Do you Sell, donate, or throw out old stuff? (I throw out and here's why)

[neo von retorch]

Right - being controlling as a seller, and spiting both the planet and potential buyers just to be stubborn.

Selling / giving away even if it is resold allows for economic and practical value.

[stoaX]

I will sell unwanted stuff at our community yard sale and I will sell vehicles when I am done with them.  Everything else with any value gets donated.

Selling stuff online (or in the olden days through the classified ads in the newspaper) never clicked with me.

[snic]

One thing we've been trying to do more consciously as we get kid stuff is to mentally budget time and energy for its responsible disposal when our child no longer needs/wants it.

Turns out that most of the new-cheap options have a huge disposal cost.  What do you actually do with the bulk pack of the cheapest onesies once your kid outgrows them?  Or the endless cheap plastic toys from Walmart?  Nobody wants that stuff, or it's at least going to take a bunch of work to find someone who will take it.

I totally agree - I absolutely hated the accumulation of cheap crappy toys when our daughter was little. We didn't buy them; they were birthday and christmas presents, and still we seemed to be constantly digging out from under a mountain of them. But I have to say: we once came across a huge box of "Polly Pocket" dolls and accessories at a garage sale for something like $1 (more or less free). We did buy that for our daughter because we knew she would be delighted, and she was. It's about the only time I was satisfied with the purchase of cheap disposable junk.

Here’s an example: there was a bench he pulled out of the alley several years ago, a discarded wooden bench with a metal frame, it was weathered and beaten up. I hated it from the moment he brought it in. But we had it on our patio for a couple of years. Then it moved to our new place. And then I told him that this HAS TO GO!!!it’s put it out for the garbageman on bulk  pick up day.

Instead, he took it to the auction and some fool paid $15 for it. Unbeliveable.

Just goes to show that one person's junk is another's treasure. We remodeled a bathroom that had peach-colored everything (tile, vanity top, sink, tub, toilet), which I found puke-inducingly atrocious. I posted the vanity top/sink and toilet on Craigslist free, and they were snapped up in hours. Who the F wants a peach-colored toilet?

(I didn't post the tub because, rather than replace it, I had it reglazed in white. Much cheaper than a new tub.)

[iris lily]

Right - being controlling as a seller, and spiting both the planet and potential buyers just to be stubborn.

Selling / giving away even if it is resold allows for economic and practical value.

I take offense to the OP’s offense (haha!) at the notion a  thrift store would be “caught throwing away furniture.”  For gods sake, they have the right to determine what will sell in their store and what will not.

I worked in public libraries for decades, and discarding books was often a hot button issue in communities.  A significant chunk of the population wants to worship books and thinks that SOMEONE will take every book on the planet, even though they themselves will not take those books. How dare that library throw away those items purchased with tax dollars!

Sometimes library book sales are mostly a community building exercise, not really a way to 1)  Get rid of all discarded books from the library collection 2)  Make money. While  most sales will do some of both, they are not always net money makers.

[Rosy]

Anything like furniture, light fixtures, a coffeemaker, tech or household appliances, or plastic garden chairs that I've set out at the curb is generally gone within five to twenty minutes.

Items with metal I set out early on trash day - they are long gone by the time the trash people show up.

Clothing and small items that are still perfectly fine, or new or useful all go to a local cat rescue or to CASA - usually only after I've asked a couple of people if they could use it or knew someone who would like them.

Goodwill is now permanently on my shitlist for one last terrible experience/incident.
Besides they do get tons of stuff so they can just throw someone else's trash away.
Any true trashy items I just set by the curb on trash day and even those are often picked up by someone.

I don't care if someone is a reseller - it's work that I chose not to do for my own valid reasons, more power to them.
It's stressful enough to declutter so I take the easy way out.
Only if I really needed the money or it was truly a treasure would I sell something.

I really need to look more into the buy-nothing groups and giveaways on FB/neighborhood groups. I like them for plants and garden furniture. 

[Metalcat]

I'm baffled by the hate for resellers.

I've been looking for some specific items recently and have absolutely LOVED the presence of resellers. For niche items, they do all of the legwork of going out and finding the items and then listing them in one place. Saves me having to spend hours in thrift shops or corresponding with all sorts of strangers and weirdos just to find one thing.

Once I know a reseller is good at curating their stock, I'm perfectly happy to pay them to do the bitch work of thrifting for me.

[Villanelle]

With Buy Nothing, I don't mind resellers.  But I would be rubbed the wrong way if someone was lying.  For me, BN is also about community building.  I know all groups are different, and the one in my previous neighborhood was very special.  Because BN requires groups to split when they get too big, we were "sprouted" into several groups and someone created an unofficial spin-off group, so I can still be a member even though I don't live there.  (Pictured is the tongue-in-cheek sign someone posted after the group was split.)  People get to know one another, they help each other out, we lend and borrow items--including sometimes very expensive things.  So lying would feel like being lied to by a friend.  I don't particularly care if someone wants to resell, but I care a lot of they lie. 

