Donate

Posted by Ben Thompson on 03.28.09

I am not a garage sale guy.  Not surprising...not too many guys ARE in the first place.  But it did walk through our basement today and recognize our recurring problem; clutter.  We're due for our annual basement clean out and donation event.  I did my section of our closet about a month ago.  Kristin did her [larger] section of our closet two weeks ago.  It feels so good to do this and it feels even better when we take on the basement.

Thompson Tips to Donating:

  1. Make the call 1st - schedule the pick up from Goodwill even before you've cleaned the basement.  This may just put the pressure on that you need.
  2. Have the donation pile be in the garage so it prevents one of your cars from parking until the donation gets picked up [or dropped off].
  3. Set a limit on the duration you will spend as a family cleaning the basement.  If you know that you're only going to spend 2 hrs on the activity everyone can gear up for it and get the job done.
  4. Do something fun afterwards - if the intrinsic value of Donating household stuff was a strong enough incentive we'd all have orderly basements.

Some of you reading the blog may be garage sale people...go ahead and do it!  Apply the same principles above to a garage sale.  Other resources are e-bay (hire your kid to manage the posts, shipping, and receivables and pay them a commission for it (40% of the net receipts, etc).  How do you like that idea?

Topics: Love Where You Live, Basement, clutter, e-bay, gargage, Goodwill, closet, donation, garage sale