- Image via Wikipedia
Just like when election season rolls around and people start saying that every vote counts, every item that you donate is useful to someone. Whether you’re donating a toaster or a button-up shirt, someone browsing the hangers and shelves at the local thrift store will find a use for things that you no longer need or want. In this case, giving does count. As long as your items are clean, unbroken, and complete – no missing parts or essential pieces – it’s likely that somebody will eventually look at your donated item and desire to buy it. You need not worry that your donated items are old, out of fashion, or an ugly color.
To someone who needs a microwave oven, the fact that the one you donated is beige and brown may make zero impression. They might merely want something that is effective at heating up frozen dinners each night. Some people are in a place where their lives force them to look beyond concerns such as the in style nature of products, and to instead focus on their effectiveness. The same can be said about clothing. What you consider too bright, or too large, or too small, or too 2005, might be just the item that someone needs to complement several items in their wardrobe. Your ideas on form and functionality need not limit your generosity.
By giving without care or concern except towards utility, you provide charitable organizations with inventory with which to sell to those who simply can’t afford to shop for new items at Wal Mart or other businesses who sell only new items for a substantial markup. Most thrift shops price their items at about 80 to 90 percent of the full retail cost. So if you’re on the fence about whether it’s a good idea to give away some of your possessions to a local charitable organization, just remember that someone would think your junk is real treasure.
