Wow - During Covid the lines were really long sometimes at our ARC thrift store dropoff. But they usually took most stuff. (Exception - Desks. I had to show the glass top and lace doily to say “vanity”… worker said OK.
Our ARC also has a big bin in foyer, no workers observing. If yours has same you could probably drop your other items there. Ha, or send to me if right size… just kidding 
At our Goodwill, you just drop off the bags or boxes. No one looks at what’s in them.
I toured all of the United Way partner agencies for several years as part of their community investment panel. From what I learned, there was one local agency that became my preferred agency for clothing that was still in good shape. However, I learned that our Salvation Army took absolutely anything clothing wise and would channel stained clothing or clothing with holes to a recycling source that used it for rag content. These comments make me wonder if I should check to see if that’s still the case. I always sorted what I thought would go that direction into separate bags and noted that when I dropped off there.
Right? That’s what has always happened to me! I wonder if the staff was told they couldn’t leave (on a Friday night) until all the items were processed or something. Weird.
Do your Goodwills not take books? I had nice hard cover books not dingy basement books. I guess maybe I don’t see books in Goodwill??
Our library takes books at most branches, then have several sales throughout the year. Covid stopped that for awhile, but I noticed the donation bin was back.
I just dropped off several bags of books at a St. Vincent De Paul, so if you have one of those in your area they will probably take them. Our libraries aren’t taking them right now.
Yeah I know plenty of places where I can drop off books- but I didn’t realize that Goodwill didn’t!
So a few months ago I posted a freestanding fireplace screen on Buy Nothing. It was perfectly good, but the fireplace in our current house has glass doors so the screen was living in our attic. A few days ago the woman who I gifted it to posted a thank you shoutout to me with a photo of her fireplace with the screen.
That made my day!!!
@abasket - Our Goodwills take books and you can also drop off bags/boxes of stuff without inspection/rejection! ‘We’d like to leave work soon’ sounds like a reasonable explanation for the ‘we can’t take this’ move. A shame since I’m sure many Goodwill shoppers would have appreciated good quality merchandise!
H and I went through some stuff in the basement today. 3 big bags in the trash. Several things posted on Buy Nothing (and more to come). Waiting for a call back on some place that might take some Halloween costumes.
So I came up with the idea of just putting stuff out on my driveway and letting people just take it for free. I advertised on Buy Nothing, Homeowners FB group and Next Door.
Oh, my. I specifically said the date and time the stuff would be out and where. Of course people asked “can I have you hold “item” - no. Can I pick it up a day earlier - “no”. One person said she was coming a day earlier and asked me to PM my address - 'did you not read my post?”
I thought this would be easy…
Lol yep this is so true! READ THE POST PEOPLE.
Last week I helped D1 move. We put some stuff out at the curb and she took some pics and put on FB local page. Immediately people commented “is this still
Available?” Duh, she literally just made post two minutes ago!
I always say “first come, first served,
No holds”. When item/s are gone I mark the post or delete it entirely
Sometimes we just put stuff on the street with a “free” sign. Try that first and if it doesn’t go, then you can post it.
H finally told me that he realized he was running out of time when packing last month because it was too hard for him to make decisions about what to keep and what to donate. He decided to pack everything that was left. Now I’ll be spending hours going through a bunch of bins and boxes, unpacking, sorting, bagging or boxing donations, then repacking. I wish I’d been able to go with him because I’m betting at least half of the stuff he brought won’t be kept.
Of course, H told me this after he’d broken down a bunch of delivery boxes for disposal. I could use at least a dozen next week.
Tomorrow is our annual library shredding fundraiser. I am finally getting rid of over 30 years of old tax records (IRS says you need to keep only 6)
H won’t let go of the 38 years of returns we have accumulated (dating to BEFORE we got married). I went through the files and tossed a bunch of stuff that we just don’t need. Was funny to see our handwritten budget that we used for detailing expenses for the 1986 FAFSA when he was applying to law school. This was just before we bought our first computer, so no Lotus123 spreadsheet!
I am glad I kept our old tax return records because when I applied for my new job last year, they wanted to verify my employment records going back 15 years. One of the co’s was long gone, but I still had one of their W2s, and that was sufficient.
Just made another bag of clothes to donate - some of my old clothes and some of my daughters
H has to go through periodic clearances for work, and I think he’s concerned that at some point, someone will ask about child care arrangements long ago, or what the quasi-regular non-payroll deposits represent (travel reimbursements). He’s terribly spoiled because I can put my hands on pretty much any document he could ever imagine wanting. This week it was the installation paperwork for the propane tank the previous owners of our house installed…in 1991.
If I die before he does, he will be miserable going through all the paperwork in this house. I will have to leave notes in folders reminding him “You wanted me to save this for you!”
CountingDown, that’s impressive. I too keep paper that we need – receipts and warranties for products we’ve purchased, which definitely comes in handy when they misbehave. Taxes are saved digitally, however.