The never ending harassment over old, out of date, cell phones does not have to be at your expense any longer. Here are four things to do with your old cell phone, whether it’s out of date or not.

Homeless Shelter/Battered Woman’s Shelter

This is the most useful, and meaningful, choice to get rid of your old cell phone. Many people do not realize that their old cell phones, even though they are disconnected from their network, will still make 911 calls. This makes for a great resource for the battered woman’s shelters or homeless shelters that exist in virtually every large city across the nation. By providing your old cell phone to these organizations you are not only helping out a truly meaningful cause, you are possibly providing a woman with an outlet that could save her life.

The Toy Box

What kid doesn’t love to play with a fake phone. Why not give them the real thing? Simply take the battery out of your phone (and dispose of it properly of course), and hand the phone over to the child. Then, watch the looks on peoples’ faces when your 3 year old child decides to bring his new Blackberry out in public!

eBay

All of the cell phone providers will activate a phone as long as it is on their network. What might seem like an out of date phone to you, might just be a dream come true for some one else. You can sell an old cell phone on eBay for a few bucks, and all the buyer has to do is bring it to their provider to have it activated. It’s as simple as that. Be sure to erase all of your contacts, calendar entries, and messages though, because the new owner will have access to all of the information if the phone is not properly reset.

The Cell Phone Provider

In very rare instances, the cell phone provider will actually take the cell phone back. This practice used to be more common, and has gone by the wayside. Many cell phone providers will, however, dispose of the phone in an environmentally safe manner if you ask them to do so. This will allow you to avoid the complications that can come with a proper disposal of an old cell phone.