In the spirit of community-building, I do sometimes try to give to someone I've never given too before, or who I don't see receiving many items.  Or sometimes, I (and many others) will ask a question like, "to be considered, make me laugh" or "to be considered, tell me about the most interesting item you ever gave or received on BN".   If the person plans to resell, find (and I'd never even know about it in that case).  If someone says, "I want this for my sister who lives in our community and fosters dogs" and someone else says, "I'd want this to resell", I'll probably--but not always, pick the former.  If I've never given to the reseller, that might trump the foster critters.  And I'd respect their honesty. 

So I don't think resellers are bad at all and I think they provide an excellent service.  But I'd hope they'd not outright lie.  (I don't even care if they don't disclose, though the group rules ask that they do.  As long as they don't pretend it's for their sister's foster dogs when really they want to sell it.)

[iris lily]

Oh hell no, I don’t mind if people resell my stuff. Although slightly different situation, for the saleat our neighborhood’s antique fair I purposely priced my stuff at wholesale prices to entice other booth owners to come by and buy my stuff, placing it in their own booth to sell. I figure they have to cart it home if it doesn’t sell at the higher price,

[curious_george]

I give away everything to friends and family.

And I mean everything. I have given away gaming consoles, vehicles, new water heaters, food, smartphones, games, blenders, tools, etc. Anything I don't want gets given away. I'm not sure if I have ever actually sold anything in my life. Everything gets used up and thrown away or given to someone who will use it.

If friends and family don't want something it goes to goodwill/scrap yard/clothes recycle bins, etc.

If no one wants something it gets put out to the curb for someone to take.

If no one takes it from the curb then eventually the trash man takes it.

I don't go out of my way to force anyone to take something or try at all, so I don't post anything on free cycle or Facebook. I live on a busy road, so if something gets put out with a free sign on it and no one takes it, odds are no one is going to want it anyway and it's not worth my time to deal with it.

[jeninco]

We're clearing out the house that belonged to my BIL, and we're trying HARD to minimize the amount of non-garbage that goes into the trash. This means:
- listing almost-new large items for half price on Craigslist, so that people will pay us to take those things away (sold the chest freezer this afternoon!)
- everything usable from the kitchen (so far I'm just working on food) is being removed and re-homed. So far I've given away literal gallons of steel-cut oats, dozens of spices, and various other stuff, along with taking all the stuff we can use and feeding it into our own food stream.
- Once I've finished food (and can even line up what else is there), I'll sift out what I can use, ask our kids if there's anything they want, offer some things to the neighbors, and pack up the rest for a spring yard sale.
- we'll have a couple of subject-specific garage sales in the spring (one will be just for tools). We'll reach out to high-school shop teachers in the area and see if they can use some of the tools (there's a 1800 sf garage entirely filled with tools, and this will be after we take what we can use and outfit both our kids with their own toolboxes of the stuff we think they should have).
- medical devices and unopened medical stuff (mostly wound care stuff) has been driven to a charity that will distribute such things.
- insulin and diabetes stuff will be passed on to a friend who volunteers with a homeless health clinic
- everything we can put into the mixed recycling will go that way
- we've started a pile of metal. We'd prefer that someone come along and take it for us, but we may have to make arrangements.

Honestly, we want most of this stuff to go to someone who can use it. If it gets there via a third party, that saves us some work, so if someone buys it from us and then re-sells it, WTF, it's off OUR hands.

[Sibley]

We're clearing out the house that belonged to my BIL, and we're trying HARD to minimize the amount of non-garbage that goes into the trash. This means:
- listing almost-new large items for half price on Craigslist, so that people will pay us to take those things away (sold the chest freezer this afternoon!)
- everything usable from the kitchen (so far I'm just working on food) is being removed and re-homed. So far I've given away literal gallons of steel-cut oats, dozens of spices, and various other stuff, along with taking all the stuff we can use and feeding it into our own food stream.
- Once I've finished food (and can even line up what else is there), I'll sift out what I can use, ask our kids if there's anything they want, offer some things to the neighbors, and pack up the rest for a spring yard sale.
- we'll have a couple of subject-specific garage sales in the spring (one will be just for tools). We'll reach out to high-school shop teachers in the area and see if they can use some of the tools (there's a 1800 sf garage entirely filled with tools, and this will be after we take what we can use and outfit both our kids with their own toolboxes of the stuff we think they should have).
- medical devices and unopened medical stuff (mostly wound care stuff) has been driven to a charity that will distribute such things.
- insulin and diabetes stuff will be passed on to a friend who volunteers with a homeless health clinic
- everything we can put into the mixed recycling will go that way
- we've started a pile of metal. We'd prefer that someone come along and take it for us, but we may have to make arrangements.

Honestly, we want most of this stuff to go to someone who can use it. If it gets there via a third party, that saves us some work, so if someone buys it from us and then re-sells it, WTF, it's off OUR hands.

