Student-Powered Lifehacking

As Kelly alluded to in an earlier post, these last months I have been applying, interviewing, and finally choosing which law school I will attend next year. My votes are in, and I will be much closer to Chris and Kelly this next year, out at USC in Los Angeles. ;)

I have already begun tracking "USC Law" on Twitter, so hopefully I will encounter other students online before driving out there early August.

Now. I have discovered that part of the process of moving on to law school involves some heavy donating. For me, this is a lot of clothing and used/old electronics.

Donate Your Used Clothing to Goodwill

At Goodwill, they have various policies nationwide. So, you'll have to check your state's website. But, in general,

Goodwill generally will not accept donations of auto parts, non-working electronics, furniture showing signs of damage, or exercise equipment. For liability reasons, Goodwill generally will not accept baby cribs. Sanitary regulations prohibit Goodwill from accepting mattress donations (although most Goodwill retail stores do sell new mattresses and box-springs at reasonable prices). Recently, due to safety concerns (in particular, concerns over lead content), Goodwill will not accept many toys, particularly those made in China.
Goodwill will generally always accept donations of clothing, shoes, books, accessories (handbags, belts), and consumer electronics. [Wikipedia]

Also see The Salvation Army's guidelines.

Donate Your Old Computer

If you plan on getting a new desktop or laptop for school, donate the old one at TechSoup. Search your zip code, and the service will provide you with organizations readily available to recycle and/or refurbish and donate your old computer.

Note: Be sure to wipe your hard drive completely clean of your personal information before donating. See Active@Killdisk or Darik's Boot and Nuke (Windows) or ShredIt X (Mac).

Ship the Rest of Your Used Electronics to Charities

RecyclingForCharities makes this very simple.

Note: If you are donating an old cell phone, be sure to erase all your data.

But Can I Make Some $$$ ?

Of course. Be sure to get a receipt from Goodwill and/or The Salvation Army. Depending on what you donate, it can rack up some nice tax deductions. See The Salvation Army's valuation guide.

And if you think that textbook is worth it, you can always try to sell it off Amazon.

And a good site to sell your used electronics would be eBay.