Last of Garage Sale PURGE (Wk34)

The first Clean Water Garage Sale of 2010 created a lot of momentum. I was inspired to clean out even more for Part 2. I just forgot to document it until now.

#211 Wireless Router. We got a new one a couple in between the two garage sales. SOLD!

#212 Bag of Rags - These have been on the floor of my closet for months. We've done fine without them during that time. SOLD!

#213 Boppy Pillow. We now have 2 and no one I knew needed this one. SOLD!

#214 Bag - I used this a lot this year, but I got a new one. I can't remember if it sold, but if it got donated to a local charity, I know someone will make soog use of it. It's nice looking and in great condition.

#215 Photo Album Book - This was made of phthalates, so I didn't want my kids to play with it much. SOLD!
#216 Box of 12-month Boys Summer Clothes and #217 Blankets - Monkey still was wearing these, but he can fit in the next size up too, so I thought I'd PURGE these while they were in season. SOLD!

#218 Bag of Stuffed Animals - There were the few that didn't have as much sentimental value ans were just collecting dust. All were in good condition and some still had tags on them. Some SOLD!

What Not to PURGE #1: Recyclable Water Bottles

Welcome to "What Not to PURGE (WNTP)," a new segment of this blog.

My quest to PURGE is not just to get rid of junk in my house, its also to reduce my carbon footprint by living more simply. I've been trying to get better about buying items used or getting them from Freecycle because it crazy how much energy is needed to make a new product and how many harmful byproducts come from production. If you've seen "The Story of Stuff," you know a bit about this.

In light of the Clean Water Garage Sale, I wanted to put another challenge out to my vast (yeah right) readership. Watch "The Story of Bottled Water."

In my family, we switched to stainless steel water bottles. Everyone in my family has their own, actually, Bean and Monkey each have two: one they keep in their bed/in the house and one they take out with them. We take these everywhere we go so we always have access to water from our own faucet or a water fountain somewhere.

In my opinion, stainless steel is the way to go. Plastic sippy cups and water bottles that you can buy are harmful for your own body when you drink from them, they release nastiness when they are produced, and then you are done with them they end up in the trash, or if you recycle them, more nastiness is released into the earth.

Stainless steel is more indestructible, lasting for years before needing to be replaced, if ever. It is inert and non-reactive to what you are drinking (as opposed to some aluminum water bottles you may have seen around). Also when you finally do toss it (I dunno why you would) the metal is easily recoverable, reducing the amount of emissions when recycling it.

If you can't find yourself a stainless steel water bottle used (like I found one at the Clean Water Garage Sale for our baby girl), this is one item totally worth buying brand new. In the long run, it will pay for itself and the impact on our Earth from producing it will be far less than the alternatives of buying bottled water, or using another type of drinking canister.

In sum, those recyclable bottles from bottled water are #1 on WNTP, because you should try not to buy them in the first place. I know, it's a challenge. I never said PURGE was going to be easy but, are you up for it?

Next UIECU Shred Event Coming up!

I don't think it's only open to members, so I thought I'd spread the word.

The University of Illinois Employees' Credit Union is hosting it's next "Shred Event" on Saturday, August 28. You can bring up to five boxes of your old documents and they’ll shred them for you while you watch....and it's for FREE!

There are two locations and times:

Five Points Branch

206 East University Avenue

Time: 8 am-11 am

First Street Branch

Urbana 2201 South First Street, Champaign

Time: 12 pm-3 pm

Photo Credit: juvencioroldan

Book PURGE for Urbana Free Library

In case you haven't noticed, purging for fundraising has been on my mind!

Photo Credit: PaPeR.cLiP (It's good to be back!)

We all have books lying around the house that we aren't likely to read again any time soon. Why not PURGE them and have some extra shelf space?

3 times a year the Urbana Free Library hosts a book sale, which raises over $20,000 annually for the library. Some of the book they sell are ones removed from the library's collection, but most are donated by people like us! UFL takes book donations anytime at the circulation desk and they will give you a form so you can even write off your donation on your taxes.