@jeninco  re the scrap metal. In my area, if you have scrap you can put a pic on the local fb page, say come get it, and someone will come get it. If you're rural it might not be as easy, but still you might be surprised.

[kpetar]

I usually give things away in a local Facebook group, but I've recently noticed it's always the same people claiming they need it. I think they just grab the free stuff to sell it later.

[rosarugosa]

I usually give things away in a local Facebook group, but I've recently noticed it's always the same people claiming they need it. I think they just grab the free stuff to sell it later.

Some of the people who are always requesting stuff in our local Facebook giving group are low-income, often living in subsidized housing, some with multiple kids.  I think it's a good way for them to get nice stuff they cannot otherwise afford.

[Metalcat]

With Buy Nothing, I don't mind resellers.  But I would be rubbed the wrong way if someone was lying.  For me, BN is also about community building.  I know all groups are different, and the one in my previous neighborhood was very special.  Because BN requires groups to split when they get too big, we were "sprouted" into several groups and someone created an unofficial spin-off group, so I can still be a member even though I don't live there.  (Pictured is the tongue-in-cheek sign someone posted after the group was split.)  People get to know one another, they help each other out, we lend and borrow items--including sometimes very expensive things.  So lying would feel like being lied to by a friend.  I don't particularly care if someone wants to resell, but I care a lot of they lie. 

In the spirit of community-building, I do sometimes try to give to someone I've never given too before, or who I don't see receiving many items.  Or sometimes, I (and many others) will ask a question like, "to be considered, make me laugh" or "to be considered, tell me about the most interesting item you ever gave or received on BN".   If the person plans to resell, find (and I'd never even know about it in that case).  If someone says, "I want this for my sister who lives in our community and fosters dogs" and someone else says, "I'd want this to resell", I'll probably--but not always, pick the former.  If I've never given to the reseller, that might trump the foster critters.  And I'd respect their honesty. 

So I don't think resellers are bad at all and I think they provide an excellent service.  But I'd hope they'd not outright lie.  (I don't even care if they don't disclose, though the group rules ask that they do.  As long as they don't pretend it's for their sister's foster dogs when really they want to sell it.)

Ah, see, I don't care who takes my free shit, I just want it gone.

I'm connected to enough really great non profits that I know how to get valuable stuff into hands of people who need it most, but for the rest of the crap I just want gone, I just want to deal with whomever will cause me the least hassle to offload it, and if that's a reseller lying to me, I really don't care.

But I get why people would care, I just personally don't. Lol.

[RetiredAt63]

About the reselling - when we put stuff out on the side of the road, I am sure most of it gets resold.  As long as someone is willing to do the work that we are not willing to do*, why be bothered about it?

If people getting free stuff on facebook are low income, they are probably spreading the nice things around to their low income friends and neighbours.  So they are doing the work of a charity but more directly.



* I did one yard sale and swore never again.  When I downsized I gave masses of perfectly good stuff away to a dog rescue group for their fundraising sales, and the really good stuff went to auction.

[Kris]

I’m another person who cannot understand how anyone would be mad at a reseller. They snapped up something that probably would have ended up in a landfill and managed not only to give it a home where it would be used, but also make some money off it? Win all around.

[MrGreen]

When we want to get rid of something it immediately becomes worthless to me. I don't know why but I just want it gone. We have tried selling some of these types of smaller items in the past and it's always a hassle. So we just give stuff away now. If there's value in it for someone else I'd rather it stay out of a landfill.

[wenchsenior]

When we want to get rid of something it immediately becomes worthless to me. I don't know why but I just want it gone. We have tried selling some of these types of smaller items in the past and it's always a hassle. So we just give stuff away now. If there's value in it for someone else I'd rather it stay out of a landfill.

Same. I have no patience to dick around maybe getting a few extra dollars if it means the hassle of having to advertise and ship it. I just take it to Goodwill and let them decide if it's worth anything.

[kite]

My priority is keeping stuff out of landfill. 
So if someone else can use it or sell it, that's fine with me.

Friends have a self-storage biz and they have an amazing process for re-homing abandoned stuff to minimize their disposal expenses.  There are auctions for bulk items, plenty gets listed in online retail outlets and they have an employee who makes rustic farmhouse style decorative stuff out of scrap & vintage items.  It's enough to pay the man a living wage.  With the auction proceeds, it funds some pretty awesome vacations.
A neighbor a few doors down makes his living trash picking and recycling all the various metals; repairing & painting to sell items that still have plenty of life in them. 

We've sold stuff on CL, but it's so rife with fraud that I don't want to bother.

[iris lily]

About the reselling - when we put stuff out on the side of the road, I am sure most of it gets resold.  As long as someone is willing to do the work that we are not willing to do*, why be bothered about it?

If people getting free stuff on facebook are low income, they are probably spreading the nice things around to their low income friends and neighbours.  So they are doing the work of a charity but more directly.

