Scratch GoodWill

Good afternoon friends! I feel like I should be saying good morning due to the fact that I just poured my "morning" cup of coffee and finished showering. I'm not someone who sleeps in, the clock in my brain normally goes off anywhere between 7 and 8am. But after somewhat of a draining night I managed to sleep in until a whopping 11:30am! BOOM.

So, I'm going to make this short and sweet. I've been wanting to make this post for a while but you know sometimes there are more exciting things to chat about :) I think the phrase "Spring Cleaning" should be banned because personally, I believe we should be doing "Spring Cleaning" all year round, that way come spring you aren't totally overwhelmed with everything you hoarded for the past year! But that's not the point of this blog. I am going to highly encourage each and everyone of you to go through your closets and drawers and under the beds and start a donation pile. My motto, if you forgot you had it until you pulled it out of the closet then you won't miss it. My other motto is, if I am trying to make an excuse to keep this item of clothing or "thing" then obviously I don't need it.

Now, after moving into my current house (which will only be my current house for another week) I found THE best strip of stores on Lamar, GoodWill and Half Price Books. Such easy stores to conveniently drop off your used items, maybe make a little cash at Half Price and then wipe your hands free of dust and move on with your life. Don't get me wrong I think it's great to donate your things, obviously. BUT after hearing a comment made by a lady how she doesn't go to GoodWill anymore due to it turning all corporate and such I started thinking. I shop at GoodWill for those furniture or lamp steals. Aren't those donated things suppose to go to people who can't really afford other clothing stores? And then my donated items have now been turned into a payment to GoodWill. Are you catching my drift?

So to wrap this "short and sweet" post up I am going to inform my other Austin squatters of a few places that you can truly DONATE your things to that won't be resold.

-Text Books: Go to google and type in something along the lines of "Austin text book donations". There are about four different organizations that you can choose from that will take your textbooks for either resale with the profit going over seas to build schools, prison libraries (This is where I sent mine. There is a box in front of Monkey Wrench Book Store you can drop them off at), or you can send them to public libraries and they will send them to a proper recycling place and the recycled paper will go towards something good. Do some research, it may take a little longer but your books will be helping people all over get an education with a perfectly good book that the book stores don't want to buy back.

-Donations of clothes, household items etc: You can donate your things to the battered woman's shelter. Type it into google with your city location and they will tell you where the drop box is and their need and want items. Or you can type in an orphanage, homeless shelter etc. Even the animal shelters need old towels and blankets etc.

Like I said, this may take a little more work but you know exactly where your old memories and things are going and will be put to good use. So get on google and search your little hearts out and lets save the world :)