Donate To Charities

When you donate to charities, you are positively affecting one or more of the 600,000 families who are or will be homeless each year. There are many more people who are not homeless, but live in constant need.



It's a great opportunity for decluttering and benefiting others at the same time. It's wonderful that you are willing to freely give what you no longer need or want, as long as it's something someone else can use.

After having owned a resale store, I know what it's like to receive unsolicited donations from well-meaning people. On occasion there would be some remarkable donations, but too often we were left scratching our heads wondering why someone would give us their trash. It would be different if we asked for items that were beyond repair and covered with who knows what.

When one person's trash... is just another person's trash

There were some problems that we kept running into. The problem was some donors weren't reading our signs, making prior arrangements with us to accept their items, or taking into consideration the condition of their items. Stores and other places that accept donations have some sort of formal or informal donation guide to help make the most of your donations and their services to the community.

Some items were left outside in the weather for us to find later. Either some people assume that the needy should be grateful for the holey, stained, white t-shirt that reeks of cigarette smoke or is covered in pet hair or they didn't take the time to sort through their unwanted items that have been in storage for years to remove the unusable. I don't think that is what was meant by the saying One person's trash is another person's treasure.

If donors had simply contacted us, we could have let them know what items we were accepting, if any. Another easily formed assumption is that thrift or resale stores in general are always on the look out for donations by the car-load. People have told us that if there are any items in the boxes and bags they left at our store that we didn't want, we could just donate or throw them away.

Soooo, does that mean you should expect second-hand stores to be responsible for and use their own dumpsters for the community's trash? Not only that, but it was then up to us to package, sort, and drive the donated items that have become our unwanted items to a drop-off location. We love to donate items, but doing "favors" for people like this, at their will because they left it with us while we weren't looking, can get old fast.

Be considerate when you donate to charities: Be a blessing not a burden

It's easy to pass off your unusable, unwanted items as donation-worthy and feel like you've done something charitable. I used to be careless in how I donated clothing, but have since realized what I was doing. Think of donating as giving something that you no longer want to someone who would still be able to use and enjoy it.

Be familiar with what you are donating. Realize that there are people on the other end who have to handle and deal with every single piece of what you donate. Let's make their job easier and efficient by doing our part.

It's okay to donate worn clothes as long as they still have wear left in them and look like something you'd consider giving to a friend, even as decent play clothes. I encourage you to be mindful and think about the ramifications of forwarding badly damaged or soiled items to other people.

Don't try to lessen your burden by giving it to someone else. If you find it difficult to throw away bad clothes, try to think of a way to reuse or recycle them. The reason why we donate to charities should ultimately be to benefit the recipients.



Have stress free holidays by donating to Christmas charities.

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