Have you ever decided you’d finally clean out that drawer or closet, only to get started and decide it was just too much work? 

Please don’t tell me that I’m the only one who has done this!

Here’s the truth: I can almost always decide whether I love or have use for something. That part is fine. It’s what to do with the stuff I don’t want that is so exhausting for me.

I feel responsible for the planet, and cannot allow myself to throw anything away. Unless it is broken beyond repair. But even then I try to find a way to redeem or recycle what I can.

Here are 5 of my favorite things to do with the stuff we no longer want:

1. Facebook Marketplace. I take a picture, add a description, and hope that someone wants or has use for it. This has been helpful for many of our no-longer-wanted things! Curiously enough, we’ve sold or given away most of our weird items this way.
2. Garage Sales. They are so much work, but we sold so many things. I’m 99.9% sure that for our next one I’ll skip the pricing step and just accept donations!
3. Gift Others. Please, please be prayerful and intentional about this way of rehoming something that you don’t want. The last thing you want to do is give your burden to someone else. I have found, however, that we usually know people who can put what we have to good use. A local shop who can use fabric donations or an art teacher who could use spools of unneeded ribbon, for example. 
4. Fabric and Shoe Recycling. At our house we tend to wear things out. We wear most of our clothing until there are holes in them (which are mended, and then made again!), and our shoes until the soles are worn through. Many towns have some sort of shoe recycling program that you can look up. And I’ve learned that Goodwill has a fabric/rag recycling program! You simply bag them up, label them as rags to make it easy on the volunteers, and drop them off. 
5. Donate. Domestic violence shelters are often grateful for toys, household items, and clothes that are in nice condition. And old blankets and stuffed animals can bring comfort to pets in animal shelters until they are adopted. The best thing is to call the places near to you and ask if they’d like what you have to donate so that you don’t burden them with stuff they can’t use.

Some things are so tiny. So obscure. It just seems easier to put them back and not give them another thought. But that comes with a price as well. We have to store, organize, and care for everything that is in our homes.

If I’ve learned nothing else from simplifying it is this: Only bring in what I will truly value and use for a long, long time. When this is all said and done, I’m looking forward to not having to process unwanted stuff anymore!