The Green Way Packers
Curiously Green is an exclusive weekly Earth 911 series showcasing the adventures of a couple going green. This week Sheila and Gary, a couple from Phoenix, Arizona share their experience selling a condo and how they handled possessions.
Sheila Bocchine is a pinhole photographer and Gary Millard is a Phoenix photographer.
She Says: We have decided to move, which means selling our condo. We challenged ourselves to pack and move as green as possible; it was an easy task for me, but he wanted to throw everything away. Who knows what he threw away when I wasn’t watching him, our little old lady neighbor did say the trash was awfully full.
Here are a couple things we did to help keep the earth clean during our move:
- We Freecycled. Freecycle is this great website that allows you to post what you want to give away and people who want what you have email you and pick it up. It’s such a kind website, and the hippie do-gooder in me couldn’t resist.We freecycled books, photo frames, furniture, clothes, hats, jewelry, candles and more.For every person on freecycle who tells you they are coming over, there is that annoying person who does not come over… EVER!!! I was so appreciative of those who came when they said they were coming.I met some really nice people.One woman came with her two little boys and her sweet little angel pointed out my dog’s bad breath. Trust me, I am very aware of how ‘stinky’ her breath is, but it was nice to get a second opinion. I would definitely freecycle again, I almost wished there was a feature on the site to report people who don’t pick up. Maybe if you get a bad report five times, you are kicked off Freecycle. Packing is hard enough, having my time wasted by liars is intolerable.
- We used cardboard boxes. You can find them in the back of grocery stores.
- We dropped things off at Goodwill, old computers, and other random bits and pieces of our lives.
- We used Craigslist, another wonderful website. When I got tired of people not showing up from freecycle, I decided to list a few items on Craigslist and try to sell them. I sold three of the 20 items I put on there (the rest went to Goodwill).
- We also recycled as much as we could: papers, plastics, you know.
My sweet sister let us stack some of our boxes in her garage and we did a swap. We took a couch off her hands that she was going to just throw away. We decided to take the couch to Goodwill, but on the way stopped at Home Depot and two nice artists asked me about it
Once I explained the situation, they were shocked and said we could drop it off at their new place. So we did and ended up talking about music and art and the Pacific Northwest for a while, AND we got to help out another couple!
Packing and moving may be one of my least favorite activities, but at least this time we made the conscious effort to not be so wasteful. It more than makes up for the time, three years ago, when I moved from NYC to Phoenix and left EVERYTHING in my apartment. I packed my photos, books and clothes, but everything else stayed. I taped the keys to my landlord’s door and hopped in a taxi for the airport.
