What you Kondo with Your Unwanted Stuff

Japanese organization consultant Marie Kondo has launched a clean-house revolution with her inspiring “KonMari” organization method. Kondo’s “KonMari” method preaches the ethos that you should eliminate clutter from your life by only holding onto items that “spark joy.” In the Netflix series, “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo,” audiences saw homeowners purge their clutter and simplify their lives with Kondo’s help. Obviously, a tidy and clean home is also a relaxing one, but a stack of garbage bags and pins piled high with items that did not “spark joy” doesn’t exactly feel “tidy.” Now that you’ve cleaned house and eliminated all your clutter, what do you do with the items you’ve purged?

Depending on how much you’ve decided to throw away, you might not be able to fit it all in your trash bins. If you have a dumpsters worth of trash but no dumpster to use, you might need to call a junk pick-up company. 

If you’re tossing out one or two large items like a sofa or mattress, you can schedule a free pickup from the city, though there is often a maximum number of times per year that you can use this free service.

You can also drive your waste down to the nearest landfill, though make sure to check beforehand for their list of banned items, which is usually items like computers, paint, or cleaning supplies. 

If your clothes, toys, books, and household items are in decent condition, the best thing you can do for your community is to donate them. Donations count as a tax write-off, so it’s a win/win for everybody. 

Goodwill and Salvation Army have many locations all over the country and convenient drop-off procedures for all sorts of goods. You can also call your local library to see if they are in need of any book donations. For tech donations and appliances, you can ask local schools or after-school programs if they are in need of things like laptops, e-readers, or tablets. For toys, call children’s hospitals, daycare centers, and children’s shelters to see if they are in need of anything. If you have a lot of clothes, especially unisex items like socks, shirts, and blankets — consider donating your stuff directly to a homeless shelter. However, you should always call your local homeless shelter first to ask what they need before you stop by with garbage bags full of clothes. You can even call your local animal shelter as they might have a use for bed linens and towels. 

If you have business outfits that are in good condition, you can donate women’s clothes to Dress for Success, men’s clothes to Career Gear, or google your city and state and “career clothing donation” to find an organization near you. 

When donating clothing anywhere, it’s always nice to wash your clothes before you do as many local organizations do not launder clothes before selling or handing them out. Same goes for kitchen appliances — always clean your pots and pans before you donate.

After a giant KonMari-style purging party, a garage sale is always a good idea. However, if you live in an apartment or don’t feel like you have enough stuff to merit a full garage sale, try selling your clothing at a nearby consignment or used clothing store. 

If there are no resale shops in your area, you can send your clothes to ThredUp, which is an online consignment shop. You can also try selling your used clothing on Poshmark which allows you to control and set your own prices — it’s actually quite like a virtual garage sale. 

For books, electronic, and video games, Amazon has a great trade-in program. BookScounter.com is another great online resource for selling your books, especially college textbooks. You can also call your local used bookstores and ask when they buy used books and DVDs. 

It’s easy to recycle your paper and plastic goods as you normally do, but unfortunately, you can’t drop your clothes and other textiles in the blue recycling bins. Instead of adding more junk to the landfill, recycle all the clothes you can’t donate or sell to an organization that converts unwearable textiles into other products. 

You can bring a bag of recyclable textiles to any H&M store, send them off to Terracycle, or check out Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles online to find a drop-off or textile recycle location nearest you.

This is similar to donating, but on a more personal level. That blender you never use may not spark joy for you, but it might to your little sister who just got her first apartment. Those clothes you meant to take to Goodwill might look amazing on your friend who just got a new job. You never want to unload your junk onto your loved-ones, but if some of your clutter is high-quality, it might spark joy for someone else. 

There is no greater feeling than waking up in a house free from clutter, but if you let your post-KonMari purge items collect dust for too long, you’ll have to start the process all over again. Donate, recycle, or simply dump, but no matter what you do, just make sure to make Marie Kondo proud.