Best place to donate clothes/other items?

[szw]

I have lots of stuff I want to donate, who do I give them to?

I have a ton of clothes I need to get rid of, and also many bookcases/ shelving units / cabinets / office desks / kitchen table / stuff like that. They're not really nice or anything, but they work.

Is there a place that will pick them up all up and give them to someone who needs them? I don't reallly want to bother with posting them up here or in the bargain finder and having people come and take one item.

Also I have a ton of books to get rid of. This includes novels but mainly consists of old textbooks (ranges from stuff I never gave back in high school to physics and med school books) and crap load of encyclopedias. I am entertaining the thought of dropping them all off in front of a library and letting them deal with it however they see fit. All these cost thousands in their heyday, but can I really get any cash out of these? (mainly the university textbooks which go from 3-10 years old)

Also old toys of all kinds. I'd just throw it all away but if some kid can enjoy them even better.

Thanks

[buh_buh]

there's a bunch of Salvation Army places around communities that accept donations. They're the ones with the heaps of blue garbage bags I believe.

[szw]

Yeah the clothes should be the easiest to get rid of. I'm amused at the thought of giving them all to one homeless guy and seeing if his business skills can turn him into the most powerful man in the bum world. It would also make good Tv IMO.

[nismodrifter]

Here's the thing though....Salvation army only wants your shit IF it's good shit. If its total garbage then they DO NOT want it.

[lastprodigy]

Women's shelter etc will come pick up your furniture as long as its not broken or anything.

[szw]

Originally posted by lastprodigy
Women's shelter etc will come pick up your furniture as long as its not broken or anything.

Nice, exactly the kinda thing I'm looking for.

[B17a]

Salvation Army can kiss my ass. I tried to donate a perfectly working deep freezer to them last year. Fine, I understand that they don't accept large appliances but both times I phoned, they were rude as hell when I asked. The second time, the answer was "no we don't, *click*" and hung up on me. Gee thanks, maybe I wanted to donate cash too but you didn't stick around long enough on the phone to find out. Other places were very helpful and suggested other charities that might be interested. Those are the guys who are getting my hard earned buck from now on. Sorry for the rant.

[szw]

Which other charities did you end up going to? They took appliance too? How about furnature?

[B17a]

I ended up "donating" the freezer to a buddy who was mad that I didn't call his poor ass charity first before real ones!

I found Habitat for Humanity, the Women's Shelter, and the YWCA all very helpful, try them. Most places aren't big on appliances, but I think furniture is cool. My friend donated a couch to the Salvation Army (here's another bad story), the movers wouldn't take their shoes off (which were dirty as hell) on her new carpet because it was against policy so she told them to forget it and leave. So if you can it might be easier to drop off small furniture items directly.

[dragonone]

all the clothes i want to donate are perfectly wearable, just from years ago

should i even try salvation army or the garbage bin downstairs? i'm not wastin my time if they're rude ....

[Kritafo]

FREECYCLE it. You don't even have to be home. Just post the ad, put it on your front door step, the freecycle fairies come and pick it up.

I see ads on there all the time for families that just moved here and need lots of stuff.

http://freecycle.org/groups/canada/#Alberta then go to Calgary and join. You do need a Yahoo account for their groups.



But if you want convenience the Canadian Diabetes will come right to your door and pick it up.

http://www.diabetes.ca/section_services/collection.asp

[BigMass]

Originally posted by dragonone
all the clothes i want to donate are perfectly wearable, just from years ago

should i even try salvation army or the garbage bin downstairs? i'm not wastin my time if they're rude ....

just to relay an experience in regards to this. This Winter we donated 5 full garbage bags full of quality used clothes. The kind of stuff we could have sold to a consignment shop for a lot of cash. When we called to ask if they could pick up the clothes the person on the other line sounded like they were working community service as part of their conviction and really didnt want to be there. The person picking up the clothes sounded like they were doing US a favor by picking up all these clothes. Also not even a thank you note or anything. Ok whatever. I'll gladly donate, but not to ungrateful pricks. Next time im going downtown and handing out stuff myself to homeless people instead of going through these organizations who probably pick shit out for themselves before they give it to the needy. I wasn't left with a great experience and faith that those clothes would ever end up going to those who need them.

[James]

I've always just dropped off old clothes to the homeless shelter downtown.... I had lost a "few" pounds in a short period of time so Most of the stuff was still in great shape..... I liked that they showed appreciation there too

[DepTrotter]

goodwill

[dragonone]

is the homeless shelter downtown the big nice building beside the bridge near memorial etc.?
kind of a scary place to go by myself

[stevieo]

Originally posted by dragonone
is the homeless shelter downtown the big nice building beside the bridge near memorial etc.?
kind of a scary place to go by myself

i think thats the cecil hotel