Ep 14 - The Emotional Side of Donations

 

This week I’m diving into a topic that comes up ALL the time with clients and students - the emotional side of donating your items after you declutter. This is something that I can talk about all day - and it’s often about the specifics of each person’s situation - but I wanted to share advice that I give frequently - my hope is that it helps you too, as you’re on your decluttering & organizing journey.

You can listen right here, on Apple Podcasts, or you can read the transcription below. Enjoy!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Welcome, welcome. This week I am diving into a topic that comes up all the time with clients and students, the emotional side of donating your items after you declutter. This is something I can talk about all day. It is something that comes up a lot in our community, the Clutter-Free Home Process. My advice is often about the specifics of each person's situation. So of course that can change very wildly. I wanted to share some advice I give frequently. I hope it helps you too as you are on your decluttering and organizing journey.  

I hear from people frequently that the hardest aspects of donating items are one of two things.

They have a hard time letting go

I hear that specific phrase from people all the time. I even heard it today. I have a hard time letting go. When we dig into it, it is not so much that people have a hard time letting go, it is really about figuring out the home for the item. Like if they figure out a good enough home, then it is super easy and they are ready to let it go…But not without knowing where it is going to go and who it is going to help. I end up helping people find special homes for items all the time.

Again, that is a large chunk of what I do for my clients or how I help my students in my course community, The Clutter-Free Home Process. At my home, we collect for various specialty donation spots. Not like everything in the world, but a variety of them. I have a whole storage situation just to sort those all out.  If you can relate. I want to give you some questions to ask yourself, and then we can go from there.

Do you really want to keep it?

So first of all, ask yourself if you want to keep the item, or is it more about finding a good home? Because if you want to keep it, then you might be feeling outside forces or some sort of “should” about letting it go in the first place. That is not what we want. My job is not to encourage you to let go of everything you own. If you do not want to let it go, listen to and honor those feelings. If you feel like you are ready to go, let it go. If you really would prefer it find a specific home, then that is something to dig into a little bit more.

If it is more about the home, I would encourage you to think about who would want it. Whether that is posting it on a free group, which I use all the time. If you are not part of a free group in your area, I highly recommend it. If you go to freecycle.org, you can find communities near you that can help you find homes for things. I am part of a couple of specialty unofficial freecycle groups via Facebook, and they are wildly helpful in helping me just get rid of some or let go of some items that are maybe too large or too specific for some other organizations to take them on. There is someone out there that it is going to be perfect for and they are going to be very, very, very happy about it. 

Specialty organizations

There are a lot of organizations out there that are looking for your support in these different ways.  A couple of examples –I collect for the SPCA and even my local vet. There are many different items they need. Some organizations recycle eyeglasses or places you can get things out of the door. Locally, you can look up places to take your electronic recycling or your hazardous waste items.

It is all about finding the right arena to let it go. If you feel like you have a hard time just letting go in general, then go back to it. I know you have heard me say this before, ask yourself if you use, want, need, or love the item, because if you do, then it may be worth keeping it and thinking about just keeping it.

Or if it is about you having too much of a certain kind of item, then it might be worth thinking– Okay, How many of this type of item do I need and what is the right number for me? Then it can be easier to let go of the excess. If you are still having a hard time, there could be something else going on and that could be something worth considering working through with a therapist or somebody in the mental health realm. We are going to be digging into that in an episode early next year and I am very excited about it. Because that is not my specific area of expertise, I will not be taking that on today but we will talk about it very soon with someone who is a specialist.

Let's talk about the big donation centers

Some folks are hesitant to do the Goodwill donation drop-off near me because they do not feel like the larger organizations that accept many, many donations are “good enough”. I say this because this is something that I hear all the time, and there can be a lot of resistance around this. What I suggest folks do in that case is to research where the funds go for those larger organizations in your area.

For instance, I know in my area, Goodwill is the parent company, a kind of umbrella financial organization for other smaller nonprofits in the region.  One example here in Sacramento, California is Wind Youth Services. They are a night shelter for runaway and homeless youth in the area so that they can have dinner and a safe place to sleep. They are an amazing organization that is doing a lot of great work. Financially, it would be harder to do the work that they do without an organization like Goodwill. So when you are supporting Goodwill, you are supporting Wind Youth Services in turn. Goodwill does a lot of job placement assistance, job training, and that sort of thing.

I also urge you to think about this as you donate these items to a larger organization– who are these items going to and what will it mean to them when they find them?

For instance, when I have let go of special pieces of clothing, I am thinking about when I was a teenager and in my early twenties, and as recently as last week. I was at Goodwill searching through the clothing section and I would find this amazing piece that is super cool that I know nobody else is going to have. It is so fun to find this treasure, especially when I was in high school and college and I just really did not have the funds for other options.

This was an amazing way for me to feel really special on a budget. I like to think about those people when I am donating items because there is going to be someone who finds something. This is going to be the perfect thing for them, they are able to get it at an amazing price, and you are helping them person in that way. That brings me a lot of joy. I hope that tip helps you too. 

You are not alone

Most of all, I want you to know you are not alone at all. This can be very, very emotional work. It is not the easiest work in the world. There is a lot that goes into it that gets easier with practice. I always say decluttering is like a muscle because it is hard to get going, but once you are doing it, it is easier to keep doing it.

The more you do it, the more you are flexing that muscle, the stronger it gets over time. Tackling this decision-making really, truly gets easier and easier. I want to reiterate as always that you are not alone.  That is why I started this podcast in the first place because I think it can feel very isolating, and that is a huge reason why I started my community too. If you feel like you would benefit from ongoing support and accountability in our private community, the Clutter-Free Home Process, the link is in the show notes. My goal is to bring you a ton of support at a fraction of the cost of hiring an in-home organizer.

I hope these tips helped you out. If you have takeaways you would like to share, I would love to have you share them with me.  Please tag me on social media. I am on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. We are even on Pinterest, although I know tagging is not a thing there. You can tag us @tidyrevival on any of those platforms.

The Tidy Revival podcast is written and hosted by me, Carly Adams, and edited by Brittany McLean. The title Song, Maverick, is by Dresden The Flamingo. 

until next time, remember that... 

 
 
 
 

Links mentioned in this episode

 
Tidy Revival Podcast, DeclutteringCarly AdamsTidy RevivalDecluttering, donation