Donate With Care
The Right Way to Donate After Spring-Cleaning
Spring is in the air, and it’s time to celebrate with another round of spring-cleaning. Banish the clutter and make room in your life for something new! Many charities see a sharp increase in donations as spring- cleaning season starts. Donating your used books, kids’ toys, and gently worn clothing allows your old items to have a second life. However, when filling that donation box, make sure you’re donating each item because it can do good and not just because you feel bad about throwing it away. Charities have a big problem with well- meaning citizens dropping off items that are better left in the trash. There are many items charities simply cannot handle. Most charities will have lists of items they can and cannot accept on their websites. Some items that you should not donate include:
• Expired
• Mattresses
up in the trash anyway. This process can be expensive for organizations with already- strained resources. Some local charities spend over $1,000 a year on dumpster and trash removal fees for unusable donations. While charities will have no choice but to throw unusable donations in the trash, there are services you can use to make your spring-cleaning eco-friendly, even for items you can’t donate. For example, if you have torn or stained blue jeans, reach out to Blue Jeans Go Green. This program keeps denim out of landfills by turning it into insulation. And while Goodwill can’t take your batteries or old flip phone, you can check out Call2Recycle.org to learn how to safely recycle your e-waste.
medications
• Carpets
• Old TVs
• Tangled cords or phone chargers
• Cribs
• Loose remote controls
• Any broken, damaged, or dirty items
• Personal care
items, like soap, shampoo, or makeup
These items may be unsafe to sell, costly to ship, or impossible to refurbish effectively. When a charity regularly receives items they cannot use, they have to spend hours of manpower sorting through things that end
Your donations can be a big help to local charities. Just don’t “donate” your garbage.
Meet Debra Ottenbacher Our Accounts Receivable Wizard
All-Clean! SoftWash recently acquired St. Mary’s Window Cleaning Services in Vancouver, Washington. Now operating under the name St. Mary’s All-Clean!, the new location gives us an opportunity to bring our innovative and exceptional services to an entirely new area. It’s also a chance to expand our All-Clean! family with the introduction of the wonderful
Having the chance to meet and interact with the All-Clean! team helped assuage any of Deb’s concerns. “I felt comfortable with Matt the second he introduced himself as my new boss,” Deb reveals. “I know that may sound a little strange, but you just get a vibe from some people, you know? I also want to thank Jennifer for being so amazing during the transition. She really listens and gets things done for us.” When she’s not working, you can find Deb camping, visiting the ocean, and being an active member of her church. No matter where she is, you can expect to find her dog, Sophie, by her side. “She’s the unofficial-official shop dog,” Deb says with a laugh. “I don’t think she’d know what to do without seeing her All-Clean! buddies Monday through Friday.” Similarly, we don’t know how we’d get along without Deb up in Vancouver. With charm for days and charisma to spare, it’s no wonder she describes her greatest skill as “killin’ ‘em with kindness.”
St. Mary’s team. One of the earliest new members to make a warm impression on us is their head of accounts receivable and customer service, Debra “Deb” Ottenbacher. Deb admits that she felt the same trepidations that anyone would feel after learning St. Mary’s would have a new structure in place. “Change is always a little bit scary,” she says. “From learning new computer systems to having a different name on our trucks, these sweeping changes made me a little worried. Luckily, that fear went away the second I got to meet the All-Clean! team.”
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