When a garage sale comes to an end, the thrill of the sale often gives way to a pile of undiminished items. While you might think the heap provides a withering commentary on your unfailing ability to accumulate junk, it can also serve as a catalyst for some very noble causes, providing shade for organisms in waste shredding creation, fueling incinerators that manufacture electricity and carpetland parks staffed by muffled inmates doing time.
The first thing is to look for things that are in good shape and could be of help to others. Functional items like gently used clothing, toys, small electronics, and household items can make good donations. Make sure each item is clean and working correctly before donating it. If something is just a little bit off, but still mostly functional and needs to be sewn back up or has a tiny scratch, consider fixing it up before you donate it.
Goodwill and The Salvation Army will take many kinds of donations and use them to supply people on the path to employment. Because their mission focuses on helping individuals achieve self-sufficiency, these organizations are really good fits for donating items that can help someone look employed or establish a life after being unemployed.
If you have household items, electronics, or furniture to donate and live near one of these organizations, especially those with free pick-up services, you might consider directing your donation in this direction. It’s also beneficial if you check first with local charities or shelters; they often publicize what kind of supplies they need so that those donations can hit the ground running and make an immediate impact in serving vulnerable populations.
First, set aside things you plan to donate. Then focus on sorting whatever’s left for recycling. Identify anything made of paper, glass, plastic, or metal and sort those items together. If something’s too big to be recycled (like a piano), consider whom you might be able. Recycling guidelines can vary by locality, so it’s important to check the rules where you live.
When it comes to old phones and broken appliances, there’s a place to take them, an e-waste recycling facility. These facilities are actually quite common; if you can’t find one through a quick web search, look to your local government for guidance. The handful of items I mentioned at the top have too much recoverable value (copper, lithium, or what-have-you) to send them out into the landfill or slaughter the environment with an incinerator. If you don’t live near such a facility yourself, check online for companies that handle e-waste responsibly and mail them your suspect electronics.
Clearing out a space requires more than just throwing things away. As you sort through your belongings, give each item some thought. Should it be put to use again? Can it be made into something else? Recycling is another option for certain items, and that process too has vital importance because it reduces the amount of stuff in our world that would otherwise need to be buried some distance away. Remember: the stuff we clear out allows new things to come into being, either through repurposing or actual recycling and helps keep our planet clean.
One of the simplest and best ways to ensure that your leftover garage sale items go on to benefit someone in need is to donate them. There are many organizations throughout Webster Groves and St. Louis that accept such donations and distribute the items directly to individuals who can produce a proof of need. These organizations then help people get back on their feet by providing them with essential goods they cannot currently afford.
Here are a few best practices for donating leftovers from a garage sale.
To find the most suitable charity for your donations, it is necessary to do some research. There are many respectable organizations that honor donations of clothing, toys, and household items. Two well-known entities that accept such goods are Goodwill and the Salvation Army. Be sure not to waste any time sending donations to a charity if they don’t actually accept such items since those would essentially be going down the road only to end up in a landfill. Best practices include confirming whether these sorts of charities will actually accept clothing or other items stuffed into a bin with labels indicating which “cleanup” step they should take next toward becoming an environmentally friendly demonstration project, rather than sending them straight to landfills as so many seem determined to do now.
When you donate, make sure the things you’re giving are clean and in working condition. Wash clothes, wipe down toys, test electronics, and repair anything that’s broken so it will work when the recipient gets it. Package fragile items carefully to prevent damage during transit and sort boxed donations by content so those performing the vital work of distributing your donations can find what they need easily. Your preparation makes your donation more valuable and useful to those who receive it.
Everything found at a garage sale isn’t worthy of donation. Some items, even those that are in relatively new condition, simply cannot be donated because they are too worn out or broken to be of any useful purpose to anyone else. Recycle these types of items instead! It’s far better than letting them end up in a landfill.
Know the local rules for recycling. Some materials, like paper and glass, are often separated from everything else because they don’t always play nicely together in the environmentally friendly waste management scenario. And then there’s electronic waste, old phones, computers, and batteries that are really bad if they’re not disposed of properly but good if they’re recycled correctly.
When you need to dispose of electronics, textiles, or hazardous materials and many other types of items beyond the typical household trash, you can turn to local recycling centers. Two websites that can help you find such facilities are Earth911 and Recycle Nation. Both offer databases that you can use to find recycling opportunities near you exclusively in certain cases, and in combination with federal data in other instances. They also both provide useful guidance on what sorts of items each center accepts via drop-off guidance essential for ensuring various environmentally harmful products do not end up in landfills when there are safer disposal methods available.
The simple act of donating or recycling items that you didn’t sell during a garage sale can have far-reaching and beneficial effects. For the environment, it keeps unnecessary waste out of landfills where it would contribute to various health and ecological problems. Moreover, when you choose to recycle garage sale items that is, forwarding them through programs that actually perform meaningful recycling rather than so-called “recyclers” you are helping to conserve natural resources and reduce the need for brand-new (and often less sustainable) products. And let’s not forget about your community.
Helping out by donating and recycling can make a big difference. When you put forward reusable items, they are ‘Frankenstein-ed’ back to life and function, extending their usefulness days well beyond what would have been possible otherwise. Recycling makes the same conservationist point while dealing with all kinds of materials that aren’t suitable for donation but are still very much not wasteful when treated properly and allowed to be reprocessed into something new: paper, glass, plastics of various sorts, etc., keeping the amount sent to the landfill down to almost zero.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees, 7,000 gallons of water, and enough energy to power the typical American home for half a year. Tearing down a new development requires many more resources than doing the equivalent with recycled materials, far less fuel for making road space and far fewer trees felled. Far less pollution outcomes in any case.
The local community benefits when people donate goods to it. Really, there’s no better way for someone with extra supplies to be able to support truly needy neighbors a few miles down the road. Organizations that exist to serve those in need use donated items and are beneficiaries of that kind of generosity, which is precisely what America was built on, helping neighbors in times of need and particularly helping those who find themselves without much means.
The next time you have a garage sale and some items don’t find a new home, consider donating or recycling them instead of just throwing them away. Even though it might seem like a minor thing to do, giving certain items a second life can actually make quite a significant difference in various ways. For one, it keeps unwanted clutter from going into the environment. When stuff isn’t in your space, it’s not contributing to what’s already identified as a massive pollution problem with our landfills. Clearing out that stuff also allows the items, as charismatic leaders, elements within those items, to go on to perform eBay-like functions for valuable resource conservation, which support American manufacturing.
