Every household eventually ends up storing items like this: an old recliner nobody uses, a box of unused computer cables, a lamp with no lamp shade, a dresser with a broken drawer. Many people simply throw these items in the garbage – it’s quick and easy. However, the better solution is to sort these items and consider if you should donate or recycle anything before sending it to the dump. A surprising amount of items either have value to someone else or need to be kept out of the landfills for safety reasons.
Around the Bend Professional Movers
This guide walks you through the most common categories or junk people deal with when they’re cleaning out a house, garage, or storage unit, and how to decide whether each one should be donated, recycled, or set aside for junk removal.
The Simple Way to Decide
Before getting into specific categories, these three questions cover most decisions:
1. Does it still work, and is it clean and mostly intact?
If yes, donation is usually the best answer.
2. Is it made of a recyclable material, but not usable as-is?
Metal, certain plastics, and electronics often have a recycling path even when they’re broken or outdated.
3. Could it hurt someone or contaminate other recycling if thrown in the wrong bin?
Batteries, paint, chemicals, and anything with a motor or refrigerant need a specific disposal path, never the regular trash.
When an item fails all three questions, it’s genuinely trash. When it passes more than one question, it’s worth the extra ten minutes to process it correctly. Donating helps those in need, while recycling helps the environment.
Furniture
Furniture in good, usable condition is one of the easiest things to keep out of the trash. Local organizations like Goodwill the Habitat for Humanity ReStore accept clean furniture in working condition and resell it to fund their building projects, which is a better outcome than a landfill and often easier than trying to sell it yourself. Pieces with structural damage, water damage, or heavy wear generally aren’t donatable, since most donation centers can’t resell what they can’t be confident is safe or usable.
Furniture that cannot be donated can many times be broken down and recycled by material. Scrap metal can usually be sold for extra cash at a recycler such as OmniSource. Quality furniture wood can be reused by woodworkers.
When furniture cannot be donated or recycled, that is where a junk removal service becomes the practical option: an old sectional or a broken bed frame is heavy, awkward, and not something normal curbside pickup is going to accept. Call Around the Bend Movers and they can help haul away your old furniture.
Electronics
Electronics should never go in the regular trash, working or not. Devices like computers, monitors, phones, and printers contain materials such as mercury and lead that can leach into soil and water when they sit in a landfill. If an electronic device still works, donating it through a local charity or an organization like Goodwill keeps it in use and out of the landfills.
For anything that no longer works, look for a dedicated electronics recycler rather than setting it at the curb. St. Joseph County has free electronics recycling, all you have to do is drop it off at their facility. Keep in mind, since electronic waste has to be broken down and processed differently than general recycling there is sometimes a fee associated with recycling electronics.
Appliances
A working appliance with all of its original parts is a strong donation candidate. The Habitat for Humanity ReStore, for example, accepts clean, fully functioning appliances for resale. This is the best outcome for anything from a refrigerator to a washing machine that still runs but no longer fits your space or needs.
Appliances that no longer work are still worth recycling rather than trashing, since most contain recoverable metal along with components like refrigerants that need to be removed properly. Many local waste haulers and recycling partners in the South Bend area offer appliance pickup specifically because of this. It’s worth checking for a local pick up before assuming a broken appliance has to go in the dumpster.
Clothing and Textiles
Clothing, shoes, and household textiles such as linens and towels almost never belong in the trash, even when they’re too worn to donate as wearable items. Items in good condition can go to any local donation center or thrift store, blessing others with quality clothing at a discounted price. Items that are stained, torn, or otherwise not wearable can often still go into textile recycling programs, which break fabric down for use as insulation, industrial rags, and other materials. Reparrel is a local, South Bend company that recycles textiles.
Mattresses
Mattresses are a category people are often surprised by: most curbside trash and recycling programs won’t take them at all, and for good reason. Their size and mixed materials (foam, springs, fabric, and wood) make them difficult to process in a standard waste stream, and many landfills either restrict or charge extra fees to accept them.
Mattress recycling programs exist specifically to break these materials apart for reuse, but they’re not something most households have easy drop-off access to. In practice, this is one of the most common reasons people end up calling a junk removal service such as Around the Bend Movers, rather than trying to handle moving a mattress on their own. Let the professionals haul away your mattress and box spring and take them to the proper recycling facilities.
Paint, Oil and Other Household Chemicals
Old paint, cleaning chemicals, pesticides, motor oil, and similar products should never go in the trash or down a drain. St. Joseph County operates a Household Hazardous Waste facility specifically for items like these, and it’s free for local residents to use. It’s worth checking current hours and accepted materials before a visit, since the list of what’s accepted can change.
A related note on regular recycling: St. Joseph County’s curbside program only accepts plastics numbered 1 through 5 and 7, rinsed and with caps removed. Anything outside that range, or anything contaminated with chemical residue, doesn’t belong in the curbside bin and can cause an entire batch of recycling to be rejected.
Sort What You Can, Call Around the Bend For the Rest
Sorting items into donate/recycle/trash piles makes sense for a handful of items or a slow decluttering project. A little sorting goes a long way toward keeping usable items in circulation and hazardous ones out of the landfills.
Sorting, donating and recycling stops making sense when you’re faced with a full garage cleanout, an estate sale, or a commercial move where dozens of items need a decision at once. At that point, the time spent researching where each item goes and bringing them to each location usually takes more time than simply having it removed and sorted for you.
A good junk removal service already knows which items in a pickup can be donated or recycled and which genuinely need to go to a landfill. For the bigger jobs, such as old furniture, appliances, or a full garage cleanout, call Around the Bend Movers. We offer fast junk removal services throughout South Bend and the surrounding area, where we handle the sorting, donating and recycling for you. Reach out when you’ve got more junk than you have time.