I think I will. I want Ivylad and I to choose a charity we can regularly donate to once we’re debt-free. He’ll probably choose some animal shelter, and I was thinking of a battered woman’s shelter.
Heh - we made a garbage pile in our back yard prior to hauling it all away last summer, and our pile got smaller sometimes, too. One person’s garbage is another person’s treasure, obviously.
I’ve passed on a number of things on Freecycle - even items that were broken. Some people are handy with a screwdriver and can fix a washing machine or other appliance (I know, my grandfather was always picking up old tv’s and repairing them). As long as you are honest, it should be no problem.
It’s worth a try - you’d be surprised by they things people want.
Contact someone at the courthouse if all else fails. One of my fellow faculty members makes up “kits” for several of the local shelters, so we make it a point to grab all of the soap, shampoo and the like from every hotel room we ever stay in (which is quite a few). When I get a box full, I give it to Danielle for her kits.
Magazines go to the nearest Veterans Hospital, as do a lot of the paperbacks. Hardbacks that get riffed go to the “Friends of the Library” bookstore. I have students who volunteer at a number of these locaions, so it isn’t any problem getting the stuff to the right place. Everything else gets trashed or sent to Goodwill.
Books can go the BookCrossing route as well. I like this one a lot!
To find a women’s shelter look in your phone book under “Domestic Violence” to find an agency (who would be connected with the shelter) or contact your local police department’s public relations officer. They can put you in touch with the proper agency. I’ve been told that most women do make it out with their clothes, it’s household goods they need when they move into their own place.
I drop old magazines at the local hospital emergency room waiting room. I just stroll in and drop them off. Nobody seems to care.
Freecycle. Whatever it is, someone wants it. I think if you listed old rancid mutton fat, someone would claim it.
A teacher friend of mine has to do a service project with her class (high school age) I’m trying to interest her in a giveaway. It works like this: you advertise for a couple of weeks that you are taking donations of anything people want to give away. You collect the stuff. On the day of the giveaway, you organize the stuff and open the doors. People come in and take it all away. It’s a massive junk recycling effort!