Problem: We have to have an apartment cleared out by April 30. We have a large dresser, a treadmill, and a sofabed to get rid of (we also have lots of books, dishes and silver, but we can transport those by car).
I’ve called the Vietnam Veteran’s Assoc. and the Bryn Mawr Hospital Thrift Shop, and they both said, “We don’t pick up, and we don’t know of anyone who does.” I haven’t called the Salvation Army, as one glance at their web site convinced me I do not want my money going to them.
Anyone have any suggestions—or suggestions on how I can search for charities that will pick up large pieces?
I talked to the manager at the apt. He says, “This happens all the time. Charities just don’t pick up anymore. If you can’t get rid of them by April 30, just leave me a note and we can cart them away.” It would be terrible to have them wind up in the trash, but it looks like that’s our last resort! My sister is seeing if she can locate a women’s shelter or something similar.
We ended up calling an auction company that handled estate items and they came and picked up pretty much everything we weren’t saving. This was in 99 in PA. It took a couple of months to get the check and it wasn’t much considering the volume of decent quality stuff that went, but it beat the landfill.
It’s apparently either the Salvation Army or the trash. The Salvationist Church is kind of loco but at least struggling people will be able to get the items at budget prices. Perhaps this is better than the garbage?
You could leave them out in front of the house with a big “FREE” sign on them. Maybe someone would pick them up.
Try the Whosoever Mission in Germantown – I saw one of their trucks the other day in East Falls. Your mom’s out on the Main Line somewhere? I don’t know how far they go.
Germantown is WAY too far away . . . Someone told me about another religious organization, called Purple Heart, that MAY pick up . . . Wonder if the girls at the Junior League Thrift Shop would be interested? I’ll make calls tomorrow.
We have to do all this the week of the 23rd-28th, when my sister and brother-in-law will be in. The apt. manager said he’d haul the stuff to the Dumpster for us . . . It’s good enough so maybe someone would snatch it? Hate to see good furniture wind up in the landfill.
Stupid charities. We had this same problem cleaning out my father’s apt., but his stuff was crap and we didn’t mind chucking it out.
If it’s good enough for a charity to accept, it’s certainly good enough to take from the parking lot. Dumpster diving is one of the perks of living in an apartment complex. Based on the years I’ve spent in this place, the odds are at least 4 to 1 in favor of somebody taking in the furniture.
By the way, what do you think of breakfast at Tiffany’s?
Finding a good cause to send your furniture to is so much harder than I expected. NO ONE wanted the 3,000 matresses Camp Blanding in Florida was replacing and ultimately had to haul to the dump.
Not even a company that sends items to third world countries would take them. No charities, no soup kitchens, not even the prison would take the matresses.
So apparantly, the beds are good enough for US Soldiers, but not good enough for prisoners or even Somalians.
With all those kids overseas sleeping on rugs or rotten wood floors, it’s a shame the beds had to be thrown in the dump.
Not to mention all the kids in the inner city and poor neighborhoods who sleep on the floor. Hell, I slept on the floor until I was like 12. To this day, I get off my bed and lay on the floor when I cant get to sleep…
Anyway, I was so tempted to just haul the beds to a street corner somewhere and let people come up and take them. Who couldn’t use an extra free mattress - for a pet, or guest or whatever…
Maybe whomever was in charge did not try hard enough. Or maybe it’s just impossible to donate stuff to a good cause these days.
Size and weight are only an issue if none of the neighbors are physically capable of getting it into their apartment. One tenant left all their furniture behind when they moved. The maintenance crew moved it all to the dumpster. Nearly everything was taken by other tenants. I got a breakfront. The thing is roughly 6’x3’x4’ and weighs at least 70 pounds.
I meant the meal. Actually, I meant to pose a question which I could later deny was flirtacious, should your response be negative. I think I speak for numerous Dope men when I say that expressing our romantic interest in you, without fear of being to oblique or of coming across as an obsessed stalker, would be so much simpler if your profile included an e-mail adress.
Or you could just conveniently include it on your homepage :smack: . I can’t believe I missed that! Excuse me, I must go and jump off of a giant H now.
We had a couch that wouldn’t fit in our apartment. Rather than carry the big, heavy thing downstairs, we left it in the hallway. After two or three days, the people across the hall took it and put their old one out. That one disappeared two or three days later.
I say just put it out with a FREE sign on it. I’m planning to do that with some stuff we don’t want to keep/can’t sell when we move. We’ve snagged some stuff from the spot by the dumpster, so I figure it’s just giving back to the community.
I fear that’s what it will come to, though I will tell Mom they all went to some worthy charity. The treadmill and dresser should be OK, but once it rains on that sofabed . . .
Are you anywhere near a university? In my experience, anything halfways useful that’s put out where college kids can see it goes to a good home pretty fast.
Hmmmm, we’re near a lot of universities: Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Villanova, Rosement . . . Trouble is, I’m only there on Saturdays; who at a college would I call to put up a notice on a callboard? An Office of Off-Campus Housing, maybe?
I do have a call in for a woman who’s just bought a house and needs furniture—I hope this works out.
Try posting to Craigslist in Philly. There should be a whole section titled “Free” where things like this get posted all the time. In my city (not Philly), I posted about some free plywood and got about twenty responses in about a half hour. The lady who ended up picking it up felt guilty about taking it for free and gave me $10!
Good luck with it – I, too, hate to see usable things go to a landfill.