Tag: clothing donation pickup

Streamline Your Wardrobe as the Seasons Change

Posted on by Jordank

Fall begins on Thursday, Sept. 22, and most areas of the country will soon enjoy cooler, crisper weather. As the seasons change, one’s wardrobe has to change, too; shorts and T-shirts won’t be of much use as temperatures tumble from summery 70s and 80s to the 60s, 50s and below.

Without getting into the weeds on what the Vogue fashionistas say is and isn’t in style this season, The Organizing Blog would like to remind readers that this transitional time is a perfect opportunity to #edit your #wardrobe.

As you reintegrate cold-weather garb into the daily routine, take a look at the #summer clothes you did and didn’t wear this year. Sort out the items you wore back into a closet or a storage bin, and trash or #donate the rest. You didn’t need them this year, and you won’t in 2023.

Summer-only clothing that makes the cut but should definitely be packed and stored for next year includes short-sleeve tops, open-toed shoes, beachwear, summer shorts, tropical prints, and linens and other lightweight garments, says The Closet Edit.

Wash or dryclean these items and store them in tucked-away baskets, plastic bins or a closet that’s distinct from your main or go-to closet. Then you can begin to integrate all of the fall and winter clothing you stored last year into active rotation.

As you make room in your closets for those fall garments, you’ll find items that didn’t get worn and shouldn’t have been stored last year. #Trash or #donate these garments unless you have a compelling reason to keep them. Perhaps you lost a few pounds and those old pants fit again?

There will also be #transitional #clothing items that you wear year-round and #accessorize according to the weather. Since they are subject to heavy use, check to see what’s going to continue to serve you through the winter, and what’s come to the end of its useful life.

As always, bag up any lightly used garments that you don’t need or want and contact ClothingDonations.org to schedule a free, #contactless #donation #pickup. We’ll take those items off your hands and resell them to fund valuable #veterans programs.

Here’s to a fashionable, #streamlined and #organized fall and winter!

Making a Major Move More Manageable

Posted on by Jordank

About 27 million people changed primary residences last year in the United States, according to Move.org, and one-fifth of those #moves were out-of-state. With the job market still competitive and real estate activity starting to slow, more people will likely be on the move this season.

A move is rarely easy, and supply chain dirsruptions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic made things more difficult. But you can make a major move more manageable if you make a timeline and spread the work out over a period of days, weeks or months.

If you hire a moving company to transport your #stuff (as 80% of people do) there’s a financial incentive to #packing as little as possible. That’s why the first step in any move is to #declutter and #organize your possessions. “If you don’t love it, need it, [or] use it regularly, or if it’s broken, get rid of it!” says Living Well Spending Less. “There’s nothing worse than unpacking boxes of stuff later on only to realize you don’t really need any of it.”

Edit your stuff well ahead of time to give yourself time to sell some of it, or #purge as you #pack. Either way, you’ll have less to transport and integrate into your new home when the move is complete. Assuming you find lightly used items things that you won’t need in the new home, contact ClothingDonations.org to schedule a free, contactless #donation #pickup — or schedule multiple #pickups during your pre-move #packing period and another in your new location.

Moving long-distance is particularly challenging. While couple of friends with a UHaul may be able to handle small moves, that may not be sufficient for families with houses full of stuff. Architectural Digest offers a guide to the moving companies adept at facilitating relocation across the country or another part of the world.

Near or far, a major move is a great opportunity to reinvent your lifestyle and revisit the things you truly value, use and need. It may not be easy, simple or cheap, but you can start fresh in a new place — without the #clutter that weighed you down in the last one. #MovingTips

Celebrate National Give Something Away Day

Posted on by Jordank

July 15 is a day that makes an official acknowledgement that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure — National Give Something Away Day. Established in 2015 by Linda Eaton Hall-Fulcher to encourage generosity, the day promotes #giving selflessly, mindful consumerism and #sustainability.

It’s a great incentive to #declutter and redistribute anything that you no longer need or want. “The reward goes both ways,” National Today says. “We benefit from feeling good about giving and making someone’s day, and at the same time, we also let go of items that we no longer need and are just lying around.”

The sheer amount of stuff in the average American home is staggering — about 300,000 different things. One in 10 Americans rents offsite storage for their extra #junk, and 25% of people with two-car garages don’t have room to park a car inside. The average 10-year-old owns 238 toys, but plays with only about a dozen of them.