I did a want to yard sale and swore never again.  When I downsized I gave masses of perfectly good stuff away to a dog rescue group for their fundraising sales, and the really good stuff went to auction.

Decades ago we had one garage sale and got$100 from that. So. Not. Worth. it.

Two decades later, I cleaned my house of nicer vintage and antique stuff and made $800 at a neighborhoid wide ‘antiques” sale. that sale gave me the confidence to suggest a fundraiser for the Park Conservancy of vintage and antique items that would be donated by people in the neighborhood. They are all quite generous. We made a few thousand dollars each year that we ran it.

 And then other people took over and did a perfectly fine job. However—-they worshiped that “stuff “a lot more than we did. In the two years  we ran the sale anything left at  the end, we took to the Methodist Church for their little thrift store. When the new people took over the sale, they hauled everything into their garage left after the sale that didn’t sell and brought it out again the following year. I saw some items come out every year for five years.

I think for these things to be successful you have to have people heading it who are very realistic about pricing and getting rid of items. Some of our donations had a “reserve”  on them and that is fine, but when I ran the sale, I didn’t want anything with the reserve because I wanted to get rid of it.

[Cranky]

I like to give stuff because - and I know this is woo - I feel like when I need something it will turn up. And most of the time, it seems to work out!

[baludon]

I find selling my old stuff to be a hassle for me. I just want it gone.  My last move, I gave or threw most of my stuff away. 

[RetiredAt63]

A major move is good inducement to get rid of stuff.  I miss almost nothing of the stuff I got rid of when I downsized.  And the few things I do miss I really don't have space for, so still no regrets.

[stoaX]

A major move is good inducement to get rid of stuff.  I miss almost nothing of the stuff I got rid of when I downsized.  And the few things I do miss I really don't have space for, so still no regrets.

Ain't that the truth!

[roomtempmayo]

When we want to get rid of something it immediately becomes worthless to me. I don't know why but I just want it gone. We have tried selling some of these types of smaller items in the past and it's always a hassle. So we just give stuff away now. If there's value in it for someone else I'd rather it stay out of a landfill.

Same. I have no patience to dick around maybe getting a few extra dollars if it means the hassle of having to advertise and ship it. I just take it to Goodwill and let them decide if it's worth anything.

A couple times I've listed things on Craig's List/Marketplace for a modest amount of money, met a buyer at a neutral location, and had them want to bargain.  $60 for an item I listed for $80.  It's actually kind of fun to see their reaction when I just say, "sure."  There's no way I'm going to go through a big rigamarole and walk away over $20.

Sometimes when they make an offer I just tell them to keep it, which seems to make them feel sheepish, like I ruined the game.

[Villanelle]

People renegotiating after an agreement, flaking, ghosting, etc., are why I just don't sell things, with very few excpetions.  When I see people selling items for $5 and $20, I am sympathetically annoyed on their behalf because I know all the headaches they will have to go through to actually get $5 and $20.  On that $20 item, someone will offer $10, agree to $12, then just never show up at the agreed-upon time.  After being ghosted, a new deal is struck for $15, then the person shows up and claims that somehow, they only have $8 and will you take $8 instead?  (And this is almost always disingenuous and manipulative, which is why it bothers me in a way that just saying, "I will only pay $8" would not.  Akin to the lying about reselling vs. just stating you intend to resell.)

If $25/$18/$WhateverItEndsUpGetting was vital to me, I'd do it.  But this is one of those "I'm happy to throw money (or a lack of receiving money) at the problem situations.  The frustration isn't worth what that $25 would mean in my life, so I'm happy to just give it away.  (Though a surprising number of people flake on that, too.)  Especially with a robust Buy Nothing community actually fosters a sense of, well... community. 

It's still worth it to me for more expensive items.  As a rough line, if I'm not likely to get at least $100, I'm happy to just release the item for free to someone in my community who needs it (or who needs the money they will get from reselling it--that's fine, too!). My misanthropic inclinations feed all-too-well on the encouragement they get from the nightmarish interactions on Marketplace. 

[SmashYourSmartPhone]

So that's why i just throw old items away instead of donating.

Disgusting.  Absolutely vile.

Please, go tour your local landfill if they offer tours.  If not, find a local one that does.  Or just go drop something off, and stand around until someone yells at you to get in gear, watching how much stuff is thrown out.  Bonus for identifying the good stuff you might have made use of, or could see someone making use of.

The average American is responsible for 5 pounds a day of trash.   That's almost a ton, per year, per person.

We buy too much crap, we buy places to store our crap we don't use (storage facilities are an ever-growing opportunity), and then we discard usable crap and buy more crap (But, Hey, Free Shipping!).  It's vile from an environmental perspective, financial perspective, health perspective (look into new plastic offgassing), and plenty more.

