If you handle used books, you often end up with people coming with piles of books from an estate. A relative has died and they’re left to try and clear out the house. Often, this is someone not from the area, so they’re clueless as to where to take things. Usually by the time they got to the books they’ve dealt with the common objects like housewares and clothing. Now its the things that they know (or think) have some value and aren’t sure what to do with. They don’t want to throw them out. They want them to go to a “good home” or to “someone who will appreciate them”. They’ll often use the same words when describing the books they just brought you. So since you handled the books they are inclined to ask YOU what to do with those OTHER items.
You won’t deal with these questions everyday, but its good to have the answers handy for just such situations. Remember, this is someone dealing with an estate. “Just throw it out” is not what they want to hear. This may well be what they do at the end, but they want other options.
First stop in many cases, especially if they just want items GONE should probably be either Craig’s List (if they want money for the item) or Freecycle (if they just want them GONE). If its things that are in poor condition and should be recycled, they can find the nearest recycling center through Earth 911.
