Have you recently decluttered or wanted to venture into a home organizing project? An important step, and one of the most rewarding, is donating your items you no longer want, need or use. One of my favorite perks as an organizer is getting to know the local donation centers that we frequently visit. Donating items to give them a second life to someone who needs it is essential to our communities. If you have a couple bags of goods (or a few dozen..) here are a some places and people we’d love for you to get to know.  

 Clothing & Household Goods

Goodwill  is a great non-profit that’s community driven. They have thousands of donations centers across the U.S. You can find your closest drop-off center here, you’ve definitely got a location near you! Every region focuses on employment opportunities for their community specifically, and we love that they were founded in Boston in 1902! They take most household items including clothing. 

Solutions at Work accepts adult and children’s clothing, shoes and accessories which provides individuals and families with job training and opportunities.  Think Dress for Success but for men’s and women’s clothing.

Cambridge Women’s Center provides a supportive space for all women, “offering opportunities for empowerment, learning, healing, trauma, support and understanding.” They will take clothing, cleaning and office supply donations as well as unopened makeup, toiletries and feminine hygiene products.

What about all those old electronics? You can actually drop off at your local Best Buy for donation or recycling. Replay’d in Allston will also recycle your electronics.

Books & Media

Do you have boxes of books? Find your local library here. If you are in our local area, we love donating to More Than Words, they are a great organization we work with. They provide underprivileged young adults in Greater Boston who are “in the foster care system, court involved, homeless, or out of school” with a paying job and experience running a small business. They recently started accepting clothing and shoes. They also accept all forms of media (books, CD’s, DVD’s and video games with the exception of encyclopedias, VHS tapes, audio cassettes or magazines/periodicals).

Linens

Animal shelters will accept sheets, towels and blankets to use on a daily basis to make bedding for their animals. They will also accept cleaning supplies, unopened pet food, carriers and other pet gear.

Anything and everything else

Looking at a big house purge? If you are in our local area, we can’t recommend Clean Out Your House enough! We’ve used them for several larger projects (like moving out of your house, that you’ve lived in for 25+ years…), and they are the prepared professionals for the large haul. One of the best parts is they sort through your donated items to disperse them to the proper charities so you don’t have to They also offer consignment of your unwanted furniture and decor at their Waltham consignment shop- Buy & Consign.  Think of anything that needs to be disposed of and they will do it properly. Want to learn more? You can see their list of services here.

Get those donations out asap- it’s a great way to find the places in your area that benefit your community while lightening your load at home. For more information please check out our super thorough resources page here on our website. If you’re not in Massachusetts, but follow and love us (right back at you) Charity Navigator is a great resource for finding your local donation locations.