Tuesday 10 October 2017

Donating Goods Made Easy


I don't know about anyone else, but it seems like the hardest part of decluttering your stuff is getting it out of your house!  Over the last two school holidays (which are 3 months apart!) I have decluttered my clothes and my shoes, so I had two boxes of stuff I needed to donate, but it just feels hard to get the stuff into my car and then find a donation bin to put them in.  It's not hard.  The donation bin is in the Woolworths car park, just 800m up the road.  But my boxes won't fit in the hole they need to go in.  Also, you can see there are three boxes in that photo.  One box has been getting in the way for six months.  Guys, this is so silly.  It's not that hard, surely!

Well...I discovered the easiest, simplest way to get that stuff out of the house and donated, with no more effort than putting it outside the front door by 7am.  Really!

When I lived down in the suburbs the Diabetes Foundation used to phone me (actually, it was before the internet was terribly useful, or many people even had it at home) and ask if I had anything for them to pick up.  I would always say yes, and then make sure I made time to declutter and clear out those areas of the house that needed it.  You know, kids clothes, toys, shoes, kitchen stuff, books...whatever.  So they would come right to my house and pick up whatever I left outside.  Yay.

Now that the internet is useful and everyone has it these days (nearly, I know, not everyone has it, even in Australia), I went googling to see how I could still get the Diabetes Foundation to pick up from my house, and would they even come to Our Town.  I mean, we're not just around the corner in an easy-to-get-to suburb anymore.  As it turns out, if you live in Victoria, you can book a pick up online.  Yes, right from wherever you have your device without even having to phone anyone!  Because, who has time to get to a phone?  Well, maybe a ton of you do, but once school is back I sure don't.

All you do to get someone to pick up your still-useful-junk is go to their website, fill in the online form, select a date and voila!  When I get home tonight that stuff on my front porch will be gone and my junk problem solved!  Of course, you can phone, if you prefer that option - there is a phone number on the "book a collection" part of their website.

What's your favourite, most efficient way, of getting stuff out of your house and donated to someone who can make use of it?

3 comments:

Fabulousandfunlife said...

Sounds so easy!

I normally take my decluttered but still good stuff to either the local Vinnies or Lifeline shop which are right next to each other in the suburb my parents live in.

But even then the boxes live next to my front door for several weeks before I get the momentum to actually take them to these shops.

Ingrid
http://www.fabulousandfunlife.blogspot.com.au

Unknown said...

This is a game changer for me! I cannot tell you how many bags of clothes I have under my house, for no reason other than I don't ever seem to be able to remember to get them to lifeline. Thank you!

Kylie Purtell said...

Wow, that's awesome. I wonder if they have something like that in NSW. Must do some research!
#teamIBOT