Beyond that, what's it to you if someone wants to resell something you literally value at negative (it costs something to throw trash out, even if you roll it into a monthly fee)?  It's out of your hair.  What they do with it is none of your business, but if it's going to get used, resold, turned into parts to repair other stuff, literally all of this is better than it being ground to dust under the wheels of a landfill compactor.

And I'm also somewhat bitter about this "Ugh, they might do something else with it, I'm going to throw it out instead!" attitude because I spent a decent chunk of my adult life "working with the remaining residual value of discarded items."  I drove cars that either came from the junkyard's "runs & drives" row, or that people were going to send to the junkyard ("Junkyard offered you $100?  Great, I'll be up in 20 minutes with $125 for it!").  And then I repaired them, drove them, and got many miles out of them, and generally sold them in good working order to other people (I didn't drive for free, but I could typically sell a car for purchase cost plus parts cost, at least).  I did the same thing with computers.  If it weren't for people undervaluing "broken" computers, well, I wouldn't have had many (and it's been a very good career to me, though I hate what we're doing with them).  Every now and then, someone would donate stuff to me, often in substantial bulk, under the "Pull the labels off, I don't care what you do with them, as long as they go away, and I don't ever hear about them again" agreement).  They were going to have to pay to discard older computing equipment, and I was willing to do the work to haul it off for free, and then it would get cleaned, refurbished, resold, etc.  I ate well (or, at least, better than I usually did) for a year on a business worth of computer gear I was willing to haul off one random Saturday evening, and process, list, sell, etc!  And I certainly made sure nobody was going to trace the hardware back to where it came from.

I don't get the hostility to this.  Now that I'm in a far better position financially, I try to return the favors to others.  A computer that isn't worth much to me, I'll simply give to someone, instead of trying to price it and get money for it.  "Oh, this would be useful for your project?  Sure, take it!"  Etc.  I don't participate in any "buy nothing communities" as I find Facebook one of the eviler evils to exist, but I try to implement it in my local circles - I am generous in that which I have, and others are generous in what they have.  A $200 computer isn't a big deal to me anymore, so if I'm not making good use of it, I may as well give it to someone who will make good use of it.  Almost all my old computer hardware is in active use in my immediate social circle.

Buying isn’t a sin. Let’s be picky here.

No, of course not.  Other people buying stuff we don't think they need is the sin we must run down!

One car per adult for non-city dwellers. Maintain the car well and keep it for very high miles or a decade.

Only a decade?  Not even average!  The average age of the US fleet is 12 years or so.  Keep the car for life, maintain it well, keep it on the road.  Or salvage other things, though I admit I don't miss "staying up until at least one car runs well enough for the next day's work."  I do have some far nicer cars these days, compared to my history.  One is even under 100k miles!

I think what bothers the OP is the recipient claiming to want it for their house when in fact they plan to resell it. It's the dishonesty that bothers the OP, not the reselling itself.

Why does it matter at all?  It's out of the OP's problem space.

[PMG]

I have had good luck selling batches of baby clothing and nice adult clothing on eBay. I price to sell because my goal is first to get it to someone who wants it and second to recoup some costs.  For adult clothes, nice brands usually around $5 a piece. For kid clothes, $2 a piece in batches of 20, 40 or more items so it’s only one listing and transaction. Jokes on them, most of it is stuff I thrifted so sometimes I’m getting back more than I spent. Sometimes I’m not but I know it’s going to someone who needs/wants it. I wish I could find batches like that to buy but so for what I find is not to my taste.

[jeninco]

I like to give stuff because - and I know this is woo - I feel like when I need something it will turn up. And most of the time, it seems to work out!

Ha, we figure there's a metaphorical river of bikes going around our town. We place our bikes in the river when we've outgrown them/they don't work for us/whatever, and we can reach in and fish out different bikes whenever we like. It's generally not for free, but they're seriously discounted.  Works for skis here, too. And outdoor gear.

[draco44]

Interesting thread. I disagree with OP's original position of trash>donation but give them credit for staying engaged in the conversation and responding to a few of the comments with open-mindedness.

I strongly value keeping things out of the landfill whenever possible and don't mind what others do with an item after it leaves my hands as long as the object has another shot at a useful life somewhere. Where I come down on sell vs. donate to a charity vs. Buy Nothing or friend giveaways varies by the object in question. In general I tend to favor selling or giving to specific people (via Buy Nothing or personal connections) over thrift stores because it is true that not everything sells in thrift stores, even the "good" stuff (there's a glut of donated clothing in particular), so I like the idea of giving to a specific person who's asked me for the item over a theoretical thrift store buyer who may or may not materialize.

But if I do give to an organization, which is also a perfectly valid choice, there are two main factors I try to consider: 1 - taking a cold, hard look, is this item actually something someone else will want (if no, don't donate), and 2 - is THIS charity the right organization for the item in question? For example, I'd rather give old formal dresses to a charity that specializes in giving free prom dresses to teenagers than a general donation site like Goodwill, or business clothes to a career center for homeless people, or old glasses to the Lions Club, because those organizations likely give that category of item the better chance of making it to a second home than a generalist thrift store.

