Lala has done for CD swapping what NetFlix has done for DVD rentals. It’s a great service: post what you have, what you want, someone sends it to you using a pre-paid mailer, pay just $1.75 per CD.

The idea behind LaLa: get rid of your old music for something new. What exactly defines “old music?” It’s relative to your tastes. For me, old music is that which I regret ever having bought. It wasn’t hard parting with Joy Division’s “Still” which I bought and never listened to. I won’t be afraid to give up Nazareth’s Greatest Hits either.

There are feelings LaLa facilitates piracy. How? I can buy/sell/trade a second-hand CD on Amazon.com, eBay, or down the street. It’s a question of retaining MP3 rips or duplicate CDs.

I’ll never trade my favorite artists so it’s a non-issue. But the rest of my collection, probably 300 out of 400 discs, is crap. I own so many crappy discs because iTunes and CD singles didn’t exist at the time. Even worse is the “no return” policy for music. I can return almost anything if I don’t like it, but not so with Samantha Fox’s Greatest Hits.

I’ve probably overpaid the musc industry over the years and LaLa offers me the means to make it right: goodbye crappy discs but I’ll keep your MP3s around just in case I want to hear your hit single between now and eternity.

Alternatively, the recording industry can juice up my iTunes account as credit for the hundreds of craptastic discs in my CD collection. I’ll be happy to delete the MP3 rips if I can buy the hit singles instead.

I’ve amassed too many pieces of consumer electronics. CD players, VHS decks, USB hubs, printers, DSL modems…the list is endless. Most of this stuff works and looks “as new” but it’s been superceded by newer technology.

These bits of legacy electronics find refuge in my garage until I decide what to do with them. Goodwill was a great place to give a printer a new home but they’re no longer allowed to take electronics. Our trashwaste management department won’t take them either. All that leaves is a hazardous waste recycling center which is inconveniently open Monday to Wednesday, 10:00 am to 3:00 pm and Saturday from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm.

I hate going to the hazardous waste place because most of my old electronics are in fine working order. Surely someone could use them and be appreciative of a new (old) printer. There is always friends and colleagues but most have their own stockpile of old equipment and don’t need mine.

It finally hit me…the nice woman who cleans our home. She was nearly ecstatic when I gifted her an old HP OfficeJet all-in-one printer. It works great if you don’t mind the (large) size and parallel printer cable.

Knowing her family can use the printer is better than reclaiming room in my garage. After all, it avoids the landfill and will keep doing what it does best: print, copy, and scan.