Spring cleaning??? Beware!!!

It's that time of year. The time to clean out our closets, sweep up the cobwebs and wash the windows.
If you are anything like me, you like to bag up unwanted clothes, books and toys and get them out of the house as quickly as possible.
I have a daughter who is one pile away from an episode of hoarders. She keeps everything. You never know when you can use that band aid wrapper again. Or if you will ever need that used water bottle again.
I often times have to go into her room when she isn't home and sort though all of her drawers. One time, I didn't get rid of a bag of clothes that she had outgrown soon enough (it was in the back of the van) and found that she had taken nearly everything out of it again. I found a pile of her too small underwear in her keepsake drawer. Yep, she's got a problem.
I found that when I took my bags of unwanted (but still usable) items to our local Goodwill, they acted like I was doing them a disservice by adding to their work load. This "attitude" happened more than once, so when I saw one of these containers just down the street I started using it.

While I don't get an attitude when I use the USAgain boxes, I did end up getting myself into a moral dilemma.
If you look closely, these drop boxes say "for profit" on them. Meaning, the items I drop in the USAgain bins are being collected and sold and someone else is benefiting. When I realized this, part of me felt duped.  I had been using a similar donation drop box for The Big Brothers Big Sisters organization that was by our old house. Big Brothers and Big Sisters uses the items in their drop boxes for resale in the Value Village stores. The profits from the sales get put back into their programs. The profits from USAgain get put into someones pocket.
While the USAgain donation containers clearly state that they are "for profit" (if they didn't they would be violating laws), the idea behind them being similar to other donation boxes and drop off stations that are non-profit, can make you feel like you are donating to charity, but the reality is, your donation is someone's profit.
If you aren't aware, you may be using these drop boxes thinking you are giving back to the community or to a charity, just like I did.
So be aware.   Know where you are donating to.