Tag: got junk

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Professional-Organizer

Week 13 | Yard Junk | 52 Weeks to Downsize & Minimalize

Join Bella Organizing to downsize & minimalize yard junk and get the front, back, and side areas of your home looking good again. Keep reading to find tips and resources for getting yard junk reused, recycled, and even hauled away for free. Many of these resources are available throughout the USA.
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What is Yard Junk?
  • Lumber scraps that have rotted and decayed
  • Wooden logs hanging around when you no longer camp or have a working fireplace
  • Broken sun umbrellas
  • Rusting patio furniture that has been through too many seasons
  • Outdoor toys no longer played with
  • Landcaping supplies that have gone unused
  • Fencing and chicken wire that serve no purpose
  • Dirty, empty pots and planters that snails call their home
  • Unknown objects hanging from trees that were once decorations
  • Broken outdoor holiday lights still strung along the house and fence
  • Bricks, cinderblocks, and other building and landscaping materials that have been laying around for too long with hopes that “someday they’ll be used”
What other yard debris are you ready to kick to the curb? 
Resources for giving away and recycling yard junk

Resources for local yard junk pick-up services (be sure to read the details of what they DO and DO NOT pick up on their website.)

  • Many waste management companies offer residents one free, annual bulky waste pick-up in addition to your regular weekly trash/recycling pick up. Contact your local waste management company for details. Here are examples for Oakland and San Francisco.
  • Local trash haulers, such as 1-800-GOT-JUNK and Junk King (fee-based). There are LOTS of companies to choose from. Do an Internet search for “junk-hauling companies” near you.

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Local SF BAY AREA companies and organizations that accept donations of various types of yard junk (you drop off):

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SAFETY TIPS

  • Use heavy duty gloves and face masks when handling yard trash, as there can be nails and splinters in wood, mold, bugs, and other yucky stuff lingering on and under these things.
  • When giving away items online, there are inherent dangers of inviting strangers to your home. Always play it safe and take precautions.
  • There are many junk haulers who are not legitimate, law-abiding companies. Beware of local scams in which you pay a hauler who illegally dumps instead of dropping it off at a local city dump. You can be held accountable and fined if someone is discovered to have illegally dumped property that belongs to you, even after it is hauled away from your home or business.

Bella_Organizing_Best_Professional_Organizers_San_Francisco_Oakland_Berkeley_silicon_valley_montereyIsabella Guajardo, founder and owner of Bella Organizing, is a San Francisco Bay Area professional organizer offering home organizing, interior redesign, and residential move management services throughout the Greater San Francisco Bay Area. Call (510) 229-7321 or email info@bellaorganizing.com for more information. Gift certificates are available.

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Alameda | Contra Costa | San Francisco | Marin | Sonoma | Napa | Santa Clara | San Mateo | Santa Cruz | Monterey

Categories
Professional-Organizer

When is it Junk?

If you’re reading this it’s likely you are considering whether something you own is junk or worth keeping. Here’s an opportunity to figure it out:

When is it Junk?

When is it JUNK?

It’s JUNK if:

  • It’s moldy, mildew, stinky and growing spores
  • It’s broken or obsolete (and fixing it doesn’t make sense or is too costly)
  • You’ve outgrown it (physically or emotionally)
  • You’ve always hated it anyway
  • It’s the wrong color, wrong size, wrong style
  • Using it takes more time than its worth
  • You won’t really care if you ever see it again
  • It generates anger, bad memories or bad feelings
  • You have to clean it, store it, and insure it (but you don’t use it)
  • Storing it somewhere else would cost more than its worth
  • It will horrify, bore or burden your kids or the generation to come

If you can truthfully agree to one or more of these, it’s most likely junk. Do yourself, the people you live with, friends who visit and posterity a favor…get rid of it! It’s robbing you (and probably several other people) of space and mental clarity.

It’s not JUNK if:

  • It helps you make a living
  • It will do something you need done
  • It generates happiness, good memories and good feelings
  • It has high or significant cash value
  • It gives you more than it takes
  • It will enrich or delight your kids or the coming generation

If you can agree to several of the above without hesitation, it’s most likely good stuff. Enjoy, appreciate, take care of, and be sure to use it. You don’t need to re-assess its JUNKi-ness until next year.

Resources for consigning, selling, trading, donating and recycling your unwanted furniture, clothing, housewares and more can be found HERE.

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Isabella Guajardo, a.k.a. Girl With A Truck™, is a professional home organizer and a member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Profressionals (NAPO). She travels in her truck to work with clients throughout the greater San Francisco Bay Area while sharing simple and creative ways to stay organized while reducing, recycling and re-purposing. 

Call (510) 229-7321 to schedule a complimentary telephone assessment.