NJ fall cleanup season is here. My shed is about to feel it.

The weather's turning, and the weekends finally have a little breathing room again. No more brutal heat, no more feeling like every Saturday belongs to the beach or the yard work you're too sweaty to enjoy.

That means it's fall cleanup time. Time to roll up the sleeves, pull everything out of the shed, and only put back what we actually still need, or what actually still works.

I've got an old lawn mower sitting out there doing nothing. A friend who tinkers with small engines said he'd take it off my hands. He never showed up. I think he was just being nice.

Two old computers have been sitting in my basement for years too, along with plenty of other stuff down there that isn't hazardous, just sentimental, the kind of thing you keep meaning to deal with and never do. For example, we have a Tupperware container with all of our kids school artwork.  K through 12.  They are in their mid 30's now. Why do I keep it?  Am I a legit hoarder? Or just sentimental?  Or lazy?!

I've joked for years about renting a dumpster for the side yard and just tossing everything in. Turns out there are actual rules for all of this, and once I looked them up, some of it's easier than I expected.

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Junk corner in my basement of 33 years. We all have one...right? | photo by EJ

Computers and TVs are actually illegal to trash

This one surprised me. Under New Jersey's Electronic Waste Management Act, you cannot legally put a computer, monitor, laptop, TV, or desktop printer out with the regular garbage. It's not just discouraged. It's against the law.

The upside: manufacturers are required to offer free recycling for exactly this reason. Most counties also run free electronics drop-off days or permanent household hazardous waste facilities. Somerset, Morris, and Monmouth counties all have programs like this, and yours almost certainly does too.

My hard drive confession

I actually destroyed an old hard drive myself once. It was not easy.

Pulling the drive unit out of the computer, no problem. Busting open the casing to get to the actual disc inside, a real problem. It took a few solid hammer bangs just to crack it open. Then getting the silver disk out, and actually breaking it into pieces, was equally miserable.

Here's what I learned the hard way: those things are built to last. A hammer is not the tool for this job.

Turns out there's an easier way, and I wish I'd known it back then. Skip the hammer entirely. A lot of electronics recyclers and county e-waste events offer free data destruction as part of the recycling process, running your drive through an actual commercial shredder. It's faster, it's safer, since some drive platters are glass and can send shards flying, and it's genuinely more thorough than anything a garage hammer session can accomplish. If you'd rather not hand it off at all, wiping the drive yourself with disk-erasing software before recycling the rest of the machine works fine too.

The lawn mower is a little more flexible

Gas mowers aren't classified the same strict way electronics are, but there's a catch: fuel and oil need to be drained first. Most municipalities won't take a mower with gas still in the tank, and dumping that fuel on the ground is illegal on its own.

Once it's drained, a lot of towns will actually take it during scheduled bulk pickup, since the mower itself is mostly scrap metal at that point. If yours won't, a scrap metal recycler will often take it for free.

And honestly, don't give up on your friend. Small engine guys generally do want these things, they just get busy. A quick "hey, still want it, I'll drop it off Saturday" tends to work better than waiting for someone to remember on their own.

The dumpster fantasy, and the actual rules

Here's the good news: if you're keeping the dumpster entirely on your own driveway or side yard, you generally don't need a permit at all. Permits only come into play once a dumpster sits in the street or a public right-of-way.

The catch is what's allowed inside it. Gasoline, propane tanks, motor oil, electronics, tires, and batteries are banned from dumpsters everywhere in New Jersey, rented or not. So your lawn mower and computers still need to go through the proper channels above, even with a dumpster sitting right there.

Everything else genuinely sentimental but not hazardous? That's exactly what a dumpster is for.

This weekend's actually a good one for it

Cooler temps, a little more free time, and now, no excuses left about not knowing the rules. A drained mower to the curb on bulk pickup day. Two computers to a county e-waste event. A dumpster for the rest, once you're ready.

My shed isn't going to clean itself out. Might finally be the weekend.