Finally Stepping Up!  

I'd never heard of Childhelp before today, but I was looking up where I could donate the stuff and it was there. I looked around their site and it looks really great! I love kids and donating stuff to them feels great! And it's easy!

I guess Childhelp has centers all over the U.S! It's pretty cool :) Here's their site:

http://www.childhelp.org/about

I'm that way with clothes, I like to give it away because I can get new cute outfits! lol. But I probably won't be going out to get more stuffed animals

It doesn't sound strange to me!!!

Thank you Hatley! I think volunteering there, and then taking an internship would be a good start to my social working career! Plus, I just love helping children sooo...donating my stuff and time wouldn't be very hard!

I understand space restrictions! lol

Well I donate to the animals as much as I can, now it's the kids turn lol

I'll send you a message with my paypal email and you can donate easily through that.

hi lily,

thanks for the response,and will see the message and try to send the money that little one,i will transfer it to your account soon,if i have not sent the little one,plese inform me,i think it is not necessary to me to remember,have a nice day

I sent the message and I hope my steps were clear!

Thank you!!! :)

Yeah that's exactly what I'm thinking! My room is so cluttered right now (mostly with books that are not appropriate for the place I'm donating my other stuff) but I figure getting anything out would help! lol

Thank you!

The books could be donated to a library. They would gladly take them or even a used book store if you have any in your area. What I have done in the past too is just have a yard sale. You get rid of alot of stuff plus you make some money. Which you can then donate if you wished.

I would donate my books..but I'm trying to sell them to help me pay for college . Kind of running low on money and won't know for a while if I'm going to get any scholarships.

Good Luck!

Thank you! I need it! lol Haven't had much luck selling any books. Found someone that would trade--so I'll be getting some new books soon lol. But that doesn't really help me earn money for college!

That would be good! You could probably find stuff to donate all over the place, and not just to one charity.

Yeah it defiantly feels good to get rid of clutter...but I am very careful about what I give away! If I think I'm going to regret not having it some time down the road, I keep it. But everything I have to donate now I'm pretty sure I won't miss...which is good!

Ya, I just thought I wouldn't use them again and then things changed. Trying to downsize and books are heavy and combersome to carry around.

On their site it does say "new toys, clothes, etc..." but I emailed them and told them that my stuff wasn't new, but it was all in great condition. I haven't heard back from them, but like you, I can't imagine them turning the stuff down.

That was nice of you to give all your stuff away to your neighbors/etc. Where were you moving to/from?

Some places think used isn't good enough as charity. Those types really make me angry. I have tons of secondhand things. I have all my adult life. I appreciate people passing on to me there older stuff when they get something new. I then pass stuff on when I finally get something new also. My last big move was from California to Israel. I couldn't bring an entire apartment of things. Electricity is 220v here, so my electrical stuff was almost all useless. Converters are really only good for small things, like hair dryers and coffee grinders.

Yeah, I think as long as things are in good shape and not useless then charities should accept them (ESPECIALLY in this economy!)

Wow! That is a big move, no wonder you had to get rid of so much of your stuff! lol

I love "How to Draw" books, too. I'm a big kid in some ways.

Well I just went through a few boxes in the garage and found a ton more stuffed animals to donate--and my mom cleaned them in the washer for me.

I'm kind of confused about what I want to do! I keep going back and forth between the kids and animals--so I figure I'll keep going for my major in social work, but I'll take some business classes for credits too. And there are also a few other things I can do to prepare for an animal sanctuary (a great nonprofit class online, workshops at the 2nd largest animal sanctuary)--so hopefully it'll all work out.

Well, if you "married" the two ideas, you could train therapy dogs to help children or train kids to do therapy with dogs!

I am kind of thinking of "marrying" the two (good term!)

This is something I thought of a long time ago...but wasn't sure if it would work out.

I wanted to start an animal sanctuary, but also have a safe place for children/abused women. That's a double nonprofit! And if not exactly that, I could have my animal sanctuary but also take part in fostering children.

I would be worried that the abused children might abuse the animals. Not all of them, but even a small percentage is too much.

I think fostering animals and children might work.

Hehe, I kind of went the other way in my thoughts. I think that the animals would be a good therapy for the abused children/women. I would, of course, always keep a sharp eye out on everyone--but I think it could be a really big help!
PLUS the people who stay with me could help take care of the animals; animals help people, people help animals--everyone benefits! lol