Where does it go?Everything has somewhere to go.It did not pile up overnight. One thing at a time.
Where does it go? Free printables · Decluttering

Keep, sell, donate, recycle, bin

The short answer

Five piles: keep, sell, donate, recycle, bin. Each has one rule so you decide once and stop re-deciding. Keep means used this year with a home to return to. Sell means worth the hour. Donate means you would hand it to a friend. Recycle is sorted by type. Bin is the rest.

Tape it to the wall above the piles. Read the rule, put the thing down, pick up the next thing.

What is on the sheet?

Keep

Used this year, and it has a home to go back to. If it needs a new home, write the home here, not the item.

Sell

Worth more than the hour it takes to photograph, list and hand over. Photograph it today or move it to donate.

Donate

Clean, working, and you would hand it to a friend. Op shops pay to dump what they cannot sell, so broken is not a donation.

Recycle

Sorted by type, not thrown in one bag: containers for the refund, paper and cardboard, e-waste and batteries to a drop-off.

Bin

Broken, stained, expired, or nobody would take it. General waste, not the recycling bin, unless the state page says otherwise.

Where each pile went

Op shop, buyer, refund point, drop-off, bin night. Write it so the piles leave the house.

What usually comes up?

What if I cannot decide?

It goes in keep, and the keep pile gets boxed and dated. If the box is still shut in six months, the whole box goes to donate unopened.

Why is recycle sorted by type?

Because one mixed bag ends up in general waste. Containers with the refund mark go to the refund point, paper and cardboard to the recycling bin, e-waste and batteries to a drop-off. Which drop-off depends on the state, and the state pages give the route.

Where do the bags go afterwards?

Op shop, refund, drop-off or bin: Where does it go? answers it by state. The other sheets are on the printables page.