Created in 2004, How to Get Rid of Things has since grown into a comprehensive catalog of well-written, entertaining instructional articles. Jonathan Hatch launched the site during a course in web design at Bemidji State University in north central Minnesota, and maintained it single-handedly until 2006, when he began asking talented friends and colleagues to help him produce more articles on a wider array of topics.
Eric D. Ronning was the first writer to bring his talents–and his valuable knowledge of the natural world–to How to Get Rid of Things. He was closely followed by his then-girlfriend (now wife), Amber Luck Ronning, who got to know Jonathan during several graduate-level English courses and a lot of boozy weekend gatherings of literature nerds. Jonathan’s longtime friend Adam Bjerk and his wife Laura, also veterans of the BSU English department, wrote their first contributions to the site in 2008. The same year brought the addition of Nils Hoyum, a close friend of Eric’s since their freshman year in the biology department at Bemidji State. Next came Erin Eliason, yet another of BSU’s illustrious English majors. Finally, in 2010, Peder Hoyum (artist, farmer, cook, and Nils’s brother) completed our close-knit staff.