My mother was a packrat. Over the past couple of summers I’ve used craigslist to post 4 or 5 “Curb alert: free___” and gotten rid of all manner of junk, from boxes of scrap metal & dead air conditioners & lawn mowers to an above ground pool in good shape and a water bed. 95% of the stuff I’ve put at the end of the driveway found a new home within a week, sparing me the cost of disposing of it.
I absolutely hate and despise moving and feel your pain.
Here’s a link to a veterans’ organization that picks up book donations. I know that you’re in Chicago and they’re in NY, but they may be able to connect you with an organization like theirs in your area.
Thanks all. I appreciate the suggestions and commiseration. Phase 1 of our move is completed. My brother-in-law drove a 20-ft. U-Haul up from Kansas City and took back most of our belongings. Furniture, office desks, dining room and kitchen tables, our bed (we’re sleeping on an air mattress) and a godawful amount of boxes of books, DVDs, Videos, CDs, cassettes (we did throw a lot of pre-recorded cassettes away but still had a couple of boxes of live concerts not digitised and mix tapes sent to me), file cabinets, and various other things. All we have left are clothes, kitchen stuff, some electronics and miscellaneous items. We could not have fit one more thing into that truck, thank goodness because among the things left behind were the kitchen chairs so we can sit down while eating. I’ll rent a smaller truck to finish up at the end of the week. Over the last 3 weeks I’ve set out at least 50 big trash bags and they were hauled away. Thanks to the waste management workers, since most of them were very heavy with clothes and magazines from me, and clothes and electronics from my husband (he’s a pack rat like me, but only with electronics, wires, geeky stuff and tools).
The place looks like a tornado went through. We hired some friends of friends who are out-of-work bartenders. They needed the money and worked their butts off. I don’t think I mentioned that we live on the 3rd floor of a 3-story building.
Does anyone need shelves? When we moved in here in 2003, my husband built several shelves, custom-sized for LPs, DVDs, CDs, cassettes, videos, hardback books and paperbacks. They’re not expertly done, not like a real carpenter would do, but they’re sturdy and have done the job all these years. Unfortunately we can only take a few. We were able to fit two bookshelves and one DVD shelf into the truck, piled on top of everything else. Depending on the truck we get, I’m hoping we can take 2 CD shelves. Yeah, everything we have could fit in my phone in digital form, but I’m old and heartsick about losing physical media, especially books and my movie collection (we have about 2000 DVDs).
Anyway, shelves? Anyone? If so please send a private message. They were built as a labor of love. Finally, we lived in a place where we could fill up almost every available inch of wall space with shelves. We’ve never had a car in the 30 years we’ve lived in Chicago, so my husband took a bus multiple times to a 24-hr Home Depot and brought back wood planks and plywood. On a bus. In the middle of the night to not be a bother to other riders. 16 tall shelves’ worth of wood. He’s amazing.
I threw away thousands of magazines already, but we still have thousands more to deal with. Never, ever, will I buy another magazine. I know I said that before. A bunch, hundreds, would probably sell on eBay but we have no time to do that.
Lordy I hate moving, but I don’t think we’ll ever have to move again so there’s that.
If it’s not your dumpster to use then you’re still illegally dumping, aren’t you?
We just moved, and almost everything we didn’t want was placed at the curb and posted on craigslist free and gone within less than a day. Definitely try this for anything that’s usable but that you can’t take.
The few things that weren’t, our local trash hauler will do a few “large and bulky” pickups a year for free. We scheduled one for the day before we moved and everything that was left they took. If your trash service doesn’t do something like this, you can probably hire a service that will take whatever’s left at once. This is likely to be less expensive than renting a storage unit and transporting stuff there.
I just realized there’s a a Marketplace forum here. I’m going to post this there but thought I’d give you folks a crack at these first. There are links to pictures
My husband posted photos of the shelves on another board, but I don’t think you can look at that listing unless you are a member. Here’s what he posted, and links to photos:
A: Cassette shelf. Holds an obscene quantity of audio cassettes. 106" high, 45 1/2" wide, 18 shelves each 5 " high, 3 1/2" deep.
https://i.ibb.co/6nCWPBz/IMG-20200512-102847252.jpg
(That Forum forbid anyone posting anything for free, or even negotiable. It’s a pain.)
