You’re having an organise and chuck-out at home. You’ve got piles of belongings that you no longer want. What do you do with those items that aren’t worth your time and effort to sell, but could have a second life? There are a myriad of options when it comes to places to donate goods to.

 When having a declutter, you can save a lot of items from going to landfill by opting to donate them instead. There are plenty of local charities that would be grateful for your unwanted items. But how do you know what the organisations do and don’t take, what’s good enough to donate and what isn’t and how do you get the items out of your home?

What to donate 

One thing I can’t emphasise enough is for you to ensure that what you’re donating is of a decent quality and of very good to excellent condition. Organisations have to pay a lot to get someone to haul away items that have been donated to them that are not sellable.

 If you’re not sure if something is good enough to donate, ask yourself:

-        Is it stained, ripped, broken, missing pieces or otherwise not complete? If you can answer “yes”, don’t donate it.

-        Would I pay for this in a charity shop?

-        Would I think this belongs if I saw it in a charity shop?

 Many of the charities that operate op shops will pick up donations from your place. Just call and arrange for their collection and leave them out somewhere on collection day.

Op shops will generally take:

-        Clothing & accessories incl childrenswear & babywear

-        Furniture

-        Household goods eg - art, home decor, kitchenware

-        Books

-        CD’s & vinyl

-        Sporting equipment

-        Toys & games

But they generally don’t take:

-        all baby items that are subject to safety standards eg - strollers, prams, walkers, cots and car seats

-        toiletries or cosmetics

And only some accept:

-        electrical items (including whiteware), due to electrical safety concerns - they can’t test them properly in store

 If in doubt, check out the organisations Donating page or just call.

When to donate

If you’re going to take your items to your local charity shop yourself, do so when it’s open. Don’t add to the problem of the piles of stuff stacked up by the shops front door, especially over weekends. There it’s open to the weather and to people ransacking it.

An example of what is left outside op shops overnight. This address isn’t even an op shop anymore (it’s empty), but people still leave stuff.

Also, if you go into the shop with your items to donate, it’s a good idea to check with the staff that they’re able to accept everything you’ve brought in.

Alternatively, most charity shops will come collect your goods. This is especially handy if you have a lot of items or bigger pieces like furniture. Check out the charity shops website for pickup days & times and give them a call.  

It’s always better to call and have the organisation collect the goods, rather than to leave them outside the shop overnight or in the weekend. 

Where to donate

You might choose to think carefully about where your donated goods go. What organisation(s) do you feel an affinity for?

 Do sort through the goods you have to be donated, as it may be more appropriate to separate out some items and donate them to different places.

Aside from the general op shops in Wellington - there’s City Mission, SPCA shops, Saint Vincent de Paul, Hospice shops, Red Cross, the Salvation Army and Opportunity for Animals - you might like to consider:

-        old bedding & towels and newspapers can go to the SPCA

-        Wellington Curtain Bank take donated fabric and curtains and distribute them to families in need

-        Little Sprouts & Pregnancy Help redistribute quality baby gear

-        Women's Refuges often take household items and clothing

-        Dress For Success accept donations of good quality clothing & accessories that are suitable for job interviews

Methods of donating to avoid

I definitely recommend against using those charity clothing bins.

With the exception of the bins for a couple of charities, only 30% of donations from charity clothing bins actually go to charity shops. The rest is baled up and sold to one of a number of developing countries, where there is a big industry for the clothes. Having said that, a lot of what isn't bought there ends up in landfill. Some of those countries are now (rightfully) refusing to take these clothes, so I think it’s responsible to find another destination for your offcasts.

For what’s not good enough to donate

Ask of your items Is it really sellable in it’s current state? If it’s worn, missing pieces, stained, torn or otherwise broken, refrain from donating it. Think what else you could do with it.

