Logistics of Liquidation

I just spent 4 days in Michigan cleaning out my mom's house, getting it ready to sell. In the process, I realized there is one really basic service that should exist for people doing these things: Recycling and disposal.

We had a ton of old papers and magazines and ended up tossing them all in the trash because there was no clear way to recycle them (at least in Michigan). Same for cans and bottles.

But even worse, there were a bunch of household cleaners and other assorted liquids and spray cans (Draino, vinegar, Raid, furniture polish, and of course the obligatory cans of paint that exist in any garage) that we ended up junking or pouring down the drain. You'd think the city or water dept would want to help keep people from doing this.

Thankfully, there is one organization that helped us out a lot: The Salvation Army. They came out to the house with a 24 foot moving truck and carted away a garage-full of boxes and about half of the furniture in the house. We had plenty more they could have taken, but the truck was full. We're definitely going to call them to come back out and get the rest of the stuff.

I wish there was a web site out there where someone who needed a household's worth of stuff could post a request. It'd be more efficient than the Salvation Army, and I'd feel better about choosing a particular person/family and helping them out directly.