There is a lot to be said about buying gently-used items in place of new ones. The biggest motivating factor is usually money. Another good reason is because a lot of energy and resources have already gone into making something and there is no reason why we should not do our best to prolong its life.
Moving Out
Moving anywhere from down the road to across the country is a pain. It disrupts our normal routine and requires planning. Planning is one of the key elements I think a lot of people don’t take into account and look at a Dumpster as a quick fix for unloading their unwanted goods. On a bi-monthly basis, I see very nice furniture in the community Dumpster. I have even gone to the extent of removing a wooden rocking chair, because it reminded me of one I had growing up. I love the rocking chair, which makes me think of the countless other items other people could have enjoyed if others would just take the time to donate these items to the charity of their choice.
This last time I moved, I was like a seasoned pro. After all, I moved multiple times during my college years. I got boxes from my local supermarket, instead of purchasing new ones. I took a long, hard look at what I owned and thought, “Do I really use/need this.” All of my furniture has basically been hand-me-downs from friends, of which I have grown out of.
I fit what I could in my compact car and hauled it to Goodwill. The larger items I took with me in the moving truck. For those that do not have the option of renting a moving truck to donate their unwanted goods, they can schedule a pick-up from Goodwill, if they live within the city limits of Terre Haute.
“We generally would run to someone’s home for couches, tables and chairs. Things that are not easily deliverable to Goodwill,” said Bill Tennis, executive director of Goodwill Industries of the Wabash Valley. “We want things you would give to your friends or family members. We don’t want trash. Goodwill employs people with many different barriers to employment and we are able to fund that program primarily through our donated goods operation.”
To schedule a pick-up call 812-235-1827. Other local charities may offer similar services. Call the charity of your choice for options.
Furthermore, I never realized how many clothes I had until I had to take them out of the closets. The simple rule of thumb is, if you haven’t worn it in a year, it is time to donate it. I still have a few items I have held onto with the thought; one day I will be a size 2 again. This time around, I filled four drum-size garbage bags full of clothes, even the clothes I hoped to fit in again. I gave some of my finest clothes to my close friends and hauled the rest to Goodwill.
If you feel like you deserve money for an expensive piece of furniture you own, but don’t have the time to post fliers to sell it, you can call a local auction house.
“You can either haul it to the local auction gallery/house and ask them how much to sell it and what their commission is. Or you can have them pick it up, but they will charge you more commission for that service,” auctioneer Johnny Swalls said.
Moving In
I remember the first time I rented an unfurnished condo. It was a challenge to find affordable furniture. If only back then I would have known about auctions, I could have scored some high quality secondhand pieces.
Auctions can have everything from bakeware to laundry machines. Most recently, I went to an auction where high-quality kitchen supplies were being sold for $1. Now, if only I needed four muffin tins and two massive stacks of Longaberger baskets, I would have been in luck. For those looking to fill their home with gently used goods, check out your local newspaper or phone book and search for an auction company. Call them up and ask them what they have for sale, to see if it is in line with what you are looking for.
“Estate auctions or when somebody passes away, they have everything. They have a whole house full of stuff, so you can get anything and everything you want,” Swalls said.
Use these tools for surviving your first auction:
1. If you want a leather couch that would retail for $1,200 and you are willing to spend $500, start your first bid at $400. Swalls says if you start off high, you will scare most bidders away. Plus, usually the auctioneer will say “sold” right away and move on to the next item.
2. Never act too interested in an item.
3. Don’t sit on your hands until the very last minute. Let the auctioneer know where you are, so when you place a bid at the last minute they know where to look.
4. Call ahead and find out at what time an item you are interested in buying will sell. This will save you from waiting around all day for what you want.
Before you make your next move, be sure to allow extra time to properly dispose of your unwanted goods. Remember, your trash could be someone else’s treasure.
Jane Santucci is an environmental freelance writer for the Tribune-Star. Santucci is a volunteer with TREES Inc. and Our Green Valley. She also sits on the Wabash Valley Goodwill Industries Board of Directors. Share your environmental stories and tips with her at janesantucci@yourgreenvalley.com.