I also respect a charity's decisions on what to keep, throw away, or otherwise dispose of, and try to be realistic about what such organizations are capable of doing. If someone donates a damaged couch, I understand that getting thrown out. If someone tries to donate a perfectly good couch, I hope they turn it away at the door if they don't have the floor space so that the donator can seek someone else who will be able to use it, but I also understand if the charity accepts it then finds they need to throw it out so they can make room for other stuff that WILL in fact sell, because I want that other stuff to be sold rather than both it and the unwanted couch ending up in the landfill. If clothing doesn't sell, I respect that the best that can be done in the face of simply too much stuff constantly being donated may be to first send that excess to a bulk outlet store, then hopefully bale any remaining leftovers for processing into industrial rags or insulation material rather than being incinerated. I support whatever it takes for there to be an overall reduction in waste rather than holding out for every item to find a perfect second home, because that's just not going to happen.

That said, I also keep an eye out for organizations in my area that can use items that may traditionally seem like absolute garbage. There's a museum near me that wanted donated packing materials, for example, to help wrap artifacts while they were doing a renovation. A community center in my area annually collects extra Halloween candy to be used later in the year for a gingerbread-decorating fundraiser. Some places will collect old athletic shoes to be ground into running track surfaces. One group near me wants your backyard's tree seeds (acorns, black walnuts, etc.) for reforestation nursery projects. An arts center always wants cardboard tubes from paper towels for certain child art projects they do.

If all this sounds fiddly to figure out, that's because it is. But I value donating items in this way as a means to be engaged with my community and help the environment as well as some of my neighbors. And I find that thinking of an item's eventual disposal in advance helps me be more mindful in my purchases, meaning I save money and ultimately have less to dispose of in the first place. As the various comments show, there's many different strategies for getting unwanted stuff out of your life. I encourage the OP to look for ways to avoid the landfill in ways that feel doable for them at this moment, and experiment with new ideas over time as they see fit.
 

[jeninco]

^ --- I just had a lovely conversation with the lady at the Elk's Club, which maintains a library of "hard" medical items. I donated several pairs of crutches and canes, and a knee scooter. We had borrowed some things from them a few years ago, and it was lovely to get to give back (and then some).

I'm actually learning all about my community: there are several food banks, a medical-supplies bank (things have to be sealed, obviously), and as we unload a relative's house, we'll be finding more such places. We're going to have a LOT of kitchen supplies to give away...

[iris lily]

My local Goodwill is so well managed. It is a joy to go in there! Everything is clean and the stuff seems to turn over pretty well.

A couple weeks ago they started putting out their Christmas stuff. So that tells me they must store Christmas stuff and then pull it out in The Season. They set up for Christmas trees in one aisle. They hang Christmas wreaths from a horizontal pole that normally holds medical supplies. So during the Christmas season, they exchange for space for their walkers, crutches, etc. for holiday wreaths and greenery.

They have very little floor space for furniture, so you don’t go there for used furniture.

 It’s regularly where I do brick and mortar shopping. Yesterday I found the perfect piece for $6 that will provide I will use in my holiday table decoration next year. This year I am doing a Grinch  theme Christmas table for the Holiday Tables fundraiser. Next year it is Christmas in Paris, so the six dollar Eiffel tower I got for that is perfect.

[Chris Pascale]

We all need to stop buying stuff!!

One car per adult.........keep it for very high miles or a decade.

Finally, no need for ATF: alcohol, tobacco, and firearms.

This saved us through the lean years, and they were mostly lean years.

[Chris Pascale]

A friend was at the Goodwill and what does she find? A mug with her daughter's picture! While cleaning out a relative's house, all the mugs went to the donation pile.

We donate some stuff, but it's pretty good stuff.

[StarBright]

I am the moderator of my neighborhood Buy Nothing group. Most of my items are given away through there, or if there are no takers then I drop them off at appropriate donation centers (appropriate depends on the item -- old blankets to the humane society, good condition household items to Goodwill, that sort of thing).

Why are you upset that someone decides to resell something you were going to throw away? We have a rule in our Buy Nothing community that it is fine to resell an item, but we ask that they are honest if that is their intent. Maybe no one needs my old jacket, but they could use the $25 from reselling it. All this means is that my old jacket benefits two people instead of only one -- the new jacket owner and the reseller. Three if you count me being able to declutter it.

Thank you for moderating a Buy Nothing! If your group is anything like mine, it is a ton of work!

Our town has sprouted 5 Buy Nothing groups since the pandemic, and they are very well moderated and organized. I try to at least offer items there first.

Our Buy Nothings have also become part of our local NPO ecosystem.  If there are no takers for an item, they are usually offered to a member who volunteers for some charities around town. Books go the book resale, food to the food pantry, gardening supplies to a local org that has extensive landscaping projects or the town garden club, clothes to a clothes redistribution group, etc.

