So far, I've been dwindling down my wardrobe and book collection by taking many of my clothes and books to Buffalo Exchange and Changing Hands Bookstore. The great thing about these two places is that anything they don't buy from you, they donate to a charity. It makes getting rid of things almost as easy as throwing them away, but you still get to keep them out of the landfill. Another great thing about Buffalo Exchange is that in lieu of getting a bag for the items you buy (or exchange), you can get a token. This token represents the money it would have cost to give you a bag. When you drop your token into one of three charity boxes, the money for your bag goes to a charity instead. Another place to sell books is Bookmans. Marty took a lot of his books there. They do not do donations, however, so we dropped off the remaining books at Changing Hands.
In addition to trying to sell our stuff, we’ve also been donating things directly. When I go grocery shopping, I often stop at the Goodwill that is in the same strip mall and drop off a bag of stuff. I went through my parents' attic recently and found a bunch of old toys and books from my childhood. Anyone remember Carebears, Strawberry Shortcake, Pound Puppies, People, The Babysitters Club, or R.L. Stine? My parents still had all of that in their attic. I guess my own desire to purge unused stuff got into them too, so we ended up having a living room full of unwanted possessions. My parents donated it all to the Boys and Girls Club. They came and picked up all the items and the money they make from it is used to help families who are struggling to survive. In this case, donating was actually easier than trying to throw it all away.
In a couple of instances, we were able to give away things to people we knew. Marty gave some books to his little brother and we gave some stuffed animals to a friend that was having a baby. It was nice to be able to show someone that you care, without spending money.