Features
YOUR GREEN VALLEY: Others may find your trash to be their treasure
- Features
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Banks of the Wabash Festival kicks off
The 2013 Banks of the Wabash Festival, scheduled May 23 through June 1 in Fairbanks Park, celebrates 40 years along the banks of the Wabash River, 30 under the sponsorship of the Terre Haute Parks and Recreation Department.
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Community Theatre concludes season with ‘Social Security’
Community Theatre of Terre Haute’s main stage season finale opens this Friday, with the hit Broadway comedy “Social Security,” directed by Sonni Crawford.
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Bruce’s History Lessons: Morse’s telegraph and its impact as a ‘game changer’
This week (May 24) in 1844, Professor Samuel F.B. Morse sat in the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., surrounded by members of Congress, who had come to witness history.
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Singer-songwriter Aly Tadros to perform at The Verve
Although she calls Brooklyn, N.Y., home, singer/songwriter Aly Tadros has spent the last decade traveling (and touring) across Egypt, Turkey, Canada, Mexico and nearly all of Europe in an attempt to coalesce the diversity that is being both Egyptian and Texan, both a performer and a songwriter. Next on her list is Terre Haute. Tadros will be playing at The Verve on Friday.
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Longtime weatherman Jesse Walker relates well to people of Wabash Valley
While in middle and high school, Jesse Walker developed a strong interest in the weather. He thought about a career at the National Weather Service or at a storm prediction center, but the idea of becoming a television meteorologist never entered his mind.
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CULINARY COURSES: Clabber Girl Classroom Kitchen provides variety of cooking courses for the Valley
There are a few taste-bud-tantalizing-perks for having America’s leading baking powder producer in your backyard. For nearly 120 years, Clabber Girl has been a staple in Terre Haute. In 1899, Hulman and Company began offering up what was to become one of the oldest brands in the country, Clabber baking powder. In 1923, the company changed the baking powder brand name to Clabber Girl.
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RIVER OF SOUND: Composer sees symphony bring his musical imagination to life
David Watkins smiled as he stood on the Tilson Auditorium stage. The audience stood, too, applauding.
Two of his compositions had just been performed by the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra. Neither piece — “A Wabash Portrait” and “River Fanfare” — had been played publicly in decades. -
The Beauties of Spring: Stunning array of wildflowers bloom each spring in Collett Park
Groundskeepers put off the first mowing of Collett Park each spring.
Admirers of the place, Terre Haute’s oldest park, like it that way.
A stunning array of wildflowers covers the 21-acre lawn for a few short weeks. Those plants, known as “spring beauties,” emerge in March, bloom in April and go dormant by May, when the brilliant waves of white and pink flowers disappear. -
Day spent with daughter inspires Valley man to write children’s book for her
It started with a warm sunny blackberry picking outing, a bee buzzing, a little bird nest with eggs in it and a little girl begging her daddy for a night-time story. And from those ingredients the children’s book, “The Bee in the Blackberry Bush” came to fruition.
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From kilts to haggis, Wabash Valley Scottish Society marks a decade of preserving heritage
As soon as Richard Cooper breaks into his Scottish accent, a smile automatically follows.
It happened last week as he recited a work of legendary Scotland poet Robert Burns. -
Witness to history: April movie chronicles Jackie Robinson’s trials as be breaks Major League Baseball’s color barrier — something Vigo County native Harry Taylor witnessed first hand
The upcoming movie “42” aims to show America what Jackie Robinson endured.
Harry Taylor witnessed it firsthand.
Robinson wore jersey No. 42 for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Taylor wore 41. Both were 28-year-old rookies, considerably older than most. Taylor got delayed by military service in World War II. Professional baseball’s unwritten but ironclad code of racial discrimination had kept Robinson and other African-Americans out of the majors since the 1880s. -
Sisterly Habits: Fillenwarth sisters are linked together in more than one sense
The Fillenwarth sisters are sisters in more than one sense of the word.
