Instead of throwing it out, why not donate your old computer? One person’s box of outdated silicon is another’s treasure chest, and there are plenty of individuals, charities and recycling schemes willing to take your old machine away for free.

Your Local Donation Or Recycling Scheme

This one might require a bit of a searching on your part, but a local resource means you don’t have to drive far and the charity or organisation might even pick up your old computer themselves.

There are all sorts of local schemes throughout the world, and the best way to find them is through local government. Your local council or authority should be familiar with local recycling schemes or charities that take old tech and be willing to point you in the direction of some worthy causes.

Examples local to me (Melbourne, Victoria) include the Byteback scheme and Computerbank (cheap $30 PCs running Linux), and when I lived in the UK there were plenty of local charities and community groups willing to take in components, boxes and laptops for refurbishment.

Freecycle

Devised and established as a way of redistributing items that are no longer wanted or required, Freecycle operates all over the globe. This means you can join your local chapter and simply advertise your freebies (any non-living, legally saleable item) before whoever wants them comes forward to claim.

Freecycle uses Yahoo Groups as its main engine, so you’ll need a Yahoo account to give things away (though you can sign in with both Facebook and Google these days). It’s up to you who gets the goods and the claimant is responsible for collection.

Freecycle is a very environmentally friendly way of re-using pretty much anything you can think of and I can’t think of a single reason not to use the service!

When signing up for a Freecycle group on Yahoo, unless you’re happy to be emailed hundreds of times a day choose “Special Notices Only” for your email preferences, otherwise each and every offer will make its way into your inbox.

North America: About.com Donation Resources & EPA Advice

MakeUseOf is an international website with readers all around the globe, so I’ve split these next few resources by locale. About.com’s Women in Business section has produced a list of ten top donation and recycling organizations that are relevant to US and Canadian residents.

Included is the excellent Earth911 which searches for local businesses and partners willing to recycle or accept old machines, TechSoup, the World Computer Exchange (which annoyingly only has US and Canadian chapters) and Computers for Schools amongst others.

The EPA Advice link contains a few other resources and another facility for finding local recycling projects. Regardless of who you donate to, the resources on both sites are more than worthy of your unwanted electronics.

UK: IT For Charities Resources & Computer Aid International

If you’re in the UK and looking to donate an old PC then you’re bound to find somewhere nearby on the IT For Charities list of links above. Included are links to companies, not-for-profit organizations and bonafide charities who will all take your unwanted computers away.

Computer Aid International are another charity who do especially good work with the donations they receive. The equipment is taken in, refurbished and shipped off to countries where computers and technology are not as accessible. Thus far the charity has sent nearly 200,000 computers around the world to help poorer nations get online.

There are also a lot of community workshop programs and local outreach centres in the UK that use old computers for all sorts of tasks, including basic IT training and charity work.

Australia: Recycling Near You & GiveNow Resources

Recycling Near You is an Australian website that will help you recycle virtually anything, including old computers, monitors and accessories. The website uses your location to deliver relevant results that are local to you, including both charities, companies and recycling schemes.

Whilst the aforementioned website is probably the quickest way of finding a local recycling centre, there are some very valuable resources on GiveNow.com.au. Each is separated by state and region, making it easy to find the right links.

Worldwide: Retailers & Manufacturers

This is by no means a golden rule that is upheld everywhere, but many manufacturers and even retailers will now take in unwanted electronic equipment. Computer manufacturers such as Apple and Dell both have recycling schemes where in certain countries they will accept any brand of waste and waive a fee (note you might still be charged for pick-up).

Retailers similarly offer recycling schemes, especially when new products are purchased. These sorts of schemes are popular with large items like refrigerators and ovens, but it might also be worth asking about computer recycling. A benefit to using a retailer like this is that they will often come to your house, remove the equipment for you and swallow any recycling costs that may apply.

Whilst many international and national laws state that these products must be recycled responsibly, don’t forget that this isn’t quite the same as donating to charity.

