A lot of people have been really encouraging about our purge. Neither CM nor I want our RV to be cluttered with a bunch of junk. I’ve got to be honest here, this is REALLY HARD. Now that everything is off of the shelves and out of the drawers, our house is a real mess and we are overwhelmed by how much stuff we have! Now we’re trying to figure out what to do with it all. It’s one thing to sell high dollar items to others for a good price, but what about those little things like a cute lamp that I got on sale from Target?
I can’t put it in the RV, there’s no since of storing it, and nobody wants to pay anything for it. Knowing this I still can’t just throw it away; I am slightly emotionally tied to it. Besides, throwing it away seems so wasteful. The few times I’ve listed things on Freecycle, people have been pretty flaky about picking stuff up. Which in the end meant that most of the items still ended up in the garbage.
Some have suggested that I take the stuff to the Salvation Army, but I’m pretty jaded about that organization. If you read the article on the New Yorker’s website you know that CM was homeless as a teenager. He says that during one winter he didn’t have a coat or any money and the Salvation Army wouldn’t give him anything to wear! I thought that was their whole purpose! So the Salvation Army is out.
Either way I’m sort of screwed at this point. All of our belongings all over the floor is really frustrating me, but at the same time if I throw them all away I’m going to feel really sad. (Why am I so tied to this “stuff”?)
Please share any creative alternatives you might have.
June 11th, 2008 at 10:30 am
This seems like a great organization - http://www.housingworksauctions.com - that accepts donations of women’s and men’s clothing, jewelry, accessories, shoes, housewares, books and furniture. The money from sales goes to supporting the homeless living with HIV and AIDS in New York City.
You can donate bedding, towels and lots of that stuff to animal shelters - http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycwasteless/html/new_homes/new_homes.shtml#animal
This charity - http://www.partnershipforthehomeless.org/ - accepts donations of household items for families leaving the street or shelter systems and moving into new homes that need furnishing.
There’s a great list of charities here - http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycwasteless/html/new_homes/new_homes.shtml#generaldonations - and you can always donate to Goodwill or something else if you don’t like Salvation Army.
And it looks like you can find tons of places to donate stuff to here as well - http://www.nyc.gov/html/stuffex/html/home/home.shtml
June 11th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Wow!! Thanks Janet for taking the time to help us find places to donate our stuff. That was really nice!
Based on what we have and what the various organizations require, it looks like we are going to donate what’s left of our furniture to the Partnership for the Homeless and we’ll be giving the clothes we’re not taking to Housing Works.
What’s really great is that the web site says they can send movers out to pick up the furniture! It’s good to know that our things will be going towards a good cause. Thanks again for this invaluable tip and I’ll keep you posted on our progress!
June 11th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
That’s great! I’ve been checking out your blog since I read that post on NY Mag’s website, and I was happy to spend a few minutes surfing the web for your cause (and for whatever cause ends up with your donated stuff!).
Plus I can’t imagine selling/giving away all of my stuff… but I imagine if you know it’s going towards a great cause it’s a little easier sending it off to a new home!