Spring is the perfect time of year to declutter your home. Most of us (luckily) have tons of stuff we don’t use, don’t need, or that our kids outgrew. They are just taking up space- why not give the items to someone who can actually use it and stop tripping over them? That might work out for everyone. Don’t just throw your stuff away or toss it in a bin- head to your local Goodwill, where your stuff will really make an impact.
Not only will it help you declutter and get your house clean and ready for spring (you can finally air it out after that interminable winter most of the country had! Hooray!) but it’s a great motivator to simplify other areas that you might have been thinking about. I know it was for me. Not that there is ever a bad time to clear the clutter out of your home or garage or to do a wardrobe purge, but “spring cleaning” really just lends itself and creates an opportunity, doesn’t it?
When you donate your stuff to Goodwill, the revenue from the sale of your donations helps fund job training and placement opportunities for people with disabilities and disadvantages directly in your community. That’s cleaning with a purpose- and your giving goes so much further.
Have you heard of the the “Donate Stuff. Create Jobs.” campaign? Thanks to the programs and support services made possible by donations of clothes and household items, more than 261,000 people earned jobs in 2013 – that’s one person finding a job every 27 seconds of every business day. So you’re literally donating your stuff AND helping to create jobs.
You can even calculate how much your donation helps your local community by using Goodwill’s Donation Impact Calculator: https://donate.goodwill.org/. Simply input the items you’re donating to calculate the number of hours of career counseling, on-the-job training, résumé preparation, financial planning classes, and other services you’ve helped provide someone facing challenges to finding employment.
Have you seen the “Reverse Shopping Haul” photo or videos out there?
Some of them are pretty funny. If you make one, use the hashtag #DonateStuffCreateJobs so we can find it and share away! Share a video or pictures of the items you plan to donate and use the donation impact calculator to let the world know how many hours of on-the-job training you could be creating with your used stuff – stuff that doesn’t help anyone when it’s stuffed in the back of your closet or under your bed.
Feeling motivated? Me too! Let me know how it goes, and maybe I’ll see you at the local Goodwill.