Conclusion

There are plenty of charities, organizations and companies who will accept your old computers to prevent them ending up in a landfill somewhere, so the next time you get rid of a PC or monitor don’t forget to look up both local and national schemes. By recycling or donating to a good cause you can feel great about helping someone out and even better about the fact that your old kit isn’t sitting in a landfill.

How are you going to get rid of your next PC? Any other resources we should know about to donate old computers? Have you recycled a PC before? Let us know in the comments.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Today, I’ve got five websites that you can find some free clothes on, and the best part is that each of them are totally free of charge (I know, I know – you’re on the edge of your seat).

Freecycle

We’ve talked a little bit about Freecycle on MakeUseOf before, so I just wanted to get it out of the way since you might have already heard about it. The site was developed as a way for people to get rid of their unneeded items in a much more environmentally-friendly way than dumping them in a landfill. However, along with recycling used computer gadgets and such, you can actually grab free clothes from Freecycle.

Essentially, Freecycle is all about giving away what you don’t need and getting stuff that you do – for free. About the only thing that somewhat frustrated me with this site was the lack of a legitimate search function, but after a few clicks, I found a few dress shirts near my town that were being given away free of charge! Furthermore, you can post “Wanted” ads for clothing that you may need.

Freegle

So you may have noticed that Freecycle is starting to have footprints across the world. Well, there’s more good news for my UK friends. Freegle is a site that is… well… it’s just like Freecycle. I could actually copy and paste the above two paragraphs here, replace each mention of Freecycle with the word “Freegle”, and it would be a perfect description. Unfortunately, my editor Mark wouldn’t appreciate this very much.

From what I understand, Freegle actually used to be a part of Freecycle, but something went down and the UK crew split. However, both sites are wonderful (but as a note, Freegle’s web design is much cleaner and more user-friendly).

Craigslist

Oh hey, Craigslist! How did you get on this MUO article, too? Yes, we’ve covered the list of Craig quite a few times here on MUO, but there’s one item you should take note of on Craigslist’s front page. Right under the “For Sale” section of the site, you’ll see a link that simply says “free”.

Well… I bet you’re wondering where that’s going to lead you, right? This section of the site is full of free stuff just ready for you to take. After a quick search in my area, I found shoes, baby clothes, and even adult-sized clothes. One pretty nice item was an advertisement by a thrift store that was giving away a ton of free clothes for one day only. Make sure you take a look at the ads in your location.

Free Stuff Channel

The site mentioned here is a whole lot like a site called Hey, It’s Free! that I reviewed a few weeks ago. Basically, the creators of the site go around the Internet in search for magical items such as free promotional products and special offers coupons. Pretty cool.

However, if there’s anything that businesses like to make, it’s t-shirts, right? (We even have a few on MUO.) It also seems as if companies love giving away their t-shirts. Fortunately, in addition to everything else the site has to offer, the Free Stuff Channel goes around looking for promo items such as these. The site is updated daily, so you could have quite a large wardrobe before the year is over.

Cool Freebie Links

Cool Freebies Links looks like a site from the nineties and it also uses my least favorite font – Comic Sans – but it has quite a bit of free stuff that is collected in the same fashion as the Free Stuff Channel. It’s a lot of text to read, but each bit of it is very valuable.

I’m not entirely sure how often the site updates, but they had quite a collection of promo clothing for you to grab if you’re lucky. Look through their listings, and you may even find other sites for other free materials.

Conclusion

Well that’s that, my thread-mooching friends. If you’re low on cash, you definitely have quite a few options to choose from for free clothes. Sure, with some of these you may have to put up with a company logo but that’s better than running around naked, right?

What other sites do you use to find free clothing? Did you find anything pretty cool on the ones shown here?

That’s right, any stand ideas that require superglue, drilling, etc, are off this list because we wanted easy projects that can be readily repeated in the future if needed. Many of the ones we did stick with for this list will include items that you most likely already have. You might even find some of these items in your room, left gathering dust in a corner. Find out how to make good use of and recycle old household objects.

MiniDV Tape Case (Can Carry Earbuds, Too!)

If you have a MiniDV tape case lying around, simply remove the cardboard lining the case, and flip it over. This is perhaps one of the simpler docks you can get for almost free.

