Donate: Check with your local Goodwill, Salvation Army, or Muscular Dystrophy Association for their donation guidelines. The National Cristina Foundation (www.cristina.org) places refurbished computers in educational and nonprofit organizations for people with special needs.

Sell: Computers are the fifth-best-selling category on eBay. If your hardware is really up-to-date, it could be worth the effort of putting it up for sale on-line.

Trash: If your computer is more than five years old, it's probably best to recycle. Organizations such as the Computer Recycling Center (www.crc.org) accept obsolete computers and recycle unusable parts to keep them out of landfills. Visit www.sharetechnology.org for a listing of refurbishers and recyclers.

Tips: Generally, charities want computers in working order, with a Pentium-level or Power PC processor or better. Delete personal files, but be sure to leave the operating system and licensing information on the computer. You can find more tips on computer donation at www.techsoup.org.