Sunday, January 25, 2009

Moving Will Never be Fun, But it Can be Eco-Friendly

Aside from the financial cost, the trauma of moving home or moving office (especially in a big city like London) can seem almost overwhelming.  London removals will never be entirely stress free, but they can at least get a bit more Green if you follow some of these suggestions from Amber Moves.
Before you move, rationalise the stuff you actually need to take with you.Do you really need to put all the accumulated junk you’ve gathered over the years in a removal van, transporting it across teh vast city of London, costing you money and using additional fuel? 
Moving is a very good opportunity to have a clear out of furniture, clothes, gadgets etc that you just don’t need any longer.  But when you do that, don’t just throw those things away!  Recycling them makes sense, reduces your carbon footprint and helps out someone else while saving you money on London removal and storage costs. 
Depending on the quality of the item, you can use local freesheets or websites to sell unwanted or surplus stuff you’d rather not take on the van, making some spare cash for yourself.That’s a particularly good incentive to encourage younger kids and teenagers to ‘cull’ the contents of their bedrooms if they know there will be pocket money at the end!
If there are any local charity shops near you they will probably be delighted to take clothing and furniture off your hands.   Books are always popular with various charity shops, and that will save you cost and effort too.  Books and records are deceptively heavy, so when it comes to packing you have to use serval smaller boxes or half-fill larger cartons which obviously isn’t the most efficient use of space.Many charities will also call and collect much larger items.
Surplus furniture and a much larger soft furnishing items will also be welcomed by the FRN (Furniture Re-use Network) on www.frn.org.uk  which supports charitable re-use organisations and helps very poor households get furniture, white goods and other household items at affordable prices. 
Once you’ve cleared the decks (and done some good in the process) make sure that your removal company has an active recycling policy and is committed to reducing landfill waste and uses boxes and crates that are made of various recycled materials or are capable of being recycled. 
At the end of the day, although the hassle of a London removal won’t go away, you will at least have minimised the sheer bulk  you need to transport and helped out the environment, yourself, some deserving causes and not least your removal company too!

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