Observant readers might notice that the case dimensions might not fit the smartphone or MP3 player in landscape mode. Fear not, as a wise YouTube user has shown how relatively easy it is to adjust the case.

Paper Clip Stand

Take a regular paper clip (if you have a plastic-coated one, even better), straighten it out, and bend it so it’ll look like this.

The full instructions are on this short video.

Business Card Stand

This design requires you to maneuver some scissors around a lined business card. It doesn’t get much easier than that.

The hack author has provided careful instructions up on Instructables so be sure to check out that page for more information.

Plastic Membership/Old Credit Card Stand

Finally, you’ll be able to recycle all those membership cards you’ve accumulated over the years. A few bends will make a simple plastic card an excellent stand for your device.

If you’ve got expired credit cards, you can also do this after completely marking or scratching off your information. For more instructions, go to this Instructables post.

Freebie Plastic Card Stand

You know those fake and less rigid plastic cards mailed by credit card companies that you usually toss without thinking twice? Next time you get one, don’t throw it out as you might be able to construct a simple stand for your iPod.

The trick is to cut the plastic card in 3 equal parts, make incisions as detailed by the instructional video and interlock them together. It’s quite a good way to recycle things, if you ask me.

Binder Clip Stand

Using two binder clips, you can make a nice and easy stand that will be just as portable as most other designs on this list.

Lego Block Stand (Allows You To Plug Earbuds)

The classic toy can make a lot of structures, including a good stand for your iPod. If you want to follow a specific design, this one might be a good start as it provides a way for you to plug your earbuds.

There are plenty more models on the web. Here’s an interesting one that allows you to prop your iPod in many angles and in both landscape and portrait modes securely.

Here’s another model that was designed by a clever kid.

For full instructions, be sure to check out the original video.

Fancy Paper Stand

Here’s one that might look better than other DIY solutions. If you have special resume paper or any kind of thicker paper, even cardboard, you can try this template provided by French designer Dessine moi un objet’s blog.

This is perhaps one of the more elegant DIY stands that doesn’t look too DIY so the few minutes cutting out the paper will be well worth it. Check out the instructional video here.

Now that you’ve seen a few imaginative designs, tell us about what you use. Have you come up with some creative, environmentally-friendly stands for your iPod/iPhone/smartphone? Let us know in the comments!

Image Credit: Christos Georghiou

If you love gardening and like making things with your own hands, today’s collection is right for you!

This post shares ten most useful resources that will get you inspired and your creativity flowing: they share fun and unique ideas on how to turn trash into gardening gold!

 Instructables / Indoor Gardening

The section features more than 20 DIY projects by gardening experts. Find out how to grow your own herb garden and start seedlings indoors.

Favorite projects: iPlanter, an upside down planter made from the old plastic bag, and Fern Nursery, a green way to recycle a tennis ball container into an in-house garden on your windowsill.

Gardener’s World / Creative Projects

The best thing about the site is that each project has a detailed step-by-step guide on how to implement each idea.

Favorite project: Build a bug box (or bee hotel) and have fun watching bees come to live there (quite an unexpected project for gardeners as they usually get annoyed by bugs, but what a neat idea!)

 DIY Gadgets / Gardening

DIY gadgets blog features most interesting upcycling ideas on how to turn trash into useful things. Not all of the ideas have detailed instructions linked to but the resource can be a powerful source of creative DIY inspiration.

Favorite projects: light bulb into a mini green house and skateboard table.

Lonely Plants / DIY

This page features quite a few creative DIY gardening ideas to keep you busy for the whole year.

Favorite projects: DIY Hanging Garden to decorate your patio or balcony and DIY Bamboo Water Hammer to create a cool-looking stylish garden fountain.

Neat Ideas / Gardening

The gardening section of the “Neat Ideas” site is goldmine of creative DIY hacks: from watering plants (while you are away) to breathing a new life into old used tools. There are no step-by-step guides on realizing the ideas but they are great for inspiration!

Favorite projects: There are plenty of useful ideas on how to upcycle a used plastic bottle into useful stuff like Watering Spikes and Bird Feeder.

