
If your things are gently worn, donate them to Goodwill or another charity so someone else can benefit from them. If they’re ripped or stained, there are plenty of textile (fabric) donation spots. The clothing retailer, H&M, accepts donations of used clothes and textiles at any of their stores AND they’ll even give you a discount coupon to say thanks!
Click here for a terrific list of places that take old clothes and fabrics, even old undies.
Old Furniture, Appliances and Fixtures
Gently used? Donate or sell! I use Craig’s List to sell my old furniture all the time and it works like a charm.
You can also donate! Salvation Army, Goodwill and a host of others may be able to put your old furniture, electronics and fixtures to good use! Here are two terrific resource guides (in some cases, you can get tax deductions for donations and free pick up’s of heavy items):
Houzz
and
Moving.com
For mattresses, click here for info on how to recycle those.
For bigger ticket items, like bathtubs – say, if you’re doing a home renovation - just google places like Big Reuse (https://bigreuse.org, located in New York City), which can recycle and re-use this bigger items.
A lot of companies, such as Apple and Staples, will recycle your electronics, even giving you money for them if they’re recent enough and, even if they’re old, providing you with a free prepaid shipping label (for more on Apple's program, click here). Most Staples and Bed, Bath & beyond stores have areas you can drop off old batteriesto be recycled, as well.
Many cities, such as New York, offer electronics recycling and you can just do a quick google search for electronics recycling in your city for the 411 there.
If You Have Extra Disposable Income, You Can Literally Recycle EVERYTHING
This one I am putting last because, financially, it’s just not a real option for a lot of people. If you makes heaps o’ money though and have some disposable income you’d be happy to allocate to saving our planet, you can pay to conveniently recycle pretty much anything at terracycle.com. They send you shipping labels and boxes and you fill ‘em up with, again, just about anything and they swear they’ll recycle all of it. They do have some free recycling programs, but there are wait lists for most of them (I know; I’ve been on one of their waitlists for over a year). The pay programs are fast and easy … however they do cost money.
Terracycle has free recycling programs for bigger entities like schools and companies, so, if you’re feeling ballsy, loudly advocate for your work and/or your kid’s (or your) school to get their recycling services.