Just organizing your move is hard enough without having to pack along a whole bunch of items you no longer want, need or even use. But stopping to organize a concerted donation effort when you are already organizing a household move is no picnic either! Sure, you will save money and time by donating unnecessary belongings before packing everything up and moving to your new location. However, this can also feel like you are asking too much of yourself, especially if you are on the fence about whether to donate or keep certain items.
This post aims to making the process of donating unwanted items much easier. You can use these five easy donation methods to “lighten your load,” so to speak, and streamline your schedule on moving day.
This is definitely the hardest part of making a pre-move donation! One of the easiest ways to do it is to work room by room.
Start a small notebook and designate a certain area of your home or garage where all the to-donate items will be placed.
This method lets you assemble all the things you want to donate, making notes as you go, so all you have left to do is call the donation service to come pick your items up.
Once you have a good sense of what you want to donate overall, separate them out into categories.
Here are some popular category ideas:
This is very important because not all donation services will take all items. For example, if you have a vehicle such as a car or a boat you want to donate, you may need to contact a specific charity or agency that accepts these types of donated items.
Now, let’s take a look at five ways to donate your unwanted items before your next move.
Freecycle.org is a worldwide online organization that matches up people who have unwanted items with people who can use those items.
Freecycle is a registered U.S. charity. As such, all items listed on the portal must be free and legal.
Using a tool like Freecycle or any local equivalent (Craigs List, NextDoor, community message boards, et al) may take more time, so it is smart to plan ahead if you’d like to donate your items this way.
Swap meetups are becoming more popular as a way to connect people with like interests as well as to facilitate donations of unwanted items.
If you have the time and inclination, hosting a swap can be a fun way to offload things you don’t want and pick up some fabulous new finds at the same time. But if you are moving to a new place where you don’t know many people or anyone at all, you may actually want to save this idea to implement at the other end.
Here, choosing lighter weight items like clothing to move with you will keep your moving day from becoming a burden (and help with your moving budget as well). When planning a post-move swap meetup with your new neighbors, be sure to clearly label any boxes that contain the swap donation items!
You may also want to participate in online swap sites for items like bicycles, phones, video games, movies, music CDS, gaming consoles and kids stuff. It is easy to find these sites by doing a simple internet search. Just be sure to plan some extra time to offload your items this way – or save it for your post-move fun.
Perhaps the simplest and quickest of all the donation methods out there is to connect with a donation pickup service.
Different services may take different types of items. So while you may not be able to donate every single item you don't want to move with a given service, this is certainly a great way to get rid of the majority of your unwanted items!
Usually donation pickup services provide a list of the items they will take.
Some services will come right to your home and pick up the items from you and you don’t even have to be home. You can just leave the items outside your door and let the company know where to look for them.
Many such organizations are also actively operating as non-profits and may resell your donated items to benefit a certain cause, such as military veterans.
Another popular way to make your donation is to identify local organizations or charities that will take certain items you no longer want or need.
For large items such as furniture, you can always ask your moving company if they will make a special stop on the way to drop off your donation items at the organization’s donation center. If you decide to do this, reach out to your moving company in advance to verify that this is possible. Also, be sure the movers load the items to be donated last so they will be at the back of the moving truck and accessible to easily offload.
You may find that you have some items you no longer need or want that cannot be donated. In this case, it is often possible to recycle these items. Small electronics and home office appliances are a perfect example of this.
Recycling items that can’t be donated also helps keep them out of landfills and may even contribute to making useful items!
Easy Donation Pickup is a registered charity. Proceeds benefit veterans. Visit us online to schedule your pickup.
