Moving has always struck me as a horrifically wasteful process. Boxes are bought and later thrown away, paper is used by the ream, perfectly good household items get piled in the trash out of frustration and fatigue and furniture sometimes ends up dumped on the sidewalk. Just navigating the process of finding movers (if you’ve graduated from the “do it yourself” phase) is nothing short of nightmare and getting rid of things can be more difficult than just paying to have it moved. I’ve moved quite a bit in my life and in the last couple of years have discovered a few ways to make the move greener and cleaner.
There’s that moment in the moving process when a person is tempted to throw everything away. It’s a mania that comes on after too much organizing and packing where eventually nothing seems worth keeping. I hate to see a trash can piled high with perfectly good stuff, though, as I have so often when people move. Better to donate unwanted items to Goodwill or Salvation Army. It’s easy, tax-deductible and you support a good cause while also providing affordable goods to people who need them more than you: a suit jacket you never wear, an old computer monitor that's been sitting in the closet, dishes you never use, a birthday gift you never liked or even bikes, chairs, and couches. It’s time consuming to have a garage sale or sell things online, so why not save yourself the hassle and donate? Call to arrange a pickup a few days before you move. Then, as you pack, put aside things that might be useful to someone else and feel good about your donation.
The only thing that’s almost impossible to donate is a used mattress. Did you know that 300 mattresses a day arrive at landfills? I recently used Bed Busters, a service in San Francisco that disassembles mattresses and box springs and recycles the materials. It costs about $100, which is more than you’ll pay to dump it in a landfill but, again, much easier and way better for the environment. Bed Busters even donates a portion of the bill to buy sweaters for kids in Peru that need warm clothes! If your mattress is still in good condition, they’ll find a new home for it. Look for one near you and then consider buying an organic mattress to replace the old one.
The last two times that I moved I used Delancey Street Movers, based on a recommendation from a friend. An arm of the Delancey Street Foundation, they help ex-cons learn a trade and build a future and I found them to be friendly, professional, and punctual. I was very pleased with their service and felt good supporting the organization. I had commented to a friend, though, about the boxes and said "wouldn't it be great if there was a company that rented boxes so you didn't have to buy them?" Then I discovered RentAGreenBox.com, they rent packing materials made out of garbage so you not only keep materials out of the landfill, you take trash out!
