Several years ago, I looked around my house and realized I had way too much stuff. No, we aren’t talking hoarders level. There were just things everywhere and each of those things had to be cleaned around and organized and taken care of. The overall lack of clear, flat surfaces was making me stressed out. Each of those piles was a reminder that there was something I needed to do. A shirt that needed a button – even though I hadn’t worn it in over a year. A pile of papers needed to be filed – even though I wasn’t sure exactly why I was holding onto it. It all got to be too much and I started decluttering. I’m sharing this in case a few of my readers are feeling the same way I did and are wondering about the benefits of decluttering.
The Benefits of Decluttering Your Possessions
Many people mistake organizing for decluttering, but they really aren’t the same thing at all. When you organize, you put like things together. When you declutter, you get rid of things you don’t need. If you organize 35 candle holders, you would put them all in a plastic tub or a cupboard. They still need to be dusted, washed and cleaned around. They still take up space. If you declutter them, you will keep the one or two that are your favorites and donate the rest of them. You now have more room and you are happy each time you use one of your favorite candle holders.
But, what do you do with the 33 candle holders, 9 sweaters, 3 pairs of shoes and 14 coffee cups? You don’t want to throw them away and contribute to the landfill. In most cases, they aren’t recyclable. And, you don’t want have friends that want them. Donate them.
There’s never a bad time to clear the clutter out of your home or garage, or to do a wardrobe purge. When you donate your stuff to Goodwill, the revenue from the sale of your donations helps fund job training and placement opportunities for people with disabilities and disadvantages directly in your community. That’s cleaning with a purpose.
Thanks to the programs and support services made possible by donations of clothes and household items, Goodwill helped place more than 312,000 people in jobs in the United States and Canada in 2015 – that’s one person finding a job every 23 seconds of every business day. So you’re literally donating your stuff AND helping to create jobs. Today, 8.9 million Americans are out of work. And nearly 15 percent of the workforce is underemployed, which includes part-time workers who would prefer full-time employment.
Goodwill sells donated goods through more than 3,200 retail stores across the U.S. and Canada, and channels more than 85 percent of sales revenue from donated goods to provide job preparation, education assistance, and other support services for people who are unemployed or underemployed.
Learn more today about how to donate your stuff.
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