Consider the time-worn cliche that one person’s trash can be another person’s treasure. Quite often it can just be trash.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, hundreds of thousands of people began to spend extraordinary amounts of time at home.

It was at this point that we began to thoroughly clean out our homes, from garage to attic.

Goodwills across the country have seen an uptick in donations. Nationwide, its stores have been flooded by household items that they cannot resell or recycle. They are the offerings of people who have been homebound for months and are eager to clear out some of their possessions.

The problem is, too many such items most accurately could be described as trash. Many of the donations are defective or worn out: gifts from well-intentioned people who want to reduce waste but who donate items that simply should be placed at the curb for trash pickup.

For the thrift stores, such donations aren’t just a hassle to dispose of. They also magnify their garbage-disposal costs. The stores need time and staffing hours to process them.

The spikes in trash expenses can divert money from other services the agencies could spend in their communities, such as workforce development programs.

Remember, such stores can’t repair a broken toaster or other household items that no longer work. Goodwill points out that it does not have welders, carpenters or handymen to fix the broken items so they can be sold.

Thrift stores always are in need of donations, and their customers rely on the ability to purchase a used item whose cost to purchase new would be prohibitive.

Goodwill says it certainly does not want to discourage people from donating, but if that donation is essentially garbage, such as a table with only three legs, they have to pay to have it hauled away.

One rep for Goodwill said that if your “judgy mother-in-law” would say it’s trash, it’s probably trash.

They ask that any donations in the future be something that other people might actually want.

Think before you donate. Can the item you are dropping be of use to someone? Would you bring it into your home?

Don’t use an excuse to donate as a dumping ground for things you don’t want.

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— JGG