Decluttering 102: How to Dispose of Hard-to-Dispose-of Items

This is the fourth post in my deeply personal Downsizing, Decluttering, Detaching, and Dreaming Ahead series—our heartfelt journey of letting go, lightening up, and listing our beloved family home. You can read all of the posts in this series HERE.

If you’re an empty nester, you’re probably either downsizing, decluttering, or organizing, or you’re about to start the process, or you’ve just finished doing it! It’s pretty much a fact of life for us empty nesters! Right? But what do you do with all of your hard-to-dispose of items?

Last year, we made the decision to downsize from the home we built for our famiy in 2004. We were spending too much time and money maintaining a home that no longer fit the life we wanted to live. We wanted to travel, visit our kids (who all live out of town), and relax more. And we wanted to spend less time dealing with the pool, the yard, and cooling and heating an upstairs no one uses! 

The decision to downsize meant it was time to get serious about decluttering. We’re talking about cleaning out our attic, going through all of the kids’ old toys, all of the cards, letters, and old photos, and cleaning out all of the closets. Not only was it time to free ourselves of some of the sentimental items, but it was also time to clear out some of the hazardous household items that we’d never disposed of properly.

Last week, I shared a post called Decluttering 101: Where to Donate Your Hard-to-Donate Stuff. I told you where to donate things like old hearing aids and eyeglasses, appliances, books, and more. Today, I’m focusing on getting rid of those items you can’t donate. Think old paint, yard chemicals, old laptops even the donation people don’t want, and more. I’m sharing what I learned about how to get rid of some of those difficult-to-dispose-of-items.

This is a guide to save, share with others, and refer back to when you need it. You can always access it (along with my other posts about this process) under the “Downsizing” tab on my navigation menu at the top of the Empty Nest Blessed homepage.

Where to Dispose of Hazardous Household Waste

Hazardous household waste includes things like fuel, used motor oil, pesticides, and compact fluorescent lightbulbs (they contain mercury).

The website earth911.com has a massive database of sites that accept household hazardous waste, but your community may also have a pickup program for those items.

Old Paint

Cans with latex paint can go out with your regular garbage. But oil-based paints are considered hazardous waste, so you’ll need to handle them differently. Check paintcare.org or earth911.com for information on where to drop them safely.

Batteries

To dispose of batteries, check call2recycle.org or contact a Batteries Plus store near you. Also, check out the recycling programs at Lowes and Home Depot to learn more about their battery recycling programs.

Medications

Most locations of CVS and Walgreens provide bins for the disposal of unused and expired medications. You can also check with disposemymeds.org to find a nearby independent pharmacy that offers the service.

Household Appliances

In my Decluttering 101: Where to Donate Your Hard-to-Donate Stuff post, I told you where you could donate small household appliances. If you have a large household appliance that you cannot donate, check with the Responsible Appliance Disposal Program (operated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)) for a list of utilities and groups that will pick up and recycle it at no charge.

Old Tax Returns & Receipts

Okay, so they’re not exactly hazardous household waste, but most people do keep them around way longer than necessary! Keeping them for three years after you’ve filed is usually enough. But if you’ve failed to fil,e, you should probably keep them around forever. For more information, use the search engine at IRS.gov.

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Other Important Papers

Do you have a hard time letting go of old receipts, credit card statements, and other seemingly important papers? That’s okay! There’s a lot of confusion about how long you need to store these things. But according to experts, when it comes to paper, here’s what you need to hang on to:

• Birth certificates
• Death certificates
• Three years of tax records (see above)
• Wills
• Medical Powers of Attorney
• Medical Licenses
• Social Security Cards
• Medical Records
• A few other documents that seem equally as important. (If you’re not sure, keep it!)

Other than that, shred the rest. (We use THIS tabletop crosscut shredder that also works on credit cards!) Many UPS and FedEx stores outsource shredding for a fee, so if you have a lot of documents to shred, that might be an option.

Laptops & Other Digital Devices

Some cities and schools collect e-waste, often around Earth Day. You can also check earth911.com or the EPA’s Electronics Donation and Recycling page to learn where to recycle or donate your computer.

A significant concern in disposing of digital devices is the financial documents, photos, and other private information they contain. Before disposing of digital devices, you need to back up the contents and erase the hard drives. Here’s where to find instructions:

• For Apple iPhones or iPads, click HERE.
• For Samsung Galaxy phones, click HERE.
• For Mac computers, click HERE.
• For Apple Watch, click HERE.
• For Microsoft computers, click HERE.

Alternatively, you can remove and destroy the computer’s hard drive. Check ifixit.com for tutorials.

Outsourcing Disposal

If you can’t figure out where to dispose of an item or you want to outsource the tasks, you can always pay a company to handle it for you. The Junkluggers, for instance, are an eco-friendly firm that operates in 29 states (and DC). They remove unwanted items, donate or recycle anything that’s not trash, and dispose of the rest in accordance with your local laws.

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Have you had to figure out where to dispose of hard-to-dispose of items like we have? Do you have ideas or solutions I didn’t cover here? If so, I’d love it if you’d share them with our community in the comments!