I agree that it can be a pain and more work to donate, but I do it out of responsibility to our planet. I also hate rinsing my glass and running it to the glass recycling place every couple of weeks, but it is the right thing to do.

[SmashYourSmartPhone]

I agree that it can be a pain and more work to donate, but I do it out of responsibility to our planet. I also hate rinsing my glass and running it to the glass recycling place every couple of weeks, but it is the right thing to do.

How much glass are you buying?  I haul glass recycling annually or so, if that.  But I also go out of my way to avoid buying things in glass - I much prefer metal containers, which I haul far more frequently as I go past the metal recycling yards often enough.

[StarBright]

I agree that it can be a pain and more work to donate, but I do it out of responsibility to our planet. I also hate rinsing my glass and running it to the glass recycling place every couple of weeks, but it is the right thing to do.

How much glass are you buying?  I haul glass recycling annually or so, if that.  But I also go out of my way to avoid buying things in glass - I much prefer metal containers, which I haul far more frequently as I go past the metal recycling yards often enough.

Not a ton, but I have small house w/ very little storage space. I also try to buy glass instead of plastic at the grocery store, so that means 4-10 jars/bottles a week depending on what I'm cooking. My understanding is that glass is easier to recycle and way more sustainable than plastic.

Two grocery bags of glass is about all my kitchen can handle before I run it to the recycling place (which isn't far, but is another stop to fit in in a very busy life).

[Trudie]

My ultimate goal is to keep as much out of the landfill.as.possible. The condition of an item determines how I choose to get rid of it. I consign many used homegoods and make a little money, but mostly I donate. Decent clothes get donated to thrift. Crappy linens go to the animal shelter. Clothes that are not so great are donated for fiber and baled and resold. I'm constantly on the lookout for places that can legitimately use my stuff.

[sonofsven]

When I did my mom's recycling over Thanksgiving at her county transfer station I noticed something different: there was no glass recycling bin, all glass was to go into the mixed recycling bin.
That really made me think it was going straight into the trash.

[Tasse]

Many recycling plants do have sophisticated ways to separate out glass, metal, plastic, etc. It may depend on the quality of local services.

[kite]

When I did my mom's recycling over Thanksgiving at her county transfer station I noticed something different: there was no glass recycling bin, all glass was to go into the mixed recycling bin.
That really made me think it was going straight into the trash.

My community went to single-stream for curbside recycling ages ago. 

It's far cheaper to sort in a single location than to have people sort at home, as the latter requires multiple trucks.

[LongtimeLurker]

If Im not willing to go through the process of selling, but someone else it.... why do I care? I give stuff away that I know will sell all the time. Its usually things that wont go for a lot of money and things that will a PITA to get rid of, like old furniture. Whoever is picking this up and selling is doing me a free service by removing it. I hope they make some fun money selling that old desk or whatever and have a good time.

[stoaX]

When I did my mom's recycling over Thanksgiving at her county transfer station I noticed something different: there was no glass recycling bin, all glass was to go into the mixed recycling bin.
That really made me think it was going straight into the trash.

My community went to single-stream for curbside recycling ages ago. 

It's far cheaper to sort in a single location than to have people sort at home, as the latter requires multiple trucks.

I haven't had curbside recycling of glass available for over a decade now. Here's what google has to say about it:

Why is glass no longer recyclable?
In this regard, glass shards are a contaminant, lodging in cardboard, paper, and plastic material—effectively eliminating its own value for sale as well as that of the other materials. Broken glass also endangers MRF workers and can outfox or jam the facility's robust machinery. Its weight is a detriment as well.

[sonofsven]

When I did my mom's recycling over Thanksgiving at her county transfer station I noticed something different: there was no glass recycling bin, all glass was to go into the mixed recycling bin.
That really made me think it was going straight into the trash.

My community went to single-stream for curbside recycling ages ago. 

It's far cheaper to sort in a single location than to have people sort at home, as the latter requires multiple trucks.

I haven't had curbside recycling of glass available for over a decade now. Here's what google has to say about it:

Why is glass no longer recyclable?
In this regard, glass shards are a contaminant, lodging in cardboard, paper, and plastic material—effectively eliminating its own value for sale as well as that of the other materials. Broken glass also endangers MRF workers and can outfox or jam the facility's robust machinery. Its weight is a detriment as well.

This is why I assume it's going into the trash, but who knows?
She also lacks curbside glass pickup.

[DJStrong]

I will be honest, I had aspirations of donating my kids old clothes and toys but they ended up just sitting in a bag taking up space, that is on me, but there is a local business that picks up stuff and hauls it away and it is some of the best money I have ever spent, love those guys and will use their services again if I build up more junk (the goal is not to let the stuff build up of course, but we are talking an old couch, rug, AC, contractor bags of old clothes and toys, and a lot of old cardboard).

