December 3rd, 2008 · No Comments

Drawers and cabinets

Dishes and silverware: Think about places that occasionally have a large need for extra dishes and silverware, and you may have found a home for your extra place settings. Churches and lodges, which regularly give suppers or pancake breakfasts, might be grateful for your extras. Same with homeless shelters, Ronald McDonald houses, or women’s and children’s shelters.

Towels and linens: They can be donated to veterinarians and animal shelters, who use them as bedding for the animals. Most also will gratefully accept used feeding dishes and leashes.

Cell phones: Used cell phones can be donated to domestic abuse shelters (where women in abusive situations can be given a phone with which to call 911), charities in your area, or Cell Phones for Soldiers, a program that raises money to pay for talk-time minutes for overseas troops. You can also take your used mobile phone to Staples, where it will support the Sierra Club.

Plastic containers: Don’t toss them just because you can’t recycle them! You can drop them off at an art school or an art program at a university or rec center, where they’ll be used (sometimes again and again) for mixing paint. Cottage cheese and large yogurt containers are ideal for this.

Fabric and yarn: That box of scraps that you’ve never gotten around to using? It can be donated to local theater groups, which could use it to make costumes or props. Or if there is a quilt shop nearby, they may have names of groups that do charity sewing, such as Project Linus, which provides homemade blankets to children who are seriously ill or who have been through a trauma. A list of national chapters makes it easy to find one in your area.

Old appliances: If they work, consider donating them to Habitat for Humanity, a homeless shelter or a domestic abuse shelter for people who are getting back on their feet. If they don’t work, ask an appliance repair shop if they could use it for parts.

Vases, framed art, Christmas ornaments, silk flowers: If there’s a nursing home or senior care center in your area, ask if they have use for these items. Some residents without family members nearby may appreciate such things in their rooms. The items need to be in very good condition. After all, you’re hoping people will enjoy and make good use of them. Same with once-read magazines; there might be someone there who’ll love reading your issues of Sports Illustrated or People when you’ve finished with them.

However small your items may be, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that they won’t mean something to another person. Robins, of Project Night Night, has seen the magic that one gift can bring. She tells the story of a little boy with issues only a stuffed animal could solve.

“A little boy at the San Francisco shelter, he got a teddy bear. He would talk to the bear – he wouldn’t talk to a whole lot of people at the shelter, but he would talk to the bear,” Robins said. Unfortunately, the family ultimately had to leave the shelter because the mother could not stay sober. “The children’s director said, ‘I’m going to miss you,’ and the little boy said, ‘It’s going to be ok, because this time I have my bear.’ “

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