Spring Cleaning: What Items Are Ideal for Donating, Selling and Tossing?

Figuring out what stuff goes where

You could deep clean your home at any time of year, but doing it around now is tradition. The calendar changes to spring, and everyone rolls up their sleeves. The problem with spring cleaning, however, is that a lot of what you have probably isn't suitable for a landfill (not yet, anyway). You may even have unopened items in a box; just stuff you have no use for. If you're really going to spring clean and feel good about it, you can't throw everything away. Some stuff, ideally, you'll donate or sell. With that in mind, here's where you should be looking when deciding what to donate, sell or throw out.

Donate: books

If you feel like parts of your home resemble a musty old library, you could always donate some of your books to a nonprofit like Books for Africa, which is headquartered in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and does what its name suggests. It ships books (and computers and e-readers containing digital books) to countries in Africa that have what the organization calls a "book famine." Another organization you may want to send some of your reading material to is Operation Paperback, which donates gently used books to military service members overseas, wounded warrior programs and veterans hospitals.

Donate: clothes

If you have piles of unwanted or unworn clothes that seem to be everywhere, that's a lot of potential extra space -- and, of course, somebody else could be wearing those clothes right now. There's no shortage of places to donate clothes to, but some worthy causes you may want to consider include OneWarmCoat.org (not in every state, but many) and ClothingDonations.org, a service of the Vietnam Veterans of America, which will also take any unwanted household goods.

Donate: that old car

Yes, you could sell it, but if it's a clunker, or you simply wish to give it to someone else, there are a lot of charities that would gladly tow it away and take it off your hands. And suddenly you have more room in the garage or driveway. One of the many nonprofits that would appreciate your old car is Church World Service, which specializes in helping the vulnerable, particularly immigrants and refugees. According to CWS's website, they'll take just about any car, working or not, unless the towing costs would be greater than the vehicle's value.

Donate: food

If you're really taking your spring cleaning seriously, you may be looking in your pantry at some food items you bought that seemed like a smart purchase at the time. Compost the perishables, but if the food is still good, find a local food bank and donate it. Granted, a lot of food bank websites request money instead of food, so they can buy their patrons something fresher and more exciting than the can of yams you no longer want, but plenty of food banks have drop-off hours, allowing you to leave some grub. One place to look, if you don't know of any nearby food banks, is Feeding America.

Sell: gadgets

You spent a lot on your old gadgets now gathering dust. You might be able to make some of that money back. Gazelle.com and NextWorth.com are popular websites to sell your phones and electronics to. SellCell.com, which specializes in buying cellphones and tablets, is also worth checking out, as is EcoATM.com, a website where you can find a kiosk and put your phone into something that resembles an ATM. The machine will offer you a price, which you can accept or reject. The iPhones, according to EcoATM, could net you as much as $400. Your Galaxy phone? Maybe $150. That cracked 16-year-old mobile phone? Try a museum.

Sell: antiques

Maybe you have an antique hutch in the basement that nobody in the family wants, and you think it's time to get rid of it. You could have it auctioned off, if you truly know that it's worth something. Naturally, there's a website for this, and that would be LocateAuctions.com. You could also visit nearby antique stores and see if they're willing to buy your item.

Sell: old sporting equipment

Maybe you used to play golf but haven't in forever, and some beautiful clubs are just sitting there in the closet. Play It Again Sports, a national retailer, will purchase your sports gear or give you store credit (assuming what you have is something they believe they can sell). Or you may want to check out SwapMeSports.com, a website people can join to sell, buy, donate or trade sports equipment.

Sell: random things

Not everything fits into a neat category. Maybe you have a high-end, durable high chair in your basement that some new parents might want. Maybe you have an electric mixer that you paid good money for and never used and never will, because you already own another electric mixer you never use. That's where a website like Craigslist or some of its competitors like OfferUp or letgo, where you can buy or sell just about anything, can come in handy.

Toss: junk

OK, this is kind of obvious. If it's junk, junk it. Still, not everything is easy to throw away, if we're talking a garage full of old appliances, for instance. That's where you could hire a junk removal service. 1-800-Got-Junk? is probably the most famous of the services, but there's also College Hunks Hauling Junk & Moving and Junk King and likely many more companies in your area that you could call. According to the website HomeAdvisor, and 12,126 price profiles, the average cost of hauling your unwanted stuff away is currently $247. That isn't cheap, but if you can sell some of your other unwanted odds and ends, maybe you can pay for the cost of taking away the junk you can't seem to get rid of.