How to Donate to Thrift Stores: What They Take, What They Don’t
Updated 2026-08-27
What most thrift stores accept
Nearly every charity thrift store — Goodwill, The Salvation Army Family Stores, St. Vincent de Paul, and local church or hospital shops — accepts clean clothing and shoes, books and media, kitchenware, small household goods, linens, toys, and small working electronics. If it is clean, working, and something another person would realistically pay a few dollars for, it is a good donation.
The single best rule: donate things in the condition you would hand to a friend. Sorting rooms have seconds per item. Anything stained, broken, or incomplete usually goes straight from the donation door to the landfill bin, and disposal costs come out of the charity’s budget — a bad donation is worse than no donation.
What stores usually refuse
Most thrift stores cannot take mattresses and box springs, cribs and car seats (safety-recall liability), large appliances, CRT televisions, chemicals and paint, tires, or anything with pest damage. Many will not take large exercise equipment or entertainment centers because they occupy floor space that rarely sells.
Rules vary by chain and even by location — a Habitat for Humanity ReStore takes building materials, cabinets, and furniture that a clothing-focused shop refuses, while a Buffalo Exchange or Plato’s Closet only buys current-style clothing outright. When in doubt, check the store’s page in our directory and call before loading your car.
How donation pickup works
Several national charities run free home pickup for furniture and large boxes: The Salvation Army schedules truck pickups through its family-store network, many St. Vincent de Paul councils do the same, and Habitat ReStores often collect furniture and appliances in decent condition. Pickup calendars fill days or weeks ahead, so book before you need the space back.
For everything smaller, drop-off is faster: most stores have marked donation doors or drive-up lanes with posted hours that end an hour or two before closing. Leaving donations outside a closed store is illegal dumping in most cities, and weather-damaged goods get discarded anyway.
Tax receipts, briefly
Donations to registered 501(c)(3) charities are tax-deductible in the US if you itemize. Ask for a blank receipt at drop-off and record what you gave while you still remember it; the donor, not the store, values the goods. Thrift-store “valuation guides” published by Goodwill and The Salvation Army are the standard reference for what used items are worth. For anything valued over $500 in total non-cash donations, the IRS requires Form 8283 — worth reading up on before a big clear-out.
For-profit resale shops — consignment stores, buy-sell-trade chains — do not issue donation receipts. They pay you instead, in cash or store credit.