Before you donate any more items, let me share what I learned from working at a donation center.
CONTEXT: I worked with a small non-profit for a long time. This non-profit, Hope Heals, collects clothing and house item donations and makes them into care packages to give to those in the community that have just moved into a home after being homeless. It is an amazing organization. Consider giving some of your donations to them if you live in Walla Walla, WA!
Working with Hope Heals taught me some important things about what happens to donations after they get dropped off and some things we can all be better about when we donate.
Read carefully what they do and do not accept. Basically all donation centers and thrift stores have either a sign or place on their website where they list what items they do or don't accept. Read it. Follow it. They'll appreciate it. And if you can't find anywhere that lists, ask them!
Don't donate junk. Throw it away. Don't make a donation worker do it for you. Some things are obviously junk, but some things are less obvious. If it is the last bit of something, it's probably junk; the last bit of string on the spool, the last bit of wrapping paper on the roll, or a little bit of paper in a pack. If you have broken electronics or old electronics that may or may not have the right cords, don't donate them to a regular donation place; see if there is a computer store or tech recycling location you would take them to. If you have something so worn down that you wouldn't give it to a friend, don't donate it; this could be old stained towels, socks with holes, books with torn covers, and chairs with broken legs.
Wash EVERYTHING. No matter if it's a jacket or a table, clean it! Nobody wants to sort through a dirty laundry donation or receive something with cobwebs on it. If you have a lot of clutter and it doesn't make sense to carefully clean everything before you donate, do your best. Quickly wipe down the dirtiest items and throw away dirty clothes if you don't have time to wash them... that's what most donation places will do anyway.
Take off names, marks, & stickers. If you wrote your name in a book, erase it or scribble it out; if your kids drew on the table, scrub it off; or if you put stickers on a binder, peel them off. Donate things the way you would like to find them if you were shopping at a thrift store. Also, you don't want your name on things, you don't know who will be receiving them.
Add sizes. PRO TIP: If you are donating clothes where the tags have been cut off or worn down, put a piece of tape on each item with a size (even if its general like "women's small"). As a donation center sorter (and shopper), its really nice to not have to guess the size.
The overall lesson I've learned is to think about who will be on the receiving end of my stuff, both the future user and the person who has to sort it.
But as always, just do your best. It's better to donate something imperfectly or throw it away, rather than keeping it cluttering up your space. You can get better about your donating AFTER you've taken back control of your life.
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