Items to donate
Right now, I'm really into organizing and making our house orderly. I'm reading a book called Smart Organizing: Simple Strategies for Bringing Order to Your Home written by Sandra Felton. In it, she suggests a few organizations to keep in mind when you have good quality items you'd like to donate. She suggested The Cristina Foundation for old computers, The Wireless Foundation for old cell phones and Dress for Success for business attire.
We have old cell phones and computer-related items (monitor, printer, etc.). We have a ton of blankets that we received as gifts when I was pregnant with Emma that have been washed and folded onto a shelf and NEVER used (not that we haven't used a multitude of them, just that we received literally almost 40 blankets and in no way do we need that many). Do any of our children's hospitals in the area take donations of baby blankets (or can they only accept brand new things still in packaging)?
I have a bunch of suits that are in great shape, just worn a handful of times. I'm keeping several of my favorite suits for whenever I go back to work someday (except maybe for some of my size 2's because the Lord knows my child-bearing days are here and I doubt the 2's will ever fit again), but there are probably 5 or 6 nice suits that I'm ready to donate to a good group for some women who need them.
We even have things like backpacks and our very sturdy and durable Eddie Bauer college messenger bags. James and I don't need all of this STUFF around our house. There's something in every corner of our house that could be used and even loved by someone else. I'm feeling quite wasteful when I see all of our things that just SIT there without second glances from either of us.
We would like to donate our unused items but we want to donate them locally and to organizations that really need them. I know Dress for Success has a Seattle branch; I will be sending my suits there. But what about our computers, our cell phones, our backpacks, our blankets?
Where do you donate things? I don't want to just take a big truckload of our stuff to The Goodwill without thinking about how people could really use our things. I think sometimes people just use Goodwill and The Salvation Army as a dumping ground for the junk they don't want to keep in their own homes. While we will be sending some of our things there (carefully sorted and cleaned, of course), I wonder about other groups that people don't think of as often as Goodwill or The Salvation Army.
I know there are active organizations with specific missions to do unique things such as getting baby blankets to families with children who really need them or putting cell phones into the hands of victims of domestic violence. Or for example, there's an organization in Colorado called YouthBiz that focuses on after-school programs on business, academics and leadership for inner-city youth. They take donations of laptops, computers, printers and office supplies and use these in their programs for the kids. Is there something like this in the Seattle are where our (slightly older but still great quality) computers and other electronic equipment could be appreciated and put to good use?
I know I can do some research and find charitable organizations in our area that would benefit from our things, but I also wanted to ask for your suggestions or ideas, too. Do you have a favorite organization that you support? Where should James and I donate our stuff?
We have old cell phones and computer-related items (monitor, printer, etc.). We have a ton of blankets that we received as gifts when I was pregnant with Emma that have been washed and folded onto a shelf and NEVER used (not that we haven't used a multitude of them, just that we received literally almost 40 blankets and in no way do we need that many). Do any of our children's hospitals in the area take donations of baby blankets (or can they only accept brand new things still in packaging)?
I have a bunch of suits that are in great shape, just worn a handful of times. I'm keeping several of my favorite suits for whenever I go back to work someday (except maybe for some of my size 2's because the Lord knows my child-bearing days are here and I doubt the 2's will ever fit again), but there are probably 5 or 6 nice suits that I'm ready to donate to a good group for some women who need them.
We even have things like backpacks and our very sturdy and durable Eddie Bauer college messenger bags. James and I don't need all of this STUFF around our house. There's something in every corner of our house that could be used and even loved by someone else. I'm feeling quite wasteful when I see all of our things that just SIT there without second glances from either of us.
We would like to donate our unused items but we want to donate them locally and to organizations that really need them. I know Dress for Success has a Seattle branch; I will be sending my suits there. But what about our computers, our cell phones, our backpacks, our blankets?
Where do you donate things? I don't want to just take a big truckload of our stuff to The Goodwill without thinking about how people could really use our things. I think sometimes people just use Goodwill and The Salvation Army as a dumping ground for the junk they don't want to keep in their own homes. While we will be sending some of our things there (carefully sorted and cleaned, of course), I wonder about other groups that people don't think of as often as Goodwill or The Salvation Army.
I know there are active organizations with specific missions to do unique things such as getting baby blankets to families with children who really need them or putting cell phones into the hands of victims of domestic violence. Or for example, there's an organization in Colorado called YouthBiz that focuses on after-school programs on business, academics and leadership for inner-city youth. They take donations of laptops, computers, printers and office supplies and use these in their programs for the kids. Is there something like this in the Seattle are where our (slightly older but still great quality) computers and other electronic equipment could be appreciated and put to good use?
I know I can do some research and find charitable organizations in our area that would benefit from our things, but I also wanted to ask for your suggestions or ideas, too. Do you have a favorite organization that you support? Where should James and I donate our stuff?
Comments
http://waystohelp.seattlechildrens.org/guilds/
Maybe some place like this could take your phones? http://www.donatemycellphone.org/
Kudos to you for getting organized! I recently cleaned out all our old clothes and cleaned much of the junk out of our office. It is so rewarding to get organized!
I've been saving Eli's clothes for #2, just in case we have another boy. If not, I'll sort through them then and pass the rest on to whoever is in need at the time. :) I love little boy clothes! Although, you do get all those great pink things and dresses. I would love to have a girl someday, yet at the same time, we have all this fabulous boy stuff that I love pulling out with our neighbors so their little guy can use it.