How to donate, recycle, sell, and toss your unwanted stuff

If you walked around Columbia Heights last weekend, chances are you passed by one of the dozens of yard sales happening around the neighborhood. Residents filled their front porches and sidewalks with books, shoes, clothes, glassware, cooking appliances, trinkets, and other items they no longer needed.

“I’ve been lugging things from house to house,” said Jaibin Mathew, 24, who lives in one of the 50-plus households that participated in the community-wide event. “So a lot of this stuff, I've kept on for so many years, and it's just — I have too much.”  

Mathew certainly isn’t alone in accumulating stuff over the years. But this time of year always brings up the age-old question that puzzles even the tidiest among us: What’s the best way to get rid of unwanted stuff?

Whether you have furniture that’s ready for a new home, clothes that haven’t seen the light of day in years, a printer that’s gathering dust, or (if you’re like me) scores of tote bags that seem to multiply every year, you’ve got plenty of options to donate, recycle, or sell your items before tossing them in the landfill.

Donate

Give your things to folks in need. There are tons of organizations that will take furniture, clothing, appliances, electronics, or books (some will even pick them up directly from you!) Be sure to read the guidelines for each organization, and, of course, make sure your items are in good condition before offering them up.

For furniture, appliances, and home goods, check out Habitat for Humanity, LightHouse DC, A Wider Circle, and FurnishHopeDC. 

For clothing, options include Martha’s Table, Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid, Bread for the City, and Mary’s Center. If you specifically have women’s business attire, check out Suited for Change, which provides professional clothes and coaching for women in need. 

For books, there’s DC Books to Prisons, which accepts good condition paperbacks and distributes them to incarcerated people across the U.S. 

And if you have a bike just sitting in a corner, consider donating it to Gearin’ Up Bicycles, which teaches kids in underserved communities bike repair skills and sends them home with a customized, donated bike. 

Take your things to a reuse center. A few places specialize in connecting unwanted materials to people who can put them to good use. The nonprofit Community Forklift has a huge warehouse in Hyattsville where they take (and resell or donate) a wide variety of appliances, building materials, and furniture. And Upcycle Creative Reuse Center, an art-making community resource in Alexandria, does the same for art and crafting supplies, fabrics, and many household items.

Post items on your local Buy Nothing Facebook group. It’s as easy as typing in the name of your neighborhood and searching for the closest group to you (you’ll usually have to confirm that you live in the area). There’s also the Washington DC Freecycle Facebook group, which has over 20,000 members across the city. 

Find a library to put your books. A number of D.C. Public Library locations accept donations, though you'll have to contact individual branches or local friends groups to ask if they take them. And there’s an online map to find the official Little Free Libraries around town. (Also, keep your eyes peeled for non-traditional little libraries, too — we’ve seen ones that offer artwork, puzzles, pantry items and other things.)

Or take them to a bookstore: Carpe Librum, which has a location downtown and also pops up around town, takes donations whenever they are open (and resells books to fund the nonprofit Turning The Page). Or you can drop off books to Capitol Hill Books, which takes donations several times a week. 

Check out a clothing swap (okay, and maybe get some new threads, too). The D.C. Public Library often holds clothing swaps at their downtown branch. Swap Season, Happy Daze and Swap DC each regularly organize swaps around the city; follow their Instagram accounts to catch the next ones. 

For pantry cleanouts, find the right local organization. If you have unexpired canned foods, spices, or other shelf-stable items, you can drop them off at Capitol Area Food Bank’s D.C. distribution center near Fort Totten. Bread for the City has a list of healthy foods that they accept at both of their facilities. You can also reach out to your local mutual aid group to see if they’re accepting food donations. 

Thrift stores and other retailers also accept free stuff. The Goodwill in Ivy City (and many more in Virginia and Maryland) and St. Alban’s Opportunity Shop in Cathedral Heights both accept a range of clothing and household items. You can also head out to several Value Village/Unique Thrift locations in Maryland and Virginia. 

For even more options, check out the city’s reuse directory, which has a list of places in the DMV area that accept donations.

Recycle

Take your clothes to a local clothing retailer that will recycle them. While clothing recycling often isn’t all that it is cracked up to be, H&M will collect your garments and resell, reuse, or recycle them. Madewell also accepts jeans and repurposes them into housing insulation. Both have several locations in D.C., will take any brand, and offer credit in exchange for your old clothes.

Pet supplies (and some linens) can go to the animal shelter. The Humane Rescue Alliance is always looking for dog and cat supplies — think crates, toys, treats, food, and leashes — and they also take flat sheets and towels. (Do be sure to look at their list of unwanted items before heading over to drop things off at their Oglethorpe location). You can also donate (or mail) supplies to Lucky Dog Rescue in Arlington.  

Bring in your old or broken electronics. Best Buy will recycle a wide variety of electronic devices. Mom’s Organic Market (in Ivy City and Van Ness) takes in broken and working tablets, smartphones, and chargers. Most T-Mobile locations will take phones and tablets from any carrier, as well as batteries, while Apple offers in-store recycling of its own products. D.C. also will recycle electronics during specified special waste collection events where they also take many other things to be disposed of; see more below.

Sell

Take your nicer clothes to a consignment store. Current Boutique in Logan Circle, Reddz Trading in Georgetown, Clothes Encounters in Capitol Hill, and Fia’s Fabulous Finds in Petworth all consign clothes. And if you have designer clothes and accessories to part with, Secondi in Dupont Circle is a good spot to hit. (Be sure to check each store’s guidelines and schedule before bringing your things!) 

Bring your items to a pawn shop. Crown Pawnbrokers, on 14th Street NW, takes electronics, tools, musical instruments, jewelry, and other items. 

You can sell your books, too. A couple of bookstores will pay for used books, as long as they’re in good condition. Adams Morgan’s Lost City Books and Dupont’s Second Story Books both offer store credit (or cash in some cases); check each of their sites for buying times. Capitol Hill Books will also purchase collections or rare books, but you’ll need to email them. 

Put on a yard sale. You can throw up a couple signs around the neighborhood and do one on your own, but be on the lookout, too — many parts of the city organize community-wide yard sales, particularly in the spring. Adams Morgan’s long-running community yard sale (taking place in early May this year) is one of the biggest, but they happen all over the city. Do a quick search on Nextdoor, Facebook, or other community forums to see if your area has one planned. 

And there’s always the good old internet. Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and OfferUp can help you offload pretty much anything you can think of to local buyers. And of course, there are plenty of resale sites if you’re willing to make a trip to the post office — eBay, Poshmark, Depop, and Mercari, among them.  

Throw out

Call 311 or use the website/app to schedule a bulk trash collection. For unusable furniture, mattresses, or other large items, submit a request for pickup here. If you aren’t sure how to dispose of something, use this handy search feature to figure out how to recycle or otherwise get rid of it. (There’s even a game to test your knowledge!) 

Bring your large items to a “roll off day.” Every few weeks, the city hosts an event (usually at a rec center) where residents can bring large items, broken furniture, rugs, and other items to dispose of them. 

D.C. also holds “special waste collection” events. If you need to get rid of household chemicals (such as bleach or ant poison), want to shred personal documents, or get rid of a wide range of electronics, the city hosts several special waste collection events a year. There’s no cost, but you need to register to get a drop-off time slot.

Drop off expired or unused prescription drugs. CVS has three locations where you can safely get rid of medication. The DEA also has a database of collection sites — all you have to do is put in your zip code, and it will pull up a list of facilities near you that will dispose of your old prescriptions.