There is nothing better than going through your house or apartment and getting rid of things that are not useful anymore. I am not talking about junk but things you bought thinking you really you needed them only to discover that you don’t use them anymore. It is also likely that you purchased some items on a whim and now you wish you could get your money back for these items that were never used.

No matter why you bought the items, it will be very therapeutic to get rid of items that are cluttering your home. If you spend more time dusting and reorganizing the items than you actually use them, it is time to give them to someone else. We all have ‘stuff’ that we like but don’t need anymore. Same with clothes. Our closets and drawers are filled with tops and jeans that don’t fit us anymore. We hang on to them just in case our scale magically drops to the weight we were in during our high school years.

One solution to this accumulation problem is to give your unused items to Goodwill. There are over 2,200 Goodwill stores with several located in the Great Lakes region. The Goodwill stores accept our unused items and resell them. This is turn helps local communities by creating jobs for those who are disadvantaged. The nonprofit organization provides training and education for those who are in need of assistance. Goodwill helps those who are homeless and financially strained and also helps those who have physical and mental or emotional disabilities.

The Goodwill is a positive organization to any community. It gives disadvantaged people a chance to participate in the workforce while at the same time obtaining work skills. The skills they obtain allow them to take pride in learning something new each day and helping others.

In 2007, Goodwill served over 1 million people in training and employment programs. With revenues of $3.2 billion, over 80 percent of this money goes to fund education, career and community service programs. Over 65 million people donated items to the stores or gave money to the organization! That is a lot of people.

For the last 25 years, Goodwill has worked together with the U.S. Navy to provide employment opportunities for the disadvantaged in the Great Lakes region. In recent years, the Goodwill Great Lakes have employed over 800 people with various disabilities. Even though these employees are not able to join the Navy in the traditional way, they are able to help in another capacity by providing food and laundry services to sailors and recruits at the Naval Station Great Lakes in Illinois.

So the next time you clean out your closets and drawers, keep Goodwill in mind. All of the things you donate will help others in one way or another.