If you’re working on simplifying your life, chances are you’ll be doing some – if not a lot of – decluttering along the way (see HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE for some discussions about decluttering). Decluttering is a great way to get rid of things that you don’t find beautiful or useful, but somehow still manage to have around your house. By clearing those items out, you not only have fewer possessions to make space for and take care of, you also make literal space in your life for breathing, dreaming, doing, or just being.

While the things you’re getting rid of may not be useful to you, if they’re still in good condition they may be wonderful for someone else. As such, if you’re bagging up things to donate or give away, it’s helpful to have a go-to place to take them, so you don’t have to think about it very much.

I have my favorite charities around town that I like to donate to. If I’m not listing an item on Freecycle, I have a few places that I choose to support with my in-kind donations, depending on what type of items I’m donating.

The Emergency Family Assistance Association, Boulder County Safehouse, and the Boulder Homeless Shelter are three organizations I choose to support with donations of goods. They all do important work, providing needed services in my local community, and I like knowing that items we’re no longer using can help someone who truly needs them.

Your community will have different charities, and you may choose to support very different organizations than I do, but donating your good-condition, usable goods can help to support their mission and cause. Also, it helps keep usable goods out of landfills, which should be reserved for true garbage and not filled with usable goods we no longer want.

Finally, knowing in advance where you can donate items makes it easy to stick a few bags in your car and take them somewhere to drop off without a lot of extra time or thought. Making the process simple for yourself makes it easier to continue your decluttering efforts. If items simply relocate from inside your house to inside your garage, then you’ll have to deal with them at least one more time in the future. I’m all for making simplification as easy as it can be.

Do you have a preferred charity or two to which you donate your in-kind goods? Do you have suggestions on how to make the donation process simple and easy?