4 Fun Ways to Give Away Your Stuff While Decluttering

One thing that makes it so difficult to declutter and part with our things is our desire to make sure we’re not just wasting stuff and just throwing it away. In an ideal world, everything we have that we can no longer keep will find a great new home where it’s used and appreciated. It can be hard to find people to take our things though.

Other than the most obvious idea of giving your things to a second-hand store, here are a few creative ways to find people to take your things. These strategies are useful only if you’re not concerned about making money off of the items and instead just want to find them good homes.

The Decluttering Party

Spend a little time during your decluttering choosing a decent number of things that you’d like to give away to friends and family. Once you have that pile created, send out an invite to your friends and family to attend your Decluttering Party. Ask people to bring a reusable shopping bag with them to the party so that they can take home 1-3+ items from your giveaway pile. Provide some snacks and enjoy watching people get excited over your things. Make sure to share any meaningful stories about items that might have more sentimental value when people choose them or to entice people to choose them.

The “Free Crap” Sale

You are all familiar with the concept of a garage sale. People love shopping at other people’s homes! Try putting a slight twist on the garage sale by hosting a “Free Crap” Sale. This is a garage sale where everything is free. You can call it by a different, more professional name, if you prefer, but make sure to emphasize that everything is free in your advertisements and signage. That is the key for catching peoples’ attention.

You can make this method even more effective by doing a little advertising or making the sale only last for a small time window in order to create some urgency.

Online Giveaway Sites

You can find many places online that allow you to advertise your free items. Facebook has many groups local to different neighborhoods that you can join and share your items. Nextdoor  is also a popular neighborhood website where you can offer things for free to those in your neighborhood.

The Curb

One of the oldest and most popular methods for finding your free items new homes is putting them on the curb at your house. People drive by, see the items, and it usually doesn’t take long for them to disappear. This method also takes any personal interaction out of the equation, which may be safer for you.

As an important reminder: If you are interacting with strangers while giving away your things, please do it safely. Meet strangers in a public place or make sure you have someone you trust with you if the person must come to/enter your home.