PRE-CHRISTMAS CULLING – HOW TO DO IT IN AN ENVIRONMENTALLY RESPONSIBLE WAY

 Like me, do you feel the need for a pre-Christmas sort out?  It's one of the best strategies for organising your Christmas Gift list.

This is the time of the year I push myself to sort out my house and have a purge.  A few years ago, I worked through the Magic of Tidying Up, and I can tell you one thing – you need to keep on top of it.
 
My family and I have lived in the same house for over 20 years, and when you don’t move regularly there’s not that huge opportunity to cull. 
 
So, on school holidays, and particularly in November I revisit this.  A couple of my aims are to clear a whole bookshelf, one clothes drawer (I have three), and digitalise a filing cabinet drawer.

1. Before you get rid of things, see if they can be recycled – you might be surprised.  As part of the Pre-Christmas cull I take the recycles that I have been collecting to the places that accept them.  

 
Here’s some things that can be recycled (not an exhaustive list), but that you can’t put out with your recycle bin:

• Batteries
• Light globes
• Toothbrushes, dental floss and toothpaste tubes Textas, markers, pens
• Bread Tags
• Printer cartridges and other ewaste  
• Cameras
• Mobile Phones
• Cables (all those ones you no longer know what to do with…)

And paint tins!  Both empty and those who some paint in them.  I think we have about 20 in the shed. Note: I updated the links in this in 2023 and have only just taken these paint tins to the paint drop off centre!  Take this as hope that you will get there eventually.
 
To find out where you can recycle many of these items have a look at https://recyclingnearyou.com.au and https://www.terracycle.com/en-AU and your local council website. 

Happy culling

Kim

Updated 20th October 2023