Check your closets: There are probably outfits in there that you not only don’t wear, but didn’t even know you had. Pack up any items that no longer fit or don’t get worn, and schedule a free #donation #pickup at ClothingDonations.org to do your part on National Give Something Away Day.

You can also #donate lightly used household items, appliances, books and other items. Whatever you decide to give, having less #clutter in your life to worry about makes everything simpler. And giving actually activates the brain’s pleasure centers, a 2007 study revealed.

Whether you give someone flowers, pay for the next person’s order at the coffee shop, or sort through your old things and donate them to ClothingDonations.org, observing National Give Something Away Day is good for the giver and the recipient. Give something — one thing or a whole truckload — away. You’ll be better off for it!

#NationalGiveSomethingAwayDay

Garage Sale, Giveaway or Garbage

Posted on by Jordank

As peak #garage #sale season begins, it’s time to start thinking about the many things in your home that you don’t really need. Some of those items may be worth money to your neighbors — money you that could spend on an experience such as a #summer #vacation.

Before you decide to host a garage sale, you’ll want to revisit the tried-and-true “Keep, Donate, Trash” strategy for #decluttering, which dictates that you sort your #stuff into three piles and act accordingly.

Once you figure out what you definitely want to keep and put it away neatly, however, The Organizing Blog suggests you try a new strategy that our expert researchers have developed expressly in preparation for a #yard or #tag sale: Garage Sale, Giveaway or Garbage.

This strategy separates the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, to ensure that any sale you stage doesn’t showcase a lot of #junk that nobody wants. You’ve probably been to yard sales like this — ones where almost everything on offer is cheap, dirty and/or broken.

A successful garage sale has multiple useable items that #thrifty shoppers want, whatever the variety of tchotchkes, household goods, sports equipment, yard tools and clothing is on display. You will sort these items into the Garage Sale pile.

The things you absolutely want to get rid of but just aren’t worth pricing should go into the Giveaway pile. You can attempt to sell them in bulk (used kids’ clothing, 5 pieces/$1, for example) or offer them as freebies to attract attention to your sale.

The Garbage category will include things that are too broken, well-used or incomplete to be of much use to anyone. Appliances that don’t work, chipped dinnerware, stained/worn clothing and puzzles with pieces missing are just a few examples. Don’t even make a pile for these items — put them directly into the bin.

Once you have everything sorted, price the #stuff you’re selling and put up signs directing people to your sale. The Organizing Blog’s Garage Sale, Giveaway or Garbage system will ensure that more of the merchandise you put out actually sells.

Few garage sales sell out of everything, of course, so schedule a free #donation #pickup from ClothingDonations.org for whatever’s left. We’ll make sure that you never have to deal with that stuff again and #donate the proceeds to #veterans.

Help Mom Be More Minimalist

Posted on by Jordank

Moms — everyone has one. And this Sunday is the day many among us will celebrate them. You might do that by taking her out to brunch, giving her a day off, flowers, cards or a call.

There’s another option that can help you show you care, however, in combination with one or more of those classic options or separately throughout the year: Help Mom be more minimalist.

No two moms are alike, of course; some are packrats with closets full of clothes and big collections of tchotchkes and gewgaws; some are spartan neat-freaks. Wherever yours fits on that spectrum, she needs help managing and organizing her #stuff.

We at The Organizing Blog were fortunate to have moms who kept everything #neat and #tidy, never allowing unwanted or unused #junk to pile up. But there was nothing they liked more than a little help with their household tasks.

If your mom is getting older, it’s more urgent for you to help her #downsize. There may be many things that are easy to let go, says Aging Outreach Services, but handle sentimental items with care.

If a move to a smaller space is imminent, make an action plan to eliminate everything but the essentials, room by room. Recruit family members and friends to make a day out of a decluttering effort. And most importantly, be patient.

Repeat the process as often as as necessary to get Mom to a refreshed, #decluttered place. It might even be something you can bond over — especially if you have a #garage sale that helps fund a dinner out or a spa day.

Remember, you can schedule as many free #donation #pickups as you want at ClothingDonations.org to get any extra clothing or unused household goods out of Mom’s sight as quickly as possible.

Helping #Mom #declutter is a Mother’s Day gift that keeps on giving. Not only will she appreciate having a cleaner, more organized space, but both of you will cherish the time you spend together.