Where to Donate Decluttered Items

Do you want to make your decluttered items have as much impact as possible through donations?  Here's a list of places to donate that can be just a bit more meaningful than just dropping those items off at Goodwill!  Keep reading or check out the video here!

Before we jump into all the different charities where you can donate, I need to add a caveat.  The most important thing is that you get the clutter out of your home so you can function better!  It does take more time to research charities and take different items to different dropoff locations.  Those places may be across town, and it all just takes a bit more time than driving it all in one go to Goodwill.  If you're not in a season of life where you have the time to deal with this, it is perfectly okay to just drive it to Goodwill!  No matter how it happens, clutter out of your house is best!

Prioritize Your Impact

Do you have a lot of one certain type of item?  If so, that's where you should focus your energy in finding a specific charity for that type of item.  If you have a ton of really nice clothes, is there something like a women's shelter that could really put those items to good use?

On the other hand, if you only have a couple of random toys, those could go right along with everything else to a random donation center.  It's probably not worth the time to find a specific toy charity for just a couple items.

Schedule Pickups

Some places will actually come to your house to pick up your donations!  Some Goodwills do this (though they usually only want to do this for very large amounts of items).  Other places who do pickups that we know of are:

• Salvation Army
• AmVets
• Habitat for Humanity
• Furniture Bank

The great thing about scheduling a pickup is that it gives you a deadline on the calendar.  This can be super motivating to actually get your decluttering done so as much as possible can be picked up.  It also eliminates the work in packing stuff up and driving it to a donation center!

Local Charities

Donating locally is one way to make your impact more tangible.  It's helping people in your own community, and this can be really exciting!  Google your town and whatever item you'd like to donate and see what you come up with!  Usually there are local women's shelter, homeless shelters, or even school “closets” that need clothing and toiletry items.

National Charities

Dress for Success is a great charity that takes women's professional clothing.  Women who are interviewing or just starting out in a professional job can use this clothing.  Laura first heard about this when she was working as an engineer, and the charity came to her office.  She was able to pack up a bunch of clothes and take them with her to work one day, and they picked them up!

Soles4Souls take shoe donations.  If you have a bunch of shoes that are still in great shape, this can be a great option.

Kid and Baby Gear

Second Chance Toys is a great place that takes used toys.  However, they only take donations in April and then again in November/December.  I wouldn't recommend holding onto your items for six months just to donate them here, but if the timing works out, this can be a good option.

Local foster care programs often need toys for kids to play with, and it's a great way to make a local impact in your community.

Buy Nothing Facebook Groups are a great place to post items as well.  Often local families in need will look here for things they need.  Then you actually get to see the person or family you're helping, which can be really nice!

Books

Little Free Libraries are sometimes in neighborhoods.  They look like big birdhouses almost, but they have books that people can take for free or drop off books that they no longer want for others to take. It's such a cute idea!  I would try to keep the books widely appealing.  I would probably not take my old Calculus 2 textbook, LOL, but fiction books should be great!

Local libraries will sometimes take donations, but you should call first.

Selling your books at Half Price Books is also a good idea sometimes!  You can make a little extra cash and know someone who wants your books will get good use out of them (even if they do have to buy them).

Furniture

This can be tough because we all know how much of a pain it is to try to wrangle furniture to a donation center!

Furniture Bank is a great option that will pick up, and Habitat Restore is another place that takes furniture and will sometimes do pickups.

Electronics

• Trade In– I had no idea you could trade in really old electronics.  If you have popular name brands from Amazon, Apple, and even brands like Samsung, you can often trade them back into the company.  I recently did this with an Apple laptop from 2019 that was totally dead and had long since been replaced.  They gave me a $250 gift card to the Apple Store!
• Best Buy has an electronics recycling program.  There is a limit (I think 5 items per dropoff), but if you just have a few items, this can be a great option.
• Tech for Troops– If you have items that still have good life left in them, this is a great option.  You do have to pay $20 for the box to ship them off, but it's nice to be able to donate still usable tech items to veterans.

Hard to Donate Items

There are some things that are just so hard to donate or even get rid of!

• Paint– Paint Care is a charity that will take paint, but it's not in all areas, so this is kind of hit or miss.  You can also google your town plus “hazardous waste” to see where you can safely dispose of old paint or chemicals.
• Old Towels– sometimes local animal shelters can use these, but call ahead to check!
• Food– if it's expired, it really just needs to be thrown out.  If it's not expired and is still unopened, though, a food pantry is a fantastic place to donate!
• Toiletries– Local homeless shelters can often use this.  Churches will sometimes need toiletries for “blessing bags.”  Ronald McDonald Houses will often take toiletries to give to families who stay there.
• Large Appliances– Habitat Restore takes working appliances.  If they do not work, your best bet is trash pickup, or if this isn't an option for you, they can often be “scrapped.”  In my town, if I put an appliance on the side of the road at my house, it will be picked up by a scrapper (who can then make money on the metal) within an few hours.  Posting it free for scrap on facebook or a neighborhood social group is a good way to send out a “curb alert” for an item like this.

Hopefully this helped spark some ideas for how to bless others with your decluttered items!  However, if this is just too much for you at your stage in life, just get the clutter out however you can!  It's perfectly good to just drive it all to Goodwill or any other donation center and just be done all in one go!  However you can get the clutter out is what you should do, but sometimes this can make the process a little less painful to know it's all going to a good cause!