and the dust
It has been a busy week or two of crap-riddance here at the Awesome household.
As with most persons of a certain age, we’ve done our share of junk collecting. Paper that seemed important once, storage apparatuses that managed to remain upright as long as we didn’t look at them, ill-advised gifts from well-meaning folks who would have been better off giving us wine – you name it and we’ve held on to it, moving from apartment to apartment to house to condo to house, even from city to city (Kingston was our university town, and university furniture is still stickin’ around, even though Ottawa has been home for… christ, nine years?)
I decided it was time. Time to clear out the basement, where most of this detritus was left to decay. A trip to IKEA prompted a critical re-examination of a few shelving units that were leaning towers of don’t let the kids get too close to that – replacement without prejudice, people. Ample opportunity to examine the contents of said shelves and just say no. Garbage day was obscene around these parts last week – three times the usual amount of trash, and cardboard and paper in the recycle bins that was almost too heavy to haul to the curb. Bins, plural.
And the electronics. Oh, the electronics.
I’ve been a computer guy for a long time, but I’m also an avid eBay purger – if I’m bored and it still has value, let’s sell! Despite my continued attempts to monetize every unloved gadget before it became worthless, electrojunk remained – three desktop computer corpses, two of which are pictured above, along with a Samtron CRT monitor included with my first computer purchase in, what, 1997? (I quickly upgraded to a 17 inch model from, get this, Hansol. Kingston computer stores in the nineties were replete with displays from manufacturers you’d never heard of.)
Remotes, cameras, disc drives, graphics cards, batteries, and oh, so many wires. All toxic, all unwelcome at the landfill.
For once, Future Shop had my back. Their recycling program welcomes all of the above and more, at least in Ontario and Alberta, and at a price tag of free, too good to pass up. If you were waiting for an electronics disposal day to get rid of your busted computer stuff, don’t – the unfriendly customer ‘service’ person behind the counter at Future Shop is saving their least impressed look for when you walk in with your box of a thousand parts. Visit today! Tell them the guy who won’t pay full price for anything sent you.
That is great that you decided to declutter! I didnt realize that Future shop will recycle e-waste and for free! That is fantastic. If you declutter again and are looking for a company to remove unwanted items please keep us in mind (capitaljunk.ca). We are a full service junk removal comapany, therefor we do charge, but we are a local company and recycle as much as possible. Check us out sometime! Great blog- keep posting and we’ll keep reading!
Cheers!