This Is the Best Way to Donate (or Sell!) Everything You’ve Decluttered

Stephanie Nguyen
·3 min read
donation box full of clothes next to tote bag

Apartment Therapy’s Decluttering Cure is a free two-week decluttering program that’ll help you achieve a tidier home. Sign up here and get all 14 assignments delivered to your inbox.

When you’ve finished decluttering, you’re left with a much more organized space and plenty of things that need to be taken out of the house. Today, we’ll be taking care of the items you’ve been needing to donate or sell — the two remaining outboxes — so they can be useful to someone else.

Day 13: Sell or donate the things you decluttered.

Grab your “donate” and “sell” outboxes — because we will go through them and declutter them from our lives once and for all.

What to do with items you want to donate or give away

Your “donate” box is most likely filled with clothing, home goods, and other items. Some donation places can take all of these, but some might only be able to take one category of items. Consult the list below to help you decide what donation center or non-profit organization can take your things, or consider giving away your items by posting to an online platform.

  • Drop it off at a donation center, charity, or non-profit organization. Goodwill, The Salvation Army, and Big Brothers Big Sisters are all great organizations, but they can get overwhelmed with donations. Be sure to check in first. Try less-known places to see if they can take your things.

  • Send clothes to companies that recycle them, such as For Days, which has a Take Back Bag program, or Madewell, in partnership with Cotton’s Blue Jeans Go Green™ program, which will take any denim jeans you own and recycle them.

  • Go online and join a local Buy Nothing Group, Nextdoor, or Freecycle to give away your things for free. When dealing with an online marketplace, set boundaries on where you are comfortable meeting and how long items will be available before you move on to the next person. Remember to take down the listing once it is gone.

What to do with items you want to sell

Your “sell” box is most likely filled with things that are in good condition that you want to try your hand at selling. Consider donating any items you can’t sell after a certain amount of time so they still find a home with someone else. Here are places to consider.

  • Post items on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, or OfferUp. Like the advice above, whenever using an online marketplace, set boundaries on where to meet and how long it will be available, and take down your listing once it is sold.

  • Head to a local consignment or thrift store. (Plato’s Closet and Buffalo Exchange are a couple of options.)

  • Use online shops, like ThredUp, which has a Clean Out Kit that lets you mail them a bag of clothing and accessories to sell (anything that doesn’t sell can be returned for a small fee back to you or recycled by them), or Poshmark, which lets you take photos and list items yourself.

Do you have a great tip on where to donate or sell unwanted items? Tell us about it in our community forum!

More ways to participate in the Decluttering Cure:

The Cure Program is a tradition here at Apartment Therapy — it happens every January, April, and September. Click here to learn more about the year-round program and when to sign up.

Further Reading

Everything You’ve Ever Wanted To Know About Article’s DTC Furniture

See How a Stager Used Paint to Transform a 1950s Living Room

We Asked 8 Pro Travelers What They Never Pack in Their Carry-On, and Here’s What They Said

Latest Stories