Since I work at Goodwill as a hanger/sorter, I thought I'd make a blog entry advising people on the path they should take with their donation pursuits. What I do is go through the donated clothing and toss what isn’t worthy to be put out on the floor, hang the good stuff, and tag it with the price. Believe it or not, Goodwill sorts through ALL the donated clothes and only the best of the best is put out, so don't discount it as just another thrift store. It's also the reason our shirts go for $3.59 instead of cheaper like at other stores.
So I’d like to give you a list of tips.
1. Don’t donate clothing wit holes. Just toss it. Who wants to buy a pair of pants with a giant hole in the crotch? No one. You can cut it up and use it as rags or donate it elsewhere, but the point is that it’s just a waste of space in the store.
2. Don’t donate stained clothing. Ok, so if you’re getting rid of a shirt because it’s stained, do you really think someone else is going to say “hey look at this shirt, it’s got this huge stain, I think I’ll buy it.” No. Contrary to popular belief, people aren’t that stupid. I’ve sorted through clothing with pee stains in the oddest places. Either that or everyone’s drinking lemonade and spilling it on themselves. So if it’s stained, toss it. Because if you don’t, then we hanger/sorters do.
3. Fold your clothing. This is an option, however, if a piece of clothing is too wrinkled, we toss it. When clothing is folded, it keeps it in better condition, since all the clothing donations are thrown into huge metal cages which are sorted through by yours truly.
4. Don’t donate your dirty socks. No one wants them. As a good rule of thumb in general you shouldn’t donate something you wouldn’t re-buy yourself in that condition. This goes for clothing that is old and/or dirty. I’ve had jackets come through that are nice, but covered in dirt, and people just won’t buy it in that condition. I know you may think—“Well it’s a nice jacket, they can take it home and wash it” but the reality is that the customer is in a store full of oodles and oodles of clothing that’s cleaner and for the same price.
5. Don’t donate onesies or any baby/kids clothing with the metal clasps. Although they’re convenient and they’d sell since that’s what all babies wear, we actually aren’t allowed to sell them at Goodwill. It’s something to do with lead poisoning, although it makes no sense since the clasps don’t touch skin and they’re allowed to sell them at your regular department store. But, rules are rules, and when we get packets of brand new onesies, we have to toss them. You’re better off just giving them to a hospital or to someone who can put them to good use.
6. Don’t donate your car seat. We don’t sell them. We also don’t sell refrigerators, washers, dryers, or other things along those lines that can be purchased at Salvation Army or other thrift stores. We can’t take these items, and if we do, we’ll end up donating them to another thrift store (which we do with our reject clothes as well).
7. Don’t donate your dirty clothes. I know this goes along with number 4, but I wanted to address something else. We inspect our clothing for dirt; we look at the armpits and the collar for sweat marks, we carefully look at white shirts to make sure it’s not yellowed. And if it is, it’s tossed.
8. Don’t donate things that are disgusting. I know this is a broad statement, and I’m not going to elaborate. Let’s just say that we’ve run into some nasty stuff that has been donated with the clothes, probably by accident. But if it’s going to make you blush when we go through it, just don’t donate it (except if it’s underwear, since we do sell that).
9. Don’t donate clothing with bad words or sexual references. These are tossed. It’s out of respect for our customers and for the fact that we’re a family store, not Spencers. Although we have good clothing come in good condition with bad words on it, we’re not going to put it out on the floor. This is something that I personally appreciate. If you have clothing like this, give it to a friend, but not to us.
When you donate to Goodwill, we appreciate it. Goodwill is a great organization. But I did want to clear some things up, since I know a lot of people probably don’t know that we don’t sell onesies. And I think a lot of people just think, it’s a thrift store, they’ll take anything.
So happy donating!!
