Donate Your Old Stuff and Help Local Homeless Pets

How can your old worn out junk help provide food and shelter for Grand Junction's homeless animals? Rather than throwing your old items away, put them to work supporting animals in need.

This masterpiece of a futon was left behind in one of my rental properties. The tenants moved out and left behind several items including furniture and a boatload of paper towels. Now I have a futon I don't want and a lifetime's supply of paper towels. What to do?

What a beaut! Speaking as a landlord, I'm very much aware abandoned items are supposed to be disposed of. Unfortunately, I can't bring myself to throw away perfectly good stuff.

In this case, like many before it, the items were loaded into the back of my tiny truck and hauled to a local thrift store. This particular merchant accepts donated items, then uses the revenue to provide for homeless pets in the area.

After enjoying the extreme pleasure of loading this thing in my truck, I drove it to the Sav-A-Pet Thrift Store in Orchard Mesa. A clerk there helped me unload it. Afterward, she promptly wrote me a receipt. The donation amount, which we estimated at $20.00, is tax deductible.

Start to finish, the endeavor breaks down like this:

• Load futon into truck - 2 minutes
• Drive futon to thrift store - 8 minutes
• Unload futon and get receipt - 2 minutes
• Drive back to work after all this fun - 8 minutes

Total = 20 minutes

That's 20 minutes to get rid of this disaster, deliver to a place where it can be sold to someone who can use it, all while providing funds for local animals. That's pretty hard to beat.

Of course, there are other options such as the Salvation Army or Goodwill. I had considered dropping it off at the Salvation Army, primarily because their store is located so close to my workplace. The futon was already in the truck, so this would have been a breeze. I chose, however, to pursue another option.

What if I had driven it to the landfill? That's about a 15-minute drive each way, not to mention the $7 dumping fee. When that's all said and done, the landfill has another giant piece of waste in it, and nobody benefits.

I could have sold it, but that would have ultimately been catastrophic.

Let's break that down:

• Time to place ad on websites like Craigslist - 15 minutes
• Time spent answering phone or replying to emails - ???????
• Meeting with interested party to give them futon - 10 minutes, assuming they even show up
• Potential income from this thing - $20 tops

Total = Giant pain in my butt

The next time you find yourself with an abundance of stuff lying around which no longer serves a useful purpose (sorry, but people are excluded,) please consider donating to this local organization.