-        See if you can think of a way you can repurpose the item eg - fabric items may be able to be remade and repurposed into something new

-        The Tip Shop may be a good option for some items

-        Used art & craft supplies could go to a local kindergarten or school

-        Neighbourly and The Freecycle Network can be great ways to offload items while helping out others

-        There are a number of drop off points for unwanted goods and e-waste on the Wellington City Council website

-        The curbside recycling might be an option  

-        Paints - the Resene shop will take some of these. Check out their site for details 

That’s the whats, wheres and whens of donating your unwanted items.

 Want to get organised?

ShipShape Home will get you there. Call or email me today.

For a lot of people there will come a time when they need to help an older family member downsize their belongings - whether it’s to move into a smaller home, a rest home or retirement community. I found myself in this situation recently. I was called on to help with a family member’s house, as she had moved into a rest home and wouldn’t be returning home.

This kind of event can be a difficult time for everyone. It’s often emotional for the family member who is making the move into a new phase of their life. It’s also trying for everyone helping. If you have a few family members in one place, that alone can be stressful and can bring up unexpected emotions.

Everyone’s situation will differ; but in this case my family member had nearly everything she could fit already in the rest home. With the exception of a couple more boxes of sentimental items we chose to keep aside in case she asked for them, everything in the house would be either auctioned, shipped to family members, donated to local charity shops, or discarded.

For this job I knew that it’d just be two of us doing everything and that I would be doing the vast majority of the work, including the work up & down ladders and the lifting & moving of heavy stuff. So I made the decision to work through the house together as a pair, rather than splitting up. With a job like this it would often be best to divide & conquer, but only when everyone has adequate mobility and the ability to shift items, which is why working together was the way to go for us. Also; I wasn’t happy to be the sole decision maker on everything I might come across, so it was good to have back-up for that.   

In preparation for the task ahead I:

• had a think about the categories of items we would find and what we would do with each

• visualised each room and the storage places in each room

• mapped out a plan of attack in terms of which rooms to tackle when

• estimated approximately how much I thought we could get through in a set period of time eg - a morning, or each day

Some of the absolute treasures we found. Luggage that sailed to the UK and back in the 1950’s

In terms of setting the pace I wanted it to be err on the side of caution. If you go at a pace where you feel like you’d be finished with heaps of time to spare, it allows room for inevitable setbacks like finding unexpected items, conflicts over what to do with certain items, or finds that might bring up emotions.

Setting an ambitious pace might not be the right approach for everyone, though. You may have a situation where a lot of emotions come up along the way, which will make the process a slower one. Or it may not be as clear for you as to what should happen to certain categories of items. Setting a pace that is realistic for you will make the process a whole lot less painful.

We got started by working on smaller rooms and nooks & crannies I knew were scattered about between rooms. It was a great way to set the pace, feel comfortable working with someone else’s belongings and get motivated to tackle the bigger rooms and more daunting jobs.

Some of the ways to get started and make great progress quickly are to:

• start with large items which you can make an easy decision with. You’ll feel good for clearing out decent amounts of space right off the bat

• start with items that people are unlikely to have an emotional attachment to. Things like everyday kitchen items, towels and sheets, media like DVDs, board games & hobby supplies and bathroom items are good examples    

I won’t delve into all the specifics of what we were sorting through, instead I’ll share the things I learned along the way. There are times when it occurs to you that it is odd to be sorting through someone else’s life - well - what they kept throughout their life - but when circumstances lead you to be the ones doing it, you just have to get on with it. For moments when you feeling overwhelmed or distracted, I found the trick is to re-focus on whatever one task you have in front of you and just take it one small step at a time. If you find yourself getting easily sidetracked or ruminating in a certain area of the house or with particular items, moving on to a different area or category of item can give you a welcome break and re-motivate you.    

You know you’re in for a good time when you come across envelopes like this

One thing we were certain of was that there would be a number of collections in the house. Not just from one person, but three or more. So; a lot of history to be found in the house and multiple people’s belongings. Along the way we encountered collections of porcelain & china, silverware, jewellery, art work, embroidery & other needlepoint works and supplies, books, photographic slides, stamps and Royal memorabilia, primarily from the Queen’s Coronation in 1953.

