Help! Donation Centers in My Area Are Closed!

Photo by Free to Use Sounds

(These are notes from a video I did in the spring of 2020.)

I have been hearing from a lot of clients and friends who need help donating their things. They have spent some of their extra time at home cleaning out closets, decluttering, and getting organized. For this, I would like to first say I am so proud of you!

I know that clearing out your home can take quite the emotional toll and be very time consuming. So, GREAT JOB. I hope that you see, or will soon see how good it feels to let go of things that aren’t serving you.

Here in Kentucky, retail stores, which may include donation drop-off sites, can begin to reopen as soon as May 20, 2020. Depending on where you live there might be some sites that are already open as they are providing meals and essential services to those in need. I am in the process of updating my Donations Site list for the Louisville area so you can have the most up to date information. If you would like to see this list so far, email us at office@pinkyjackson.com and we are happy to send it to you.

If you live outside of the Louisville area and you would like to know which donation drop-off sites are available, I am happy to look into that for you as well!

For those in Kentucky, check out the online KY Healthy at Work site that lists reopening categories, dates, benchmarks, resources, and FAQs.

Since many of you have taken this time at home to get your things organized, decluttered and ready to donate (yay!) I know you’re anxious to be able to finally get rid of your extra clutter once and for all. But while we’re waiting for everything to reopen, there are a few routes you can take to get rid of a few things in the meantime.

Organizing your donations

If possible, pack things up by category. Clothes, electronics, books, home décor, etc. and label them. Try to use boxes and bins and sturdy, structured bags for anything heavy or fragile. You don’t want the bag or any of your items to break when you’re moving them!

Organizing your donations by category is helpful for a few reasons:

• It’s easier for you to visualize what has been done

• Certain donation sites are looking for certain things, depending on their needs. If your items are all organized by category, you can bring them exactly what they’re looking for without fear of your items getting denied

Lable your boxes and bags

After you have all of your donations organized by category, label the box/bag with “donate” and then the category of the contents and the date.

Laqbelling items you won’t be dropping off right away is helpful because you’ll be able to gauge how long you’ve been storing them for and if they need to be moved to another spot. If you have a box of electronics, for example, it’s not a good idea to keep them in your garage during the summer or winter for too long because the extreme temperatures might damage them.

On the other hand, let’s say that you go back to working outside the house or life just gets too busy and you forget about your donation boxes for a while. If you check the date and realize, “oh, it’s been six months since I last thought about these!”, it might be easier for you to just let go and get rid of those things to whoever will take them.

Storing your donations

If donation centers are closed in your area, you may have to store them somewhere in your home until drop-off sites are ready to accept donations again. Find a place in your home that is out of the way. For me, I like to store things that I know I’m going to donate soon underneath our ping-pong table. That way, I can see them to remember they’re there, but they’re out of the way enough so no one is tripping on them.

For you it might be:

• A closet

• Your garage or basement

• The trunk or backseat of your car

• A storage room

It’s important to store your donations in such a way that your home doesn’t feel cluttered and you can access them easily when it is time to drop them off.

Be aware of retail guidelines

Although many charitable organizations typically handle huge amounts of items, they might not be able to once they reopen following COVID-19 for a few reasons.

The first reason is that according to the Healthy at Work guidelines for retail, retail spaces are still required to limit the number of employees that they have working at a time. In addition to that, the guidelines state that drivers must have minimal contact with those that they are dropping off to, so that could make things difficult or slow the process down.

Second, employees and volunteers will likely have to sanitize, wipe down and wash everything that comes into their donation centers. That, plus the decreased number of employees, puts a cog in the works!

Schedule a pickup

Depending on what you have and how valuable it is to a donation center, they might be able to come to you. For example, if you have a nice bed frame or other furniture that a non-profit is looking for, specifically, they’ll weigh the cost and benefit of picking up your items as well.

The availability of pickup truck and staff is going to vary city to city, so you’ll need to check in with your local non-profits and see exactly what it is they need and what they’re able to do. We’re building this bridge as we’re walking over it and things keep changing every day so it’s important to check in and see what’s up at your local facilities.

Certain places that I’ve contacted recently are already anxious to get restocked and know exactly what they’re looking for – they’re looking forward to my team and I making them one of our first stops once we begin doing drop offs again!

Consider listing your items online

While charitable organizations and donation centers may be dealing with a massive influx of donations post coronavirus, individual people and families aren’t in the same situation. There may be some individuals in your town who want or need the items and could carefully approach you and your home in a way that you're comfortable with.

Lately, I’ve been having great success giving away my items by using online listing sites like Freegans, Craigslist, Freecycle, and my personal social media pages. If you have some items that might be of value, you can list them for sale online, too.

If that’s something that you want to do, you can arrange a window of time for someone to pick up your items on your porch, driveway or sidewalk – whatever you’re most comfortable with and checks out with any neighborhood or H.O.A. rules.

If you’re going to with this option, make sure everyone involved is adhering to proper social distancing guidelines! When I had people stop by my home, I made sure we were both wearing masks and remained 6-10 feet apart. We don’t want to sneeze around each other just in case one of us is an asymptomatic carrier or something. So just a scarf or any face covering will do.

First come, first served

Listing items online can get a bit time consuming when you’re dealing with all of the other things you have going on with family, work and life in general. Decreasing clutter in your life starts with decluttering your calendar so that you’re better able to manage your time.

So, another option is to create a list of everything that you want to get rid of, take a picture of everything, and post that online instead of each individual item.

Give people a window of time to come to your house and update the list as items have been claimed. This saves you from having to answer dozens of messages asking, “Is this item still available? When can I stop by?”

Are you sure it’s donatable?

This is kind of provocative to say. I’m a tree hugger from way back when and I strongly believe in recycling and landfill reduction, but do some of your items just need to be thrown out?

There are many things that when they end up at a donation center, they go right into their compactor because they know that they won’t be able to sell them or because there is no room for them. It's just a sad truth.

Also consider, instead of the landfill, could you take it to a recycling center? Here in Louisville, the recycling centers are all still open. Just recently I took some light bulbs, old electronics, cardboard and paper. If you have things that are broken or glass jars that you once used for decoration but are cracked, you can absolutely recycle those things. Check your local recycling centers to see who takes what and their hours of operation.

Reassess your goals

While you’re preparing for donation sites to reopen, it’s a good time to think about what your organization goals are and how you can handle the downtime while you’re waiting for the opportunity to donate your things.

There’s no date when everything is going to be open for sure – it could be next week or next month – so you need to decide how long you can mentally and emotionally handle your things sitting stagnant in your home. Is it going to throw off your balance? Do you need to just get rid of it? What feels healthy to you?

Here in Louisville, my team is staying on top of the donation sites and their availabilities. We are scheduling porch pick ups for current clients and DIYers as space allows. To schedule a porch pick up, go here.

As always, take good care. Stay safe and stay healthy!