CLUTTER.
That word is the blessing and bane of every ReStore. Some of our best donations come from homeowners cleaning out a cluttered garage or closing down a “temporary” storage pod. It’s not trash. If that was the case, they never would have held onto it for as long as they did. Right? Right? *Cough*
Our ReStore relies on clutter. Our team sorts through it on a daily basis and gets better every day at parsing out the antiquated from the awesome. It’s a time consuming job that demands careful attention, a studious mind, and delicate hands. Think of it like a gold prospector panning for nuggets in a stream. It can take months to strike it rich. Also, if you wade too deep into the river, you risk drowning before any gold can be found.
If you’ve visited our store recently, you may have remarked on how empty it felt. Some of our old guard customers – who’ve been shopping since we opened in 2013 – were worried we might be closing down. Don’t worry, it’s nothing so serious.
The donor stream is quite full of gold nuggets we are eager to share with our shoppers. But for us to retrieve those finds, we had to teach our team how to swim. After all, almost all of our team of prospectors was dipping its toes in new waters.
Y’see, ever since COVID-19 had us close, our crew has changed a lot. As 2020 wore on, our team changed with the addition of three members completely new to the charitable retail scene. So, we gave ourselves a bit more room to adapt and pivot as the newbies became veterans and our collective Habitat knowledge grew.
Clutter simply was not welcome at the ReStore; the flood would have overwhelmed us. As 2021 moves steadily along, we’ve come to feel more confident about our swimming skills, allowing us to make more donation appointments possible each day.
In fact, we just received hundreds of small curios from Cordier Auctions, over 100 windows from Messiah College, and many other oddities besides. We are actively researching ways to expand our donation pickup service to say yes to more requests from our loyal donors. Store floor layout improvements, processing speed tricks, and volunteer training are all going to fill up our floor faster.
We want to help you get out from under your own clutter – or at least swap out some of it for cooler stuff – by keeping our aisles full of finds and our donation center humming. However, to all you old guard out there, we want to be clear: the ReStore will never let the clutter take over again. Even an expert prospector knows not to overload their pan with river muck. We want to help, but we need help to do it well.
Depending on your needs and gifts, we may recommend alternative charitable non-profits, peer-to-peer marketplaces, sometimes even a junk hauler or professional moving company. We will continue to use the donation appointment system to control the flow of donations. Please reach out by phone or email so our crew can help you declutter: [email protected] & 717.480-5083.
Enlisting and educating donors in the circular economy means they can be they can help clean the stream long before it ever burbles into our bay. Their efforts – your efforts – help us quicken the prospecting process so customers can find them faster. We’re all in terra incognita with clutter at our backs. But, if we work together, smoother sailing lies ahead.