In this process I actually learnt a couple of things about some of my family members that I had never known before. Things that explained a lot about who they were and what they liked for as long as I had known them and longer. Gaining this deeper understanding really stopped me in my tracks and made me pause what I was doing for longer than I had all weekend.  

Even though the job called for sorting, organising and clearing out at pace, we made time to stop and reflect on a item or a time in our family’s history. There were even some laughs. In your downsizing project, if time is limited, I would suggest setting yourself time limits on the breaks you take to reminisce. You might like to make rules like “all photos go to one side, to be looked at together when we’re all done” or “we’ll have a look at the whatchamacallit collection after dinner”. Stopping often to look at items will slow down the process dramatically.

At the end of a downsizing job I recommend taking a quick look over groupings of items you’ve chosen to either discard or keep. You may have gotten more ruthless as the job progressed. Did you say at the start of the process that you’d keep items you now could easily discard? Or vice versa? Do you want to take back any items you were hasty to put in the donate pile? Take the time to look over it all, to lessen the chance of regret later.  

And one last note on sentimentality; if the house you’re working in holds a lot of memories for you, give yourself some time to take a final look - a last walk through. Take photos if you want. They may well be something the whole family can enjoy later.

Expect the unexpected! You never know what you might find

It dawns on me that this is someone else’s life we’re going through, but aside from a few things like photographs, and sentimental items that mark a certain time in their life, they’re just belongings and very few of them matter in the end.    

There are a few things that this process has confirmed for me:

• you get to be able to estimate pretty quickly at what speed you can get through certain areas/rooms/groups of items  

• even if you know your family member has a lot of stuff, it’s not until you have to touch everything to sort through it that you understand the sheer volume of things and the size of the task

• look in every nook & cranny - seriously. Have you looked in the roof space, under the house, the darkest recesses of the garden shed or attic?

• don’t assume you know everything about the project: the house or the person whose home you’re working through - you might just learn something new about them!  

• be selective about what you yourself choose to treasure - otherwise it might be your family sorting through your lifetime’s collection of clutter

• and lastly - get your own affairs in order, so someone else doesn’t have to

If you’re wondering what will happen to your belongings down the line -

• make a will: if there are specific items you want to go to certain people, detail that here

• let people know what your treasures are and why: if an item has a history that isn’t widely known, be sure to share it with others. Better yet - write it down! Make sure there is a digital copy of the storey, too and store the history with the item if possible eg- stick the history to the back of the art piece the story is about   

This stained glass window brings back lots of memories of time spent at the house, so I took some photos of it

If it looks like you’re going to be downsizing someone else’s belongings soon -

Talk to your family member:

• find out what their expectations are

• are there any generalisations you can make throughout the process eg - any newspapers or magazines can be recycled, all porcelain items should be put aside for sale, all photography related stuff is to go to so-and-so

• find out the specifics of what they might like gifted to certain family members

• speak with our other family members - find out if they do have expectations in terms of items that might be gifted      

In the end we got through the whole house in the limited time available.

The two things I learned are:

• to expect the unexpected, look high & low for possible storage spots

• stay well hydrated, as it’s a full-on process

We divided & packed up items appropriately, donated items to a (very happy) local Hospice shop and we learned new things about members of our family and made some cool finds. And best of all, our family member is happily settled with her most precious belongings.

If you have a downsizing project you’d like help with, please get in touch and we’ll work alongside you to get the job done.  

The new year is a time for reflecting on life and what you invite into your life. This makes it an ideal time to have an organise of your home and to maybe cull some of your belongings which you feel don’t, well, belong anymore.

A full house sort and declutter might not be in order, but there are likely some spaces or categories of items in your home that you’d like to work on.  

Certain areas of the home and categories of items are natural to want to sort in the new year. The entrance way is a good one - do you have items from the previous season still loitering there? Also, any papers and equipment from the last school year, or old projects that can be filed or discarded? Are there any seasonal items that are currently out of season and sitting about? And what could potentially be a big category: anything that doesn’t serve who you are now. That is, items that no longer suit your taste (art, ornaments, clothes, accessories & makeup) and items that no longer serve your needs/interests (disused sports, craft or hobby equipment, broken items).    

