Goodwill Stores Asking: Please Stop Donating Your Trash

The message is simple, "Please don't give us your trash!" But, unfortunately, that message comes from Connecticut Goodwill stores.

They don't need broken tables, disfigured Barbie Dolls, or any flammable or hazardous donations. Goodwill doesn't repair broken bed frames or TVs with broken screens. When you drop off "stuff" to Goodwill, they clean it up, price it, and put it out on the floor for sale. They don't have a fix-it department.

I have an ugly dilapidated coffee table in the garage. Goodwill doesn't want it! Let's say you were out riding your bike, and some idiot ran into you with an e-scooter and bent your bicycle's frame. Goodwill doesn't want it! Let's say your Uncle Chester, who weighs in at 300 pounds, is sitting in your favorite outdoor easy chair, and the thing collapsed. Again, goodwill doesn't want it.

When you bring broken crap like that to your favorite Goodwill store, it magnifies their garbage disposal costs. It can actually cost them money, according to an article on the website wpri.com. My advice would be to click on goodwillsne.org, where you will find a list of acceptable items for donation.

According to Goodwill Industries of Houston, some lovely humans showed up in the middle of the night and dropped off their crap outside at the rear of the store. Couches that have been rained upon and then turn into one big mold spore are a terrific selling feature.

Heather Steeves of Goodwill Northern New England said it best when she offered this tip, "If you wouldn't give it to your judgy mother-in-law, then don't donate it."