Donate Your Good Stuff...Please.

Yes, I'm one of those people, the one that can't throw anything away that I think could be valuable to someone else.  I'm not extreme about it, though.  When we moved my grandma out of her house we found washed out yogurt containers and packages that deli food comes in all neatly stacked in her cupboard, wool socks with holes in them in a cedar chest, boxes and receipts for items purchased in 1983, tiny scraps of fabric saved because "you never know when you might have to cover a button".

You'd think I was a hoarder the way I talk about saving things.  I assure you, I'm not.  On the other hand, my propensity towards saving things can be a bit obsessive.  It drives me nuts to see things thrown away that someone else could use.

I love selling on eBay because I can take discarded treasures and put them in the hands of people that appreciate them, often times making a bit of money in the process.  That's a good incentive, too!  It tickles me to no end, though, when I get an email from a customer sharing what they plan to do with the treasure, why it means something to them and how happy they are to have it.

I donate a lot of stuff, too.  I don't like clutter.  I go through closets and drawers and purge things that are no longer useful to me and donate them to organizations that have thrift stores.  It's a win-win-win.  I declutter, the item gets sold by the organization for money that they use to fund their ongoing projects and their customer gets a deal.

This was spurred because I was driving in my neighborhood on trash day and saw a pile of folded clothing on top of the trash.  I pulled my van over, looked around to make sure no one was watching (not because it's illegal or anything, just because it's a little weird I suppose) and loaded the clothes through the side door and drove off.

I knew I wouldn't be able to use it all but I also knew that I could donate what we couldn't use.  My husband got a shirt to wear, I got a shirt to wear and eBay will be getting a nice XXL fleece vest in great condition and the rest will go to a charity.

Do me a favor neighbors, before you throw things out, just drop the boxes of stuff at my door.  That will make me feel a lot better.