When we moved into this house [18 months ago], I brought with me every writing utensil that was in our last home and I was super proud of myself for gathering them all into this one organized [and even labeled] plastic container.

My goodness, how things have changed.

Anyway, today was the day to go through this EXCESSIVE amount of pens, pencils, markers and highlighters and PURGE!

First, I needed to determine how many of them actually still work.

The vast majority still have plenty of life in them. The ones on the lid [a grand total of 58] are empty and headed for recycling.

Of the ones that work, I have chosen to keep these:

The sharpies and colorful pens are for craft and art projects – which have been the only reasons I have reached for this container in the past year.

Everything else is getting donated.

The grand total came to 109 utensils to donate and 58 to recycle.

Sad thing about recycling, though, is that I need five pounds [or roughly 350 pieces] in order to mail them in to TerraCycle…so, anyone got some empty pens they are looking get rid of? Realistically, I will probably have to find a place that collects them because it will probably take me the rest of my life to use 300 more pens.

[As a side note, if you work for a big company that is not currently recycling their pens – you should encourage them to start. More info in recycling pens RecycleNation.com.]

As for the ones that are still good, I’m going to donate to the gym I work at which is run by the park district [they seem to ALWAYS be short on pens], or to a school maybe, or to PenGuyArt.com, or …well, I’m open to suggestions.

Anyone need some pens?

Karis