We wish to be free of these things, and really want someone within driving distance of our area (Albany Park, end of the Brown Line) to give these things a good home.
B, C & D:
DVD/VHS shelves 94" high by 35 1/2" wide, 10 shelves each 8 and 1/4 inches high.
https://i.ibb.co/VC6cLh7/IMG-20200512-105826073.jpg
These are perfect for holding VHS, S-VHS, D-VHS, DVDs and BluRays.
A weird shelf that was built to go over the return air duct so it doesn’t have as many lower shelves. Built to fit between B, C, D and the upcoming CD shelves.
E: DVD/VHS shelves 94" high by 35 1/2" wide 9 shelves each 8 and 1/4 inches high
https://i.ibb.co/TTrv4gj/IMG-20200512-120003833.jpg
F & G:
CD shelves. 94" high, 35 1/2" wide, 14 shelves each:
https://i.ibb.co/D1bP1zh/IMG-20200512-120245325.jpg
H,I and J,K
VHS/DVD/BluRay shelves.
All 4 are 106" high
H & I are 35 1/2" wide
J & K are 45 1/2 height
All are 6 in deep, 12 shelves
https://i.ibb.co/D1bP1zh/IMG-20200512-120245325.jpg
L
Hardbound book shelf 94 in high, 37 1/2" wide. 8 shelves each 10 and a half inches high, 7 and 1/4 inches deep.
https://i.ibb.co/82jRJwG/IMG-20200512-122627902.jpg
M, the last and hopefully the most desirable.
LP shelves
10 FEET long, two LPs high.
https://i.ibb.co/0DyRsjF/IMG-20200512-125655398.jpg
Since the “LP” format seems to be so popular with the kids these days…
Please, come and take these off our hands!
We need to be out of here on Saturday, so we do NOT have much time.
If you make all of these go away (with the exception of the LP one, because one person on the other Forum said “maybe” and my husband has to make it possible for him first) you can have all of them for free.
Photos of us building and using the shelves when we moved into this apartment in 2003.
can you ask the church next door if they can use anything? They may have indigent housing they can use your discarded dresser in after wiping own with Clorox. linens, clothing, etc may also be used in for indigents after washing. they may not want it or may be able to recommend someone who can use it. I hate to see stuff go to the landfill.
:: sigh :: I would totally take that LP shelf off your hands if not for The Plague and the fact that we probably only have enough LPs to fill 2 sections of it, thanks to my late diabetic cat Sir Galahad who peed all over the floor and ruined a bunch of my LPs…
Aw, that’s a cool neighborhood. A friend of mine lives right by Ravenswood Manor Park and Monti’s and Harvestime Foods across the river are faves. Sorry to see you leave town.
Thanks. Not as sorry as I am. We’re a block away from the train and 1/4 block from a 24-hr bus (81 Lawrence). It’s a huge 3-bedroom apartment with separate living & dining room, a large kitchen that was completely remodeled right before we moved in, and off-street parking, not that we needed it. We’ve lived here for 17 years, and the landlord has only raised our rent once (he really really likes us, we’re the perfect tenants). We paid $900.00 a month in 2003 when we moved in, and pay $980.00 a month now. Once the landlord spruces the place up a bit (our cat caused some damage, the central air quit working last summer, the microwave door is broken and the oven quit working about 10 years ago which never mattered to us so we never even mentioned it to him) he could easily get at least $1500-$2000 a month, maybe more. I don’t know rents around here. The place we’re moving to is much smaller, but the appliances are new, it too has central air plus a dishwasher and washer/dryer. You lose some you win some.
Mostly I’ll be losing Chicago. My god it hurts. I love Chicago so much. I will always consider it home.
You got me; I’m a crook. And I got away with it, too, seeing as I’m now on the other side of the country.