It's so easy! This weekend after the Clean Water Garage Sale, I brought a trunk-load of books over that didn't sell. The librarian brought a cart out to my car, loaded it up for me and wheeled it all back in. So, all you need to do is go through your bookshelves and PURGE.

I'll be doing this over the next couple weeks because the next book sale is on August26-30th (but like I said, they take books all year). I need to attack my school books from grad and undergrad most importantly. I know we also have some cookbooks we can get rid of and a couple novels. I'll be updating with pics and stuff about what we manage to get out of the house.

What books can you PURGE?

PURGE for another Garage Sale Fundraiser

If you missed donating to to the Clean Water Garage Sale, you can still get rid of your stuff for a good cause. A friend of mine e-mailed yesterday about a garage sale she is organizing to build a women's shelter in Ecuador. I pasted her e-mail below so you can see the details. You can contact them for delivery times or pick up. So it's very easy! Happy PURGing for another good cause!

~~~~

Attention Friends and Lovers of Chambana:

I need your help! I am broke broke broke and trying to get to Ecuador to collaborate again with the women in my "extended family" to work to get the shelter we dream of having for women there built and functional! Together with the help of a generous friend of mine, we're calling upon our friends to donate items to be sold in

a garage sale on Saturday, August 21st, 2010 in the Cherry Hills Subdivision in Champaign. All proceeds will help send me to Ecuador!

Please help a sister out and donate what junk (I say that lovingly!) you can to the cause! All donated things can either be picked up by me or dropped off yourself on location between August 19th, from 6pm-9pm (during set-up) at:

2811 Cherry Hills Drive, Champaign, IL 61822. My phone
Organizers, Rachel Storm and Joan Wingo can be reached at:

217-840-8517 (Joan) and 630-677-7219 (Rachel)

We also are looking for volunteers to do the following:

• Staff the sale itself anytime on Saturday, August 21st from 7am-5pm!
• Help set-up on Thursday, August 19th beginning at 6pm!
• Pass the word around! Do you know more people who might want to get rid of their stuff?! Forward this message!

I plan to fly to Ecuador over Winter or Spring break this year and every penny counts. Please help me get there!

_____________________________________________

Kind regards,

Rachel Storm
Program Coordinator, Illinois Women's Resources Center
The Women's Resources Center, University of Illinois

Student Affairs--Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Relations
703 S. Wright Street, Champaign, IL 61820
MC-302
(217) 333-3137 (office phone)
(217) 244-3167 (fax)
(630) 677-7219 (cell)

Freecycle Leftovers from Clean Water Garage Sale

The sale is over, but don't miss out on these great free items! If you want to donate financially to help dig the well in Liberia, you can leave a check in the mailbox to "Quest UMC" with "Clean Water Garage Sale" in the memo.

Now at 3916 Aberdeen in SW Champaign, you can find these and a couple other things:

UPDATE: All of these were picked up before garbage collection day. So basically nothing went in the trash of all those donated items we collected ;)

Clean Water Garage Sale - The Final Count

$104.45.

That's how far we are from digging the next clean well for clean water for another village in Liberia, Africa. Yessir, from 2 weekends of garage sales, we raised

$1395.55!

Thank you so much for any help you may have offered. I can't believe that we are sooooooooo close. If you want to help us reach our goal of $1500, you can make a check to "Quest UMC" with"Clean Water Garage Sale" in the memo and mail it to:

Quest UMC

1212 Butzow Dr.

Suite B

Urbana, IL 61801

Compared to what we've already raised, this seems like pennies, so any thing you can contribute is a great help and would be much appreciated. I know we can do it! Thank you so much already for your donations, volunteer hours, prayers, and support!

For your viewing pleasure: what you PURGEd for the second garage sale:

Photo Credit: Emily Hays