Three Easy Ways to Donate Your Garage Sale Leftovers to Goodwill
By Alana Sesow
Garage sale season is here, which means it’s time to declutter your home and part ways with the things you no longer need. From the cleaning process to the final bargain, hosting a garage sale is hard work. So, when the sale ends, the last thing you want to do is haul the unsold items back inside.
Don’t let your leftover items sit around for another year; donate to Goodwill instead! Goodwill offers several free, convenient donation options for garage sale vendors. Here are three:
1. Donate to Goodwill’s Neighborhood Challenge
If you’re participating in a neighborhood-wide garage sale, ask your association about Goodwill’s Neighborhood Challenge!
The Neighborhood Challenge is an annual event that encourages associations to donate their gently used items to Goodwill after garage sales or cleanup events. Participating associations receive a free donation pickup at a centralized neighborhood location. After the pickup is over, Goodwill weighs the donations. At the end of the summer, the top three associations that collect over 2,000 pounds of donations will receive a cash prize to help fund a community improvement project of their choosing.
To find out if your neighborhood is participating, call 402-742-8456 or email donate@lincolngoodwill.org.
2. Schedule a Free Home Pickup
If you’re planning your sale individually or if your neighborhood is not participating in the Challenge, schedule a free home pickup for your Goodwill donations. Goodwill picks up large donations Monday-Friday within the Lincoln and Waverly city limits. This option is perfect for vendors whose items cannot fit in a regular passenger vehicle.
To schedule now, fill out our online form or call 402-438-2022.
3. Bring Donations to a Thrift Location
Goodwill makes donation drop off easy with five Southeast Nebraska locations: four in Lincoln and one in York. All five locations accept gently used clothing, electronics, home goods and furniture seven days a week during store hours. Visit the Find a Location page for specific hours and addresses.
No matter which donation method you choose, you’ll support Goodwill’s mission of changing lives through the power of work. The revenue from our thrift stores helps fund local programs that assist job seekers as they overcome traditional barriers to employment. We also recycle many of the items we cannot sell. In 2021 alone, Goodwill helped over 3,500 Southeast Nebraskans with employment-related services and diverted over 2.3 million pounds of materials from the landfill.
For more information about Goodwill’s donation services, email donate@lincolngoodwill.org or call 402-742-8456.
