdest things registered? “A bridge. Ten five-gallon buckets of glue. We had a call once from somebody with 800 bowling balls to get rid of, and another from a guy with 12 million drinking straws.”

Amazing Online Resource for Individuals

The Twin Cities Free Market (www.twincitiesfreemarket.org) is an absolute gold mine for getting rid of things and finding things. For free. This is a project through Eureka Recycling, which manages the recycling program for St. Paul, Anoka and Washington County residents. The motto of the Twin Cities Free Market is “Save money, save the earth, make someone’s day.” Warning: One browse through this site, and you may become addicted. Who knows what cool stuff is going to be available free tomorrow?

Here is how it works: You get on the Web site and see what items people are looking for or what items people have to give away, and how to reach them so you can make an exchange. You can also add your wanted or available items to the list right on the Web, so you can be contacted when the item you want becomes available, or when they find a person who wants the item you want to give away.

Note from the writer: A few months ago, after unwrapping my house from its cocoon of plastic tarp and duct tape, I decided to give away five pieces of sheet rock laying in the basement. I posted them on the free market Web site and within 48 hours an old guy with a pickup came and helped me haul the sheet rock up and out of my house and into his truck. He was happy, I was happy. I called the Free market and asked them to take my posting off the list—mission accomplished.

The listings are as follows: Appliances, children’s items, electronics, furniture, home decor, home renovation, lawn & garden, musical instruments, pet equipment, and recreation & exercise.

Amazing Bring-it-all-together Online Resource

Who is that little green dude anyway? GreenGuardian.com was launched in 2003 to help citizens living in the six-county Twin Cities metro area (the counties of Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey and Washington) understand the urgent need to make environmentally-responsible purchasing and disposal decisions in their daily lives. Believe it or not, the six-county region generates more than three million tons of solid waste per year, about seven pounds per person per day. (Read that sentence a couple more times for optimal effect.) GreenGuardian.com is sponsored by the metro region’s Solid Waste Management Coordinating Board (SWMCB), comprised of the six member counties, the Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance, and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

When you get to the site, be sure to click on “links.” This will get you to each county’s recycling resources, and many other links as well. Considering each county’s Web site has dozens and dozens of useful links ... Well, you get the picture. Also, many of the links tackle all the really hard questions about old paint, batteries, appliances, etc. You go get ’em, little green guardian dude!

And finally, If you are looking for a big warehouse full of cool stuff, stop by the U of M ReUse Program Warehouse on Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. It is located at 883 29th Ave. S.E. (1/2 mile west of Hwy 280 and just 1/2 block south of Como Ave.) (www.reuse.umn.edu).

Pete O’Keefe, the Reuse Program Coordinator, estimates that the U saves about half a million dollars a year by having different university departments come in and swap furniture and office supplies with each other instead of purchasing everything new. “Most of this can find a home,” O’Keefe says, beckoning out over the cavernous space. The place is a favorite haunt of antique dealers looking to score treasures, students looking to outfit an entire apartment, and nonprofits trying to save money on office furniture. “The public that comes in is a real mix, a real variety,” says O’Keefe. Those in the know always stop by in late May, when the dorms get cleaned out. But even in the “off season,” a couple truckloads of desks, chairs, filing cabinets, cubicle partitions and other random things arrive daily to the warehouse.

First time customers James and Sarah White were tipped off about the warehouse from a friend who is an interior decorator. “It’s amazing,” Sarah says, paying for a living room chair and a set of chairs for their kitchen. James agrees, scanning the vast warehouse, where a row of nearby $5 bikes are dwarfed by desks shelved up 30 feet high in the air. “It’s a little eerie,” he says, “all these things used over the years, now just sitting in a big warehouse.”

Mr. O’Keefe is justly proud of the service and an excellent tour guide for helping guests navigate the long, shadowy aisles. “We’re at a tipping point now where more is leaving than coming in,” says O’Keefe. “This is a way the university makes sure the big stuff doesn’t get thrown away if it doesn’t have to.”

Now it is up to you, gently used reader, to get out there and give some stuff away and get some stuff for cheap. There are plenty of other sources out there—look into the books “The Blue Sky Guide,” (www.FindBlueSky.com) and “The Twin Cities Green Guide,”(www.thegreenguide.org,) and check out (www.reduce.org). Hopefully, this will help you find your way. Less is more. It is better to give than to receive. You still look like a dork in that pleather coat.