The key word in my game-changing strategy of using a donatable Donate Box isn’t actually box.
It’s donatable.
Which isn’t actually a word.
Whatever. It works.
My only decluttering supplies are a trash bag, a donatable Donate Box, and my feet. This means every single item I pull out of the space I’m decluttering never has to be touched again.
I use my feet to take it where I’d look for it first, or I stick it in the trash bag, or I drop it in the Donate Box.
And then I’m done.
No transferring my donations into another box or bag or container to haul them to the thrift store.
Which is why anything can be a “Donate Box.” Anything that holds stuff and can itself be donated works. Shopping bags, gift bags, suitcases, anything.
Like this free-gift-with-purchase bag that was left over at the end of my in-laws’ estate sale recently. I stuffed it full of clothes that were also left over. It was a donation AND it holds stuff! So yay for that!
This concept is brilliant and one that I’ve really been appreciating as I pack up (read: declutter) to stage our condo to put on the market. When I bought this place 5 years ago, I was a newly-single girl for the first time in my adult life and it was a perfect size for me and all my clutter. Well, 5 years and a husband with his own house full of stuff later, and this place feels like it’s bursting at the seams. Now that we are looking to move into a house, I’m determined not to move ANYTHING that is, in fact, clutter. I have been continually shocked at how many things I have kept because I thought I needed extras (clothes, dishes, kitchen utensils, blah blah blah) just because the ones I had were always dirty. Now, into the donatable donate box they go. I have your two audiobooks and they’ve been getting me through some long hours of decluttering, along with your podcasts. Thank you for helping me see my living space in a whole new light. 🙂
Great article! I don’t why I haven’t thought of doing that! I have tons of grocery bags I can take stuff in! I will for sure remember to do this for my next trip to the D.I.
I am so amazed. This is something that I never thought about and it makes so much sense! Thanks for posting! I love all of your articles. They have helped me so much.
This is my favorite trick that I learned from you. I was always putting things in bags or piles, and then having to transfer them later. Which always meant pulling things out and not getting rid of much.
Now, I have a trashcan that I have labeled Donate (in two places) and that is my donate box. I always have a trash bag in it, so the trash bag is what gets donated. We don’t have a lot of room to hide a donate spot, so the trashcan hides the mess, and I still don’t have to touch it more than once. Just take the bag out and to the donation center.
I also can’t overfill it so that it’s so heavy I can’t lift it, or delay my trip to the donate center because the trash can is a container. And containers have limits (my second favorite trick from you). And when the limit is reached, I have to empty the trashcan to keep going. Shoving doesn’t work because there is a lid. A swing-top lid that won’t swing open or closed (to hide the mess) if I keep shoving past the limit of the container. It’s beautiful! (The system that is, although I think it’s pretty to look at too.)
We had a mostly clutter-collecting coat closet inside the door of our old house. I kept a (new) 30 gallon trash can in there with a fresh bag in it at all times. It was SO easy to donate stuff! We had lots of babies while we lived in that house, so there were always hand-me-downs coming in and going out 🙂 I miss the babies but I don’t miss the stuff LOL
I use diaper and baby wipes boxes to donate and pass on hand-me-downs.
I love the idea of using an extra suitcase as a donate box! We have two sets of nesting suitcases. There is one size in each set which no one has ever used. Just because they nested and did not take up extra space, I never thought of decluttering them. But it was a aggravating to take them in and out each time we needed a suitcase. Now I have two new donatable boxes. As you say, Duh!
Also, TAKE IT THERE NOW. What a dumb idea I thought, till I tried it. Game changer!!!!!!
Love your blogs and the info you provide to your readers. When I’m on organizing jobs I use whatever bags, boxes, containers, etc. I have to put donated items in. I especially love using storage bags of various sizes (snack, sandwich, quart, gallon, etc.) for items like jewelry and other loosey goosey items.
Years ago I lived in an RV. I used the pop-up laundry baskets. I’m in a house now. I use three of them as permanate “donate boxes”. I line the blue ones with black garbage bag. I put non-clothing donation items in them. I put a white trash bag in the red basket. I use that for clothing. Every so often, I take the trash bags out of the laundry baskets and take the items to Salvation Army.
Right now, I’m going through a major purge. I have some bigger electronics to donate. I’m using boxes for the rest. When I’m ready, I’ll call for a pick up.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR BOOKS. The information has been so handy at this point in my life.
I decided that the space under our beds is not a container for storage so the under the bed boxes became my donate boxes. You can fit alot of magazines and kids clothes in them.