[LongtimeLurker]

Is there a kids clothing resale store nearby? When my child was younger, I would bag up all the clothes that didnt fit and take them there. They would buy some of them and offer to donate the rest. It wouldnt be much money, like $20 for a full bag, but it was more than $0. You could try that, especially for kids under 5 years old. Older kids dont buy used clothing as much, but thats a separate discussion.

[SmashYourSmartPhone]

Why is glass no longer recyclable?

This is why mixed stream recycling is stupid, not why glass is not recyclable anymore.

I will be honest, I had aspirations of donating my kids old clothes and toys but they ended up just sitting in a bag taking up space, that is on me, but there is a local business that picks up stuff and hauls it away and it is some of the best money I have ever spent, love those guys and will use their services again if I build up more junk (the goal is not to let the stuff build up of course, but we are talking an old couch, rug, AC, contractor bags of old clothes and toys, and a lot of old cardboard).

This is so foreign to me.  You don't have a local community of "kids clothes/toys/equipment/etc reuse"?  Within our church, things flow around until they're no longer usable.  Those bags of clothing go to the next kid in line (typically varies family to family based on who interacts where), and it's quite common to see our kids old clothing on other kids, other kids old clothing on ours, etc.  That's just the flow of clothing, and toys do similar rounds as children outgrow them.  For couches or tools that are no longer used, "ask around and someone will usually come collect it" unless it's trash grade, at which point just mention that next time someone is doing a dump run, you've got some stuff.  They'll show up, toss 'em a $5 or six pack of something decent, and the problem gets hauled off.  I'm normally on the "haul stuff to the dump" side of that equation.  For things like AC that are metal and paid to haul them to a scrap yard, offer them up free with other stuff in your neighborhood, or just put it on the side of the road with a "Free, non-working" sign in good weather, see if it disappears.  Corrugated is easily recycled, though the non-clay-ink stuff is good for garden sheet mulching too.

[Taran Wanderer]

Why is glass no longer recyclable?
In this regard, glass shards are a contaminant, lodging in cardboard, paper, and plastic material—effectively eliminating its own value for sale as well as that of the other materials. Broken glass also endangers MRF workers and can outfox or jam the facility's robust machinery. Its weight is a detriment as well.

We finally got curbside recycling a couple of years ago.  It's great to not have to accumulate cardboard and milk jugs for the trip to the recycling center.  Those can go in the bin now, along with paper (but not shredded paper!) and tin cans and aluminum pet food cans.  Beverage bottles and cans have a deposit in our state, so we accumulate those separately.  The glass builds up for a couple of months in 15 gallon re-purposed farm chemical bins, and those go to the recycling center along with any recyclable metal.  It's kind of a headache, but at least I feel like the stuff that can be recycled is recycled.  And the glass is less of a headache since they gave up on clear/brown/green bins - now it's all mixed (and therefore presumably brown in the future?).

[Taran Wanderer]

On the broader subject of selling, donating, or giving away, we're mostly in the giving away away or donation camp.  Selling is a pain for anything under $100, and the "is this still available?" questions drive me nuts.  It also drives me nuts when people ask how low I'll go - if I wanted a lower price, I'd ask a lower price, dummy!  On the donate front, accumulating stuff for the next charity rummage sale or trip to Goodwill has it's own headaches, but it's better than straight to the landfill.

We give things away whenever we can.  In fact, with family and friends close and kids of various ages, we have a stream of things in and out of our house from and to those other families.  But we also look for opportunities.  We gave a surplus TV to some friends, and we heard later that it was the nicest TV they've ever had.  DS went to a birthday party at a friend's mom's apartment.  They had just moved in, and there might have been a divorce, and I noticed she didn't have a couch.  When we got a new couch shortly after, I contacted her to see if she wanted our old one.  She was delighted.  It's nice to be able to give things to people who need them.

[rocketpj]

I have a commercial tenant who is a reseller.  She is also a tremendous pain in my arse, but there is no denying she works hard and pays her rent on time every month.  She gives new life to a lot of crap that people throw away.

As the owner of a storage company I often have to junk out an abandoned locker (yes, sometimes they are auctioned, but in a small town the auction is more trouble than its worth most of the time).  I happen to be across the street from the recycling centre, so a lot of it goes there.

I always sort out the metals and take it to the scrapper.  Ditto the recyclables.  If there is decent clothing I will bag it and put it in a donation bin.  Books go into book recycling, if there are any 'good books' I will drop them at one of the many little 'give one take one' library things that people have built around our neighbourhood.

On the rare occasion someone abandons some nice piece of lumber I'll set it aside and make a table or something.  Crappy wood and furniture goes to a soil making company (they chip it and compost it somehow).

All the rest goes in the dumpster.  Sometimes it bothers me to be throwing out stuff that 'might' be useful to somebody, but the time/reward curve is brutal when it comes to low-end kitchen crap etc.  I'd give it to the reseller but I don't want to encourage her - she is a pain in the ass at the best of times.