Clean Up and Donate at the Same Time
Plus, if you do it now rather than never, there are tons of organizations giving you that extra incentive and push to make you clean out your closet.
For starters, if you are committed to doing a major overhaul of your house, start with closets as those tend to be the mostly likely places where we have stuffed something we couldn’t keep out in display cabinets or cannot use but cannot bear departing with.
Before actually going into your closet haphazardly, have empty storage boxes and trash bags sitting out to either throw things away or organize what things you are willing to donate.
The rule with clothes is that if you have not worn something in the past year, it is time to give it up. If there are no holes in the clothing or shoes that you are giving up, then donating them to the Salvation Army or Soles 4 Soles are great places to give. Plus, you will get a tax receipt.
The Salvation Army will actually pick up your donated clothing or other items as long as there is a minimum of five bags worth of donations outside your house. Call 800-958-7825 for more information.
The rule of thumb to use for any donation is that if you would be willing to give it to a friend or relative, then it is good enough for a donation. Anything below that standard can go in the trash bags.
The nonprofit organization Soles 4 Souls gives footwear to people in need. The organization gets this footwear from people like you. All you have to do is put the shoes you want to donate in a box and mail it to a designated warehouse. Check the group’s website at www.soles4souls.org for warehouse drop-off points. Again, make sure that the shoes you are donating are something worthy of being a gift for a relative or friend.
Aside from closets or other storage places, people doing some spring cleaning will find that organizing their media is another area they will probably need to cover. More people today have loads of DVDs and CD’s – many of which they no longer need. This is why it might be a good idea to consider donating some of this stuff.
For instance, if you have uploaded all of your favorite music from CDs to a computer, why bother keeping the CDs? If you are willing to give those up, you can donate them to Seattle nonprofit Eco Encore. The organization sells old music, DVDs, books and software on Amazon.com or eBay and donates 70 percent of the selling price to the environmental group of your choice.
Thus, if you’re going to get rid of stuff, you might as well make sure it is going to a worthy cause.
