Spring Cleaning With a Purpose

The Best Way To Spring Clean

Spring is one of my very favorite seasons for many reasons: the weather gets warmer, the flowers bloom, I get to celebrate my birthday and most of all… because it’s time for spring cleaning!

This year we are kicking our spring cleaning into overdrive because we are trying to really give back to our community. What does spring cleaning have to do with my community? Oh, I am so glad you asked.

Donations of clothing or household goods to Goodwill not only give a second life to things my family isn’t using anymore, they also help create jobs directly in my community. Now that’s spring cleaning with a purpose.

Now how exactly does this work? Well, every item I donate to Goodwill has a time value. A pair of jeans provides 9 minutes of on the job training. A bike my kids outgrew, that’s 31 minutes. It’s crazy how fast things add up. 

The entire family helped clean out the garage and the things we decided to donate will provide over 4 hours of training for someone in my community who needs it.

Thanks to the programs and support services made possible by donations of clothes and household items, Goodwill helped place more than 312,000 people in jobs in the United States and Canada in 2015 – that’s one person finding a job every 23 seconds of every business day. 

Find Your Closest Goodwill

If you are not sure where your local Goodwill is, you can use the Goodwill Locator App available for Android and iOS devices and at http://www.goodwill.org/ (click “Explore Our Map” on the homepage).

Simply input the items you’re donating to calculate the number of hours of career counseling, on-the-job training, résumé preparation, financial planning classes, and other services you’ve helped provide people facing challenges finding employment.

When jobs thrive, communities thrive.

Last year, nearly 2 million people engaged in face-to-face Goodwill services to advance in their careers. More than 35 million people accessed education, training, mentoring and online learning tools offered by Goodwill virtually to strengthen their skills and gain industry-recognized credentials.

How many minutes (or hours) of on the job training would your stuff help with?