A new school year is a good time to have a clear out. But where can you get rid of your unwanted goods (that work perfectly well) without filling up landfills unnecessarily? Serena Fokschaner finds some green ways of making your unwanted products work again for someone else.

Junk. Stuff. Clutter. Our houses are full of it: the juicer you’ve used once; the pre-pregnancy size 8 jeans, toys, books, video players; all the bits you don’t need but which still work. Research by Gumtree reveals that we get rid of over £5.6 billion worth of useable household items a year including 1.35 million working fridges and freezers and 2.6 million sofas.

With the children back at school, seize the moment to do some de-cluttering. But instead of lugging everything to the charity shop or paying someone to dump your stuff in a landfill, explore some more creative ways of de-junking. After all, you might not want that luxury foot spa but there is always someone who will.

Having recently done our kitchen we’ve got some solid but surplus chairs sitting in the hall. The Furniture Reuse Network (www.frn.org.uk) is a national charity which collects furniture donations for households living on income benefit: they refurbish and recycle over 2 million items a year. My local branch, Furnish, was keen to collect my chairs (for £10) and said they particularly need sofas and wardrobes, but not kitchen appliances like ovens. All upholstery has to be fireproofed and they can collect up to 10 items.

I also wanted to shift our slow but workable laptop; to throw it in a skip would have been wasteful and created toxic waste (computers contain heavy metals and chemicals). Computer Aid (www.computeraid.org) refurbish PCs for use in developing countries. A spokesperson said he would happily accept my five-year old machine (but not pre-Windows 2000 versions) adding that almost 90 per cent of donations are sent to schools in Africa. You could either drop it at their HQ in N11 or they would collect (£12.95) providing you booked at least two days in advance.

Another task was to find a home for a stack of children’s books. I could have tried Freecycle (www.uk.freecycle.org), an online forum where people give away and pick up unwanted stuff for free. It has 4,009 groups worldwide and, when I checked its online counter, over 3 million users. There are groups all over London and signing up is straightforward. I typed in my message: ‘Offered – fifteen children’s books for 9–11 age group.’ After about an hour I had had ten replies, mainly from local mothers eager to pounce on recommended reading material for their children. It’s up to you to decide who you give to. The Freecycle advice is that you shouldn’t just give things to the first emailer; and you have to be wary of anyone you think wants to onsell the goods. It’s best to choose people who can collect immediately (alternatively you can deliver it yourself). Other users have reported success with items as diverse as a desk, a microwave, a drum kit, a riding hat and a fax machine. Most subscribers genuinely need these things.

For the dejected-looking bikes in the garden I could have tried Jole Rider (www.jole1000.org), a charity which sends re-furbished bikes to secondary schools in Africa. The bikes are allocated to students who have the longest walks to school and the charity has just sent a shipment of 300 bikes to the Gambia. Their volunteers will also refurbish lacklustre bikes.

Another useful site is www.efreeko.co.uk. Rather like a free Ebay, this allows members to give items away to anyone who wants them, anywhere in the country. You’ll need to list your item and if it can’t be collected include a charge for postage and packing. Joining is free and you will reach 1,500 members keen to find homes for anything from a cast iron bath and a photo frame to a cot or Futon.

Co-founder Matt Argyll says Efreeko grew out of environmental concerns. ‘When we were moving house I took a lot of things to the charity shop. The next day I saw a Big Issue seller wearing one of the rucksacks we’d donated to the shop. It turned out he’d rescued it from a bin. So much stuff ends up on landfill sites today; I wanted to find a better way of distributing items people no longer need or want. Lots of our members are young mums on low incomes. Our site helps them find essential baby kit for free.’

I also had a look at Swapxchange (www.swapxchange.org), which offers items to swap from all over the country. You could kit your home out for free here, with items ranging from garden tools and toys to DVD players and guitars. Someone wanted to swap their piano for some building work in their home. Another offered a children’s bookcase for a box of chocolates and a bottle of wine.

Swapxchange began life as Swap It, founded in 2001 by community development worker Ellie Dale, and claims to be the first swap site in the UK. The site works closely with local boroughs such as Islington where it has shifted over 16 tonnes of stuff. At one end of the scale two houses have been swapped with more modest transactions including a toaster for a bottle of real ale.

More ways to declutter

For the not-quite-you designer buys, try a swapping party – the latest thing in New York and LA apparently. Camilla Yonge, of the Y.Shop (www.y-shop.co.uk) personal shopping service, has launched a monthly swapshop service. It might be a DVF for a Temperley; Zara for Jigsaw. Time to raid the wardrobe.

Overwhelmed by junk mail? Then have your name removed from Direct Mailing lists by logging on to the Mailing Preference Service. It’s simple and your name won’t be taken off lists you’ve chosen to join yourself. (www.mpsonline.org.uk).

Still stuck? Any Junk (www.anyjunk.co.uk) will collect items from your door (costs from £25) and they claim that over 50 per cent of their loads are not dumped on a landfill (larger items like sofas are donated to charities).

Buying on Ebay (www.ebay.co.uk) is a doddle; selling is a chore. Auctioning4u (www.auctioning4u.co.uk) have shops all over London: you drop off your load and they’ll sell it on EBay. For items that fetch over £30 you’ll get two-thirds of the sale price. If you live in central London and your load is worth over £300 they’ll collect it for a fee.

Contact The Environment Agency for your nearest recycling centre if you have a large load to dispose of. Tel 0845 3 31 31 31.

Instead of buying a new computer, give your existing computer a new lease of life by increasing your computer’s memory (RAM) or replacing the hard drive instead.

Don’t replace your mobile phone every year: the cadmium from one discarded mobile is enough to pollute 600,000 litres of water, and most phones will work for at least five years.

Swap and sell your belongings at www.whatsyoursismine.co.uk

www.musicalinstrumentsales.co.uk is a good forum to sell and buy musical instruments.

You can recyle your CDs at www.recyclingcds.com