Before you start any organising or decluttering project though, ask yourself specifically what you want to achieve and what your vision is for your home and belongings. Keep this in mind as you contemplate what to do with each item.   

The bookcase can be a great place to start your organising and decluttering project.

If you don’t know where and how to start - just start anywhere and with anything. What’s right in front of you? Start with that. What’s right next to it? Do that next. And so on. Before you know it, you’ll be on a roll and making great progress.

If you’re not into the “just start anywhere” thing, there are some other easy ways to get started, which will have you feeling like you’re making fast progress:

• Do you have a problematic space or category of belongings you’ve been meaning to tackle? Start there, but start small eg - a corner, shelf, drawer, specific group of items

• Is there an easy win, where you’re guaranteed to find items to discard. eg - the junk drawer (every home has one), the pantry, your wardrobe, the bookcase

• Start with an area that once done will have the most impact for you and everyone in the household eg - the family room, kids toys, kitchen. This time of year is a particularly good time to have a declutter of toys, as they’ll be new toys from Christmas in the mix and (hopefully) it’ll be easier for kids to part with items that are broken or have parts missing, or they’ve outgrown.   

As far as knowing what to keep or what you can discard goes, when sorting through everything, ask yourself:

• Do I/does someone in the house absolutely need this?

• Do I use this? When was the last time I used it? Realistically, when will I next use this?

• Do I/does someone in the house love this?

• If I were to discard the item, could I borrow or rent another if needed (where appropriate) ?

• Did I “umm and ahhh” about whether to keep this the last time I came across this item? Why? Have my feelings towards it changed? What’s making it difficult to make a decision?

• Where will this item live, going forward?

There may well be items that are proving difficult to part with. There might be a sentimental attachment to an item or you might be worried about all the money you spent on something that has gone unused. In later blog posts I’ll go into how to deal with those types of items and other obstacles to a home free of clutter. But for now the above questions generally do the trick in helping people make the decision as to whether to keep or discard items.  

Notebooks: I’m mildly obsessed with them. I’ve just kept my three faves.

Every year come January 1st I feel the need to have a sort through my belongings and cull some. I don’t go through everything, but for me a new year sort-out involves:

• Going through my papers and chucking out any I don’t feel the need to hold onto any longer (keeping in mind those that should be kept long term for financial/tax/insurance/identification purposes etc)

• Throwing out receipts for items that I wouldn’t return now, if they broke/were faulty

• Going through my makeup and nail polishes and asking myself if they are “still me”

• The same goes for my jewellery

• Toiletries and first aid items - have I gone off any of the toiletries or have they gone off? Have any of the first aid items expired?

• A category of items I know I have way too many of. For me this is notebooks. I mean, really - how many does one person need? Most of them have now found new homes.

• Books: this year I had to get real with myself, realising that I’ve hardly read any of the books from my Read them in 2018 or out they go pile. One has now made it to my bedside table (for reading next), the others have all been donated. I generally only buy books second hand, so it’s not too painful to part with them. I’ve added all the titles to my To read list on the Evernote app my phone, which I have on hand for any times I’m in need of inspiration at the library.     

My pile of shame - books I told myself a year ago I would either read in 2018, or have to donate.

Note that I haven’t mentioned my clothes. This is because I am now in a place where I know I don’t have anything in my wardrobe/dresser that I don’t love, or that doesn’t fit or suit me, or that isn’t in great condition. So, for me clothes aren’t included in my new year sort. They’re in an at the end of every season sort. In a later blog entry I’ll get into how to do an organise and cull of your clothes. We’ll get you to the same “I love and use every piece I own” place that I’m now in. It’s a good place to be!   

That’s my version of a new year organise and declutter. Hopefully the above tips and ideas will inspire you to kick off your own.

If you’d like a helping hand with your organising or decluttering project - even just enough to get started, get in touch and we can work together to achieve your goals for your home and belongings.

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