In "I started getting myself organized, now what do I do with the items I want to let go of? - Part 1", I talked about there are three main choices to do with items you want to let go of. They are:
1. Sell them
2. Give away / Donate them
3. Trash them
In "Part 1" I covered "Sell them" and now I will be covering the other two options "Give away / Donate them" and "Trash them".
Give away / Donate them
- Give away - to a friend, family member or someone you know would want your items. Marie’s tip – make sure that the person that receives the items really wants or needs it, otherwise you are just creating clutter for them. Make sure they know they can say ‘no’ and if they don’t like it they don’t need to keep it.
- Donate – donate your items to a charity. Do a good deed and help a charity out, lots of them need help right now. Marie’s tip – find a charity that you feel very passionate about and find out what they need, knowing that your items you no longer need will be useful to a charity helps in the process of letting go. When my clients are ready to let go of their items and don’t have a favorite charity, I help a number of charities by matching those items with the charities needs and donate accordingly.
Trash them
Be honest, would you buy your items at a consignment store or from someone’s driveway? If your answer is ‘no’ or if your items have seen better days then don’t bother trying to sell it and please don’t give them to a charity. Donating unusable items to a charity only increase their sorting time and costs. Try to recycle and reuse as much as possible, but sometimes there are no other options than to trash them.
Now, I have given you some great ideas on what to do with your items you are ready to let go of, but if you still are not sure of what to let go of or how to get to that letting go point, then maybe it’s time to give a professional organizer a call!