Life on the Balcony / Container Gardening

Looks like the blog hasn’t been updated for some time but its collections of links features so many DIY container gardening tips that it is still worth checking.

Favorite projects: DIY garden-inspired gift ideas that really prove the fact that the best present is one made with your own hands.

28 Upcycles for the Garden

The collection of useful ideas from an 8-year gardener on how to upcycle 28 (or more) everyday household items for gardening.

Favorite projects: Styrofoam cups with lids can be upcycled as micro green houses for seed starting and transplanting seedlings.

Re-Nest / Gardening

The collection of DIY and how-to gardening tips created by Re-Nest editors features a few gardening tips a day!

Favorite project: a recycled plastic bottle vertical garden, an inexpensive small space solution for growing herbs and spices.

Upcycled Garden

The category lists not many DIY gardening projects but the collection is really high-quality.

Favorite projects: Boot Tray, a practical and nice way to keep all the dirt from the garden boots inside (the idea looks similar to this stone bath mat by the way) and light bulb vases (hanging mini vases that would look great in any interior)

Recycled Garden Planters

The awesome collection of various ways to create unique garden planters by Recycle Scene (no instructions available but you are unlikely to need one for most of the ideas).

Favorite projects: Guitar planter and Shoe Planter.

Do you feel inspired? Please share your favorite DIY gardening projects in the comments!

Image Credit:cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by girlingearstudio

You’ll need to install your favorite software of course, and you might want to spend some time tweaking things. In many ways Bodhi reminds me of time spent tweaking early versions of Ubuntu to make everything work just right. We’ve shown you visually pleasing Linux distributions that use Enlightenment, and those are worth checking out. Bodhi Linux is different because it’s up to date, completely free to use and compatible with the Ubuntu repositories.

Choose Your Look

Bodhi, it seems, is committed to choice above all. The distribution boots quickly, and the first thing it presents you with is a decision. With various desktop modes to choose from and a few themes to check out as well, you’ll be wanting to explore a little:

Pick a profile based on your needs and you’ll quickly see the main desktop for Bodhi. Here’s how it looked based on my decisions:

This familiar (read: Windows-like) layout is unique in the world of Enlightenment-based distros, but don’t worry, you can customize the desktop quite a bit if this isn’t your style.

Use Your Desktop

So how does one use this thing? You’ll be wanting to pull up the menu to launch applications. You can do this by clicking anywhere on the desktop or by clicking the button.

Yep, it’s a start button. The menu, to begin with, is sparse, but you can explore the distribution by customizing the look and feel. Much of the fun of older Linux distributions was experimenting with the look and feel in order to get everything set up exactly the way you wanted it. Bodhi recaptured this spirit for me; you should explore it yourself.

Installing Software

Like I said earlier: there’s not a lot of software installed by default. That’s intentional, and is related to the previously mentioned commitment to choice. To quote Bodhi’s about page:

At Bodhi Linux, we believe in User Choice, so we don’t give you three pre-installed mail clients to choose from. It does not mean that there is every browser possible at the click of a button. What it does mean is that we have our own repositories and these are accessible via the apt-get command line, GUI package manager or better still our online software store ( see “Add Software” in menu above!). Out of the box we give you the tools to access the resources you need to be able to build your system.

So choice means the freedom to install whatever software you like, and there is quite a bit of freedom there to be sure. A handy website gives you quick access to many familiar programs:

The site makes use of aptURL to provide single-click installs, but offline installation packs are also available if you prefer.

Want more control than a website with download links can give you? Don’t worry, all the standard Ubuntu package management tools are here for you to use. Synaptic, for example:

You’ll find apt-get works from the command line as well, so there’s another choice for you.

Conclusion

What really impressive about this distribution is how fast it runs. This is Ubuntu stripped down without any sacrifice in terms of look and feel. Here are the minimal hardware specs:

• 300mhz i386 Processor.
• 128MB of RAM.
• 1.5GB HD space

If a computer is still running today it almost certainly meets those criteria, so there’s no harm in giving Bodhi a chance. Download it now.

What do you think of Bodhi? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, along with any Enlightenment tweaks you can offer.