What To Donate
Goodwill makes the most of your donations! Donated goods are sold in one of six Goodwill stores to fund job training programs for individuals with obstacles to employment. We operate donation centers at two area Wal-Mart Supercenters in Hampton Roads, with additional centers coming soon for your convenience! Donations are welcome at any of our retail stores, as well. Please donate your items during the posted hours for our Attended Donation Centers, so that we can ensure that your items arrive safely to us. The attendant on hand will give you a tax receipt for your donations. Visit our Frequently Asked Questions page to learn more about why it does make a difference where you contribute.
- Donation Dos:
- Wash or dry-clean clothing
- Test electrical equipment and battery-operated items
- Include all pieces and parts to games and toys
- Band like shoes together with rubber bands
- Donation Don'ts:
- No household chemical products: pesticides paint thinner, drain cleaner, oven cleaner, aerosols and other environmentally unfriendly waste products.
- No automotive hazardous waste: tires, lead acid batteries, additives, gasoline, oils, antifreeze, etc.
- No large appliances: refrigerators, freezers, stoves/ovens, washers/dryers, air conditioners, dehumidifiers, furnaces, trash compactors, water heaters
- No personal care items: nail polish remover, shampoo, shaving cream, hairsprays, etc.
- No items that are on product recall lists
- No baby items such as playpens, cribs or car seats
- No mattresses/box springs, including water bed mattresses
- No plumbing fixtures
- No non-working computers and accessories
There are some donations that we are unable to accept for safety or environment reasons. Please help us keep unsafe items out of our retail stores, by not donating items that have been recalled, banned or do not meet current safety standards.
Please note that we do everything we can to comply with CPSC recalls. Also, Goodwill Industries has worked closely with the CPSC to develop a "top 10" list of things to look for when sorting donations, including defective crib slats and drawstrings inside hoods. We do everything we can to make sure these items never make it to our store shelves. And we have safeguards in place to make sure that the items that do are removed from our shelves immediately. There are some items that we do not accept at our donation sites, regardless of their condition.
Our first concern is the safety of our customers, and we do everything we can to protect them from dangerous products. We carefully sort through all the donated items, and trash products that have been recalled by the CPSC. Our store managers also frequently spot check our shelves and remove the items that have slipped through our screens.
To find an up-to-date listing of recalled products, visit the Consumer Product Safety Commission web site.
