Goodwill seeking donations to honor Earth Day

Published 4:39 pm Thursday, April 18, 2013

Goodwill stores are encouraging people to honor Earth Day by donating items they no longer need.

Although the unemployment rate has decreased in recent months, many people in the community still have difficulty entering the labor market and providing for their families, officials at Goodwill say, adding that the simple act of cleaning out closets and donating to Goodwill this spring will help us help others.

Store revenues fund Goodwill’s job training and education programs, which can lead to employment and fresh starts for people without jobs. Also, Goodwill provides career services that anyone can use to boost their chances of getting hired, including assistance in writing a résumé, job interview practice and access to job leads.

Locally, Goodwill is located at 14515 NE 20th St, Bellevue.

To encourage Spring Cleaning, Goodwill offers the following tips and techniques from Cindy Jobs, a professional organizer and owner of Organizing to Simplify.

Decide on a realistic project: How much time you have to devote to the project should drive your expectations. You may not be able to organize the entire house in an afternoon, but you CAN make significant progress on those unruly kitchen cupboards.

• Find an organizing buddy: Whether it’s a professional organizer or a supportive friend, de-cluttering and organizing is easier when you work with someone.
• Take a “before” picture: When you are done with your project, you want to have a reminder of where you started and how much progress you’ve made.
• Be brutally honest about what stays and what goes: When people organize and de-clutter, they need to figure out what to do with all that stuff they no longer want or need. Generally, those items get handled by selling, giving away (generally to a friend or relative), recycling or donating. Devote separate areas to place items for each category and make a decision with every item as you go.
• Take an “after” photo: It will give you a reminder of how far you’ve come.