Both were born two of the eight children of city cop Henry and his wife Catherine Fillenwarth. Both grew up among a large and giving Catholic extended family in inner-city Indianapolis in the 1940s. -
Geocaching Indiana: Clay County man develops idea to use geo-art to create outline of state in caches
Indiana, long-known as the Crossroads of America, has for years been a destination for people coming from around the world to witness such activities as the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race, Indianapolis Colts football games and Indiana University Hoosiers basketball games.
Since October 2012, Indiana’s attractions have come to include the surprising geo-art creation of a group of Wabash Valley geocachers — people who use Global Positioning Systems and similar location-sensitive devices to find hidden objects for fun. -
Voice of a Storyteller: Chance meeting of Twain, Paris youngster inspired narrative voice of Huck Finn
The block offers no hints of its place in American literary history.
Customers dodge raindrops, walking in and out of an auto parts store. -
Pearls of the Wabash: Efforts to reintroduce mussels
Broken bricks, shattered large clay tiles and thin strips of lumber nailed into a crimped piece of sheet metal, sit piled down a county road in Hillsdale.
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Natural Habitat: Meet 17-year-old Ben Cvengros, who has a knack for capturing wildlife — in particular, birds — on his camera
I would like to introduce you to a 17-year-old Parke County teenager who has an incredible level of patience. Ben Cvengros was 12 years old when he found his passion for photography.
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WORD PLAY: Scrabble Club broadens Greene County youngsters’ vocabularies and experiences in a fun way
Drew Helton nodded his head like a wise college professor dispensing scholarly advice.
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Doing a lot with a little: Family’s resourcefulness leads it to reuse vegetable oil as fuel
Up a winding driveway, tucked off a main road in Clay County, sits an average-looking house in a hardwood forest. The homeowners, Chris and Lori Hart, are two resourceful people.
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Coming full circle: Vigo County 4-H’er hopes donation of livestock auction money helps youth
The phrase “giving back” is often quoted but sometimes lacks personal follow through.
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CRUISIN’ TO A CAREER IN MUSIC: Terre Haute native Will Foraker on a roll with new album, job as cruise ship entertainer
On his way to the Panama Canal, Will Foraker sounded energized.
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YOUR GREEN VALLEY: Keep your garden — and yourself — safe from lead
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lead poisoning is the No. 1 preventable environmental cause of illness in children.
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TRIED ‘N’ TRUE: Need something for the kids? Try these Ritzy Cookies
When we have dinners at the church, one of the ladies brings these cookies. Nancy Kahl has been making these for some time now. They are so good. Need something for your kids? Make sure that there isn’t any one who can’t have peanuts. These are so easy and extra good.
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‘A Song for Indiana’ to raise money for Dresser sculpture
Art Spaces will present “A Song for Indiana – The Paul Dresser Project” at 5:30 p.m. on June 6 at the Holiday Inn of Terre Haute.
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Sign up for Community School of the Arts classes
Summer is the perfect time to enroll children and teens in theater and visual arts and music classes at the Indiana State University Community School of the Arts.
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FAMILY TIES: While searching for my grandfather, I found my mother
I remember the afternoon my mother received the chilling news from her nephew that her oldest sister and brother-in-law had been killed in a car/bus collision.
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GRAPE SENSE: Same old whites getting you down? Try something different
If the same old Chardonnay, Riesling or Pinot Grigio is getting you down, try something different.
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TRIED ‘N’ TRUE: A Rhubarb Nut Bread for the season
Last fall we went to the Covered Bridge Festival. Gene loves to go. Anyway, I got to talking to this lady, Treva Smith, at Bridgeton.
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Diamond Hill Station goes bold in ‘Katy Bar the Door’ album
On the second track of Diamond Hill Station’s new CD, the band deftly rambles through a catchy, love-gone-wrong song called “Same Old Thing.”
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Roxie Randle takes next step with single ‘Everything I’m Not’
The next step for singer-songwriter Roxie Randle is a single with the attitude and power to crack radio airplay lists.
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Opening reception Friday for ‘Mud Musings’
Indiana State University’s Community School of the Arts is scheduled to host an opening reception for an art exhibition from 4 to 6 p.m. on Friday in the Gallery Lounge of ISU’s Hulman Memorial Student Union.
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DWTS Crowns a Winner
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