Professional Organizer Washington DC, Virginia, Maryland Scott Roewer’s organizing blog DeClutterYou

I’m a huge fan of Goodwill for many reasons.  Mainly because it’s a convenient way for my clients to donate items that have outgrown their home.  And by doing so, they support Goodwill’s mission to educate, train, employ and place people with disabilities and disadvantages.  By supporting Goodwill of Greater DC, we’re assisting people right here in our own area.

Goodwill will be hosting a Trunk Show in DC and is calling all fashionistas, designers, and eco-friendly shoppers to attend and shop ’til they drop! Goodwill of Greater Washington’s Travelin’ Trunk Show will be returning to Greater Goods on Saturday, June 27th from 12:00 – 3:00 PM.

Greater Goods is located at 1626 U Street NW in Washington, DC 20009. If you’ve not had the chance to visit this very cool, eco-friendly store, now you have two reasons to check out the Trunk Show!  While at the store, be sure to checkout and register for one of their ‘Green Living’ classes.

Goodwill will have racks and racks of contemporary and vintage fashions along with donated fabrics and buttons. So, if you’re in the market for some vintage fashion or some fabric to make your own creations, please check out this event on June 27th.

Goodwill also will be accepting donations from your home or closet. All proceeds from this event will support Goodwill’s mission to educate, train, employ, and place people with disabilities and disadvantages throughout the greater DC area.  For more information on Goodwill’s mission and fashion events, visit this website, or read their fashion blog.

As a professional organizer, I often find
that my clients have dead electronic equipment cluttering their closets or their garages.  The e-waste is there because they do not know what to do with it.  I appreciate they don’t want to simply toss the TV, computer, or microwave in the trash!  Most would agree, that our landfills are full enough.

I spoke with Peter Karasik who is the Section Chief of the Division of Solid Waste Services of Montgomery County.  We spoke about the upcoming electronic recycling events in Montgomery County.  He recommends to residents they stay in their vehicles as they approach the unloading zone.  They have staff who will unload the cars. This keeps the traffic moving and makes the process faster for everyone.

For the drop-off, electronics should not be in boxes or bags unless you have multiple small electronics or if want to keep cables or power supplies together.   Karasik estimated they could collect 20 – 40 tons of electronics during each collection date.   The e-waste is shipped off to a processing plant in Elkridge, Maryland called E-Structors.  E-Structors does all the data destruction, separates the glass, pulls the copper from wires, and cuts up circuit boards into 1″ squares.  Their process is EPA-approved and results in the materials being 100% separated and recycled. Nothing from their process ever enters the nation’s waste stream.  That’s incredible!

In my opinion, Montgomery County continues to lead the way promoting their recycling efforts.  They’ve published a calendar on their blog of the upcoming recycling events and you can subscribe to receive future dates via email.  You can also follow the recycling events on Twitter by following @GoGreenMC Here’s the full list for the my faithful readers of Declutteryou.com!

Recently I worked with a client who lives in Silver Spring, Maryland. We’ve been clearing out her basement in order to create a home office and exercise area. In the process we discovered a box full of jeans. No, the box wasn’t full of Earnest Sewn, 7 For All ManKind, or Diesel. We had the wide leg kind, short-short cut-offs, painter jeans, and even the classic overalls. Holly explained “my accumulation of jeans was inspired by a quilt my mother made when I was in high school.”

Holly found numerous things to donate (which really helped move the basement project along). I left her with the assignment to find a new home for the donations before I returned one week later. Today, Holly emailed me to say she found the perfect place for the denim. “Since I recognize that I will never get around to making a quilt for myself, and that I can put the jeans to a good use, I was able to let go of them.”

An eighth grade student in Montgomery County, Christa Guild, is collecting jeans for a denim drive sponsored by Cotton Inc. and Habitat for Humanity of Montgomery County ReStore in Gaithersburg.

All the jeans collected will be shipped to California. There the jeans begin their transformation into Cotton Fiber Insulation. California-based Allen Company donates their resources to bale the denim. Next, the material is sent to JBM Fibers in Texas. JBM converts the denim back into cotton fiber. Eventually, the cotton fiber will be sent to Arizona, where Bonded Logic Inc. makes it into UltraTouch Natural Cotton Fiber Insulation. It’s lots of work for a cool product, which Habitat for Humanity will use in new houses built in New Orleans and the Gulf region.

As noted in the May 7th edition of the Montgomery County Gazette, Guild has already collected 114 pairs of jeans. She said, ‘‘we’re trying to get 500 because that’s how much it takes to insulate one house.”

The denim insulation is not created with harsh chemicals, is 30% more sound proof then fiberglass insulation, is hypo-allergenic, and it is not itchy like other insulation. The UltraTouch Natural Cotton Fiber Insulation can be installed without gloves or masks. Wouldn’t that make every insulation installer happier?

Cotton Inc. partnered with Habitat for Humanity of Montgomery County ReStore to bring the drive to Montgomery County for the first time this year, said Adeela Abbasi, marketing and communications manager with Habitat for Humanity ReStore. The goal for the county is to collect 2,500 pairs of jeans and insulate five homes.

Deadline for donations is September 2, 2008!
Be sure to donate before Labor Day. Take your jeans to:

• Habitat for Humanity ReStore, 9100 Gaither Road, Gaithersburg

Donate and Make a Local Impact

I love Books for America, a local organization in DC.
They have the inspiring goal of building and improving libraries in area schools, shelters, and hospitals, supporting reading programs, and providing children in the Nation’s Capital with their first take-home books.

The organization’s retail location, called ‘A Bookstore with a Purpose’ and located in Dupont Circle, is a fun place to visit. I stop in to both donate and buy books.

A Bookstore with a Purpose
1417 22nd Street, NW
Washington, DC 20037
Hours: Mon, Fri & Sat 10-6; Tues -Thurs 10-9; Sunday 11-5
What should I donate?
How do I arrange for a book donation pick-up?

Donate and Make a Future Impact

The number of incarcerated individuals in the U.S. is staggering. Although we have less than 5% of the world’s population, we have more than 25% of the world’s prison population. Most inmates are only allowed to receive books donated through programs such as Books to Prison. Books can be dropped off in DC at Foundry United Methodist Church on Wednesday evenings, or in Brentwood, Maryland at the Quixote Center during normal business hours. They’re located approximately four blocks from the Glut Food Co-op.

Foundry United Methodist Church
1500 16th Street, NW (16th & P ST NW)
Washington, DC 20036

Quixote Center
3502 Varnum St
Brentwood, MD 20722
301-699-0042

Find a local Books to Prison program in your area by visiting their online directory.

Donate and Make an International Impact

Book donations can also have a big impact internationally. According to the Camel Book Drive in Kenya’s blog, children’s storybooks are most popular, general fiction is also in high demand, and there is much interest in nonfiction books covering topics like astronomy, geography, and history. Books by African authors are especially appreciated. Both gently used hard and soft-cover books are welcome, but paperbacks are preferred due to weight considerations. These books often reach their final destinations via camel! The librarians suggest that the donor inscribe a note in the books, as this helps the patrons feel connected to places which they can otherwise only imagine.

Wajir Library
For Camel Library
Librarian in Charge, Mrs. Maryan Osman Warfa
P.O. Box 217
Wajir, Kenya
How do you donate books?
Where do I send the books and what’s the cost?

Check out this amazing story, compliments of the Video Journalist Africa, that shows the Camel Library in action.

For more resources on book donations, check out this list published by the American Library Association.