Do THIS instead of donating to Salvation Army or Goodwill
*last updated November last 18th, 2023
I posted a similar list to my Instagram and someone asked, why not Salvation Army? I wanted to share my response for anyone whose reading this blog post and has the same question.
Why not Salvation Army:
Great question
There’s two type of people, person one just wants to take their stuff off their hands and person two wants to ensure their stuff is treated with basic care in the process of getting to someone that actually needs it.
Donating to large companies like Salvation Army doesn’t guarantee that for person two. A lot of these donation drop off centers are gross. A large percentage of donations are being sold overseas where executives are profiting from free stuff. A lot of unethical and questionable business practices that leave us not fully trusting companies like Salvation Army. Or simply not agreeing with the way they handle donations, a lot of people don’t feel good about adding a trash bag of their stuff to an already overflowing bin, where clothes are typically on the floor, wet, dirty, and rummaged through. I service city dwellers and it’s a big issue in New York.
So people are taking this process into their own hands. It can be time consuming, is definitely tedious, and has a high payoff when person two can donate their stuff with integrity.
As a pro organizer, most of my clients fall into the person two category, so naturally I’ve spent some time gathering this information (and also doing this for my own home). So now I’m sharing my findings with you all.
This is my master list of ways and places to get rid of those household items that you don’t want to donate to your local Salvation Army or Goodwill. When you want to ethically and responsibly recycle your stuff and you don’t know what to do with it. I love me the convenience of both, however, it comes at the cost of not being confident my donated item won’t end up in a landfill.
Have you seen some of those donation bins?
Either way. this is a living document so it be updated.
Before you bring anything anywhere, please please call and confirm that they are excepting what you have. There’s nothing worse than overwhelming lower staffed and smaller organizations with things they don’t need or want. This takes more time, but in the long run, it feels better to donate/recycle intentionally.
Clothes
H&M
Donate jeans to Madewell
Check local church Cooperative Ministries (Co-Op)
Group home
Local Shelter
Buy Nothing Group (join your neighborhood specific BN Group on Facebook)
Dress for Success
Local veterans organization
Special occasion dresses to local high schools (Jan-May)
Sell to Plato’s Closet
Purchase For Days Take Back Bag
Winter gear
Project Hospitality
Books
Local library
Bookstore
School
Community center
College text books to prisons
New Jersey
Local YMCA
Baby (and things)
Women’s shelter
Birth & pregnancy centers
Church
Arts & Craft
Nursing homes
YMCA, community centers
Day cares
Patterns, fabric (Material for the Arts)
Linens (Sheets, Bath Towels)
Animal Shelters
Purchase For Days Take Back Bag
Metals
Pots/pans to scrap yard
Electronics
Best buy
Sell it on Decluttr
Batteries
Home Depot
Luggage
Foster care
Medication and Prescriptions
Looking to make your home comfortable and simple again?
Join Abode, a virtual organizing program for Black women whose homes are too cluttered to do the things they love with the people they love.
Hey you, I’m Rebekah
I'm a home therapist or professional organizer lol. And I’m a proud member of your home goals support system.
I create home-organizing tools for women who want to break generational curses. I help them declutter with intention so they can create a safe home. I’m on a personal mission to help Black women and families (me and mines included) have more structure, order, and peace in our homes. Welcome to the revolution.
Find me hanging out here:
I’m often here:
