Where To Give Your Clutter Away?
ByNancy asks, "I would love to hear your experience with keeping it simple when you’re divesting yourself of stuff. In other words, the act of giving away can get complicated: How can one streamline that process? For a while I was a Freecycle member, but it got to be almost a burden–tons of emails, sorting through requests, trying to connect with people. But is giving one big pickup to Goodwill getting the best mileage for what I have to give others? A garage sale has its benefits, but is just one more thing to do. I’d love to read your thoughts."
Someone else in the declutter group was having a similar problem. She has a bunch of stuff to give away but the process of giving away was becoming so time consuming.
Another reason to quit bringing clutter into the house 
Places to get rid of your clutter
- Craigslist
- Freecycle.org
- Church donation centers
- Goodwill
- Salvation Army
- Garage sale (for this I suggest going in with others and just having tables set up with prices ie a $1 table, $5 table, etc so you aren’t labeling everything)
- Schools
- Selling books at half.com
- Letting go of books ala Bookcrossing
- Giving to a friend or someone you know who as expressed interest
- Selling on ebay
If you are trying the least complicated way, just bag or box up your clutter and take it to a donation place. And you can get a tax deduction receipt. I keep a bag or box in the closet to put clutter when I find it. And when it’s full I donate it. But, if I hear someone is having a garage sale or someone needs something I let it go before the box is full.
My husband is a good ebayer so I usually have him list our stuff that we want to sell. I’m sure you can find a teenager to do it for you for a commission on the sale.
The purpose of decluttering is to free yourself from stuff. But, if you hold on to it for months trying to decide how to get rid of it, you don’t get to feel that freedom. So however you want to let go of your clutter – do it now!
You can find similar articles below
- A Simpler Garage Sale
- Fun in a small town Go to the Archives, and click ‘republish all’.
- National Clutter Awareness Week
- A Simple Life Doesn’t Have to Mean a Cheap Life
- Why Declutter?
A few other places not on your list that I thought worth mentioning:
1) the public library…my local library has made over a section in their building to sell gently used books to the public (to help fund the library). They’re always thrilled to receive my donations!
2) Local homeless and battered women facilities…I recently donated clothing to both. Remember these people have nothing and when they get back on their feet, there’s not alot of money to start replacing what they’ve lost!
3) Nursing homes are especially appreciative of things like crafts, books, movies, magazines, games, music, etc. for the Activities Department to hand out to both permanent and temporary residents!
Thanks for posting this timely topic!
I am a big fan of http://www.scheduleapickup.com, run by the Vietnam Vets of America. I can go on-line and schedule a pickup up to 48 hours in advance. (It’s Tuesdays in my town.) And I don’t have to leave it out until 8 a.m.! A little thing like a 7 a.m. leave-out was keeping me from decluttering.
I know this pickup service does not operate in all parts of America, but it’s worth checking out to see if it’s on yours.
Never heard of that book site…I’ll be checkin that out for sure. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for those ideas everyone!