Why waste it? Spring time is a great time to declutter and clean up. Here are five easy steps to decluttering and cleaning up your shed, yard and home this Spring, ready for the holiday season.
Step 1: Donate or sell good quality, reusable items.
Poor quality items that are placed in charity bins or items that are dumped out the front of charity stores will go to landfill and end up costing the organisations a lot of money. ‘Nationally, in a typical year, charities spend about $18 million on disposing items that are unusable or illegally dumped. This money could be better spent helping those in need!’1
Alternatively you may wish to giveaway or sell items through the following options;
- Gumtree
- Freecycle
- Freally
- Facebook Marketplace or any one of a myriad of Facebook swap and giveaway groups in your area
Consider repurposing old textiles and turning them into homemade face masks. Thicker fabrics are the best to use. Click here for more details on how to make your own.
Step 2. Repair and restore.
As we find ourselves with more time at home we may be more inclined to repair and restore items. There are some great ‘how to’ videos online with instructions on how to DIY and fix-it yourself, such as ifixit.com. Alternatively, you could take items to one of the Repair Cafes held in Payneham, Unley and Aldgate or a localMen’s shed may also be able to help.
You could also find out what various makerspaces in Adelaide have to offer in terms of equipment and knowledge needed for repair (membership or day fees apply; induction may apply):
Step 3. Recycle:
Please place any paper, cardboard boxes, rigid plastic containers, metal (including empty dry paint tins) and glass containers into your yellow lid recycle bin.
Click here for a full list of what can be recycled in your yellow bin.
*please ensure that all containers are empty and clean before placing them in the recycle bin.
Find where you can ‘Unplug and Drop’ through:
Electronic Recycling Australia
MRI Drop Zone e-Cycle Solutions
Step 4. Clean out the fridge, freezer and pantry:
Set yourself a challenge not to buy any food for a week…or even longer and eat up the food you already have in your fridge, freezer and pantry. This will save waste and money.
To help with this challenge, utilise the recipes on the FoodWise website where you can search for ingredients you already have, and find recipes for them: http://www.foodwise.com.au/recipe-room/our-recipe-finder/
Check the best before and use-by dates, and know the difference between them. You can still eat foods for a while after the best before date as they should be safe but they may have lost some quality and taste. Foods should not be eaten after the use by date for health or safety reasons.
Step 5. Compost
If there is food that has past it’s use by date and expired, then compost it in your compost bin, worm farm or green bin.
Weeds , flowers, garden prunings and unwanted plants can also be placed in the green bin.
Larger logs and amounts of garden waste can be taken to your local waste and recycling transfer station.