Either I’d misunderstood, this was illegal or I was dreaming.
A truck was going to back into my driveway. A big strong man was going to hop out and haul gigantic mounds of home-building debris out of my garage. I was not only going to get a cleaned-out garage and a tax write-off, but also help build homes for the less fortunate. I hadn’t been this excited since I got free underwear for opening a Victoria Secret account!
Now this is the season of Thanksgiving, the day the guns go off and people, including me, jettison themselves into stores to buy more stuff in six weeks than they do during the entire rest of the year. That makes me think we should rename this holiday “Thanksgetting.” But as I thought about all I was about to unload – err, I mean give – I began feeling less guilty about my impending shopping spree.
OK, so I could be more charitable, but my favorite kind of giving is the kind where you get something back – and I don’t mean a warm, fuzzy feeling. That’s why once a year my daughters and I purge our closets and give bags of clothes to the Goodwill. I get clean closets, room for more clothes and a tax write-off. Learning I could do the same for my garage clutter felt better than getting double miles.
See, over the past few years, thanks to our remodeling addiction, our second garage and side yard had accumulated more building materials than a shopaholic piles on debt. This wasn’t a total loss as the piles made excellent multi-family housing for field mice. But between the materials left over from our original house construction, the outdoor deck Dan built, and our newly completed basement, we had enough to build a boys’ camp: sheetrock, PVC pipe, spit wad glue, particleboard, wood for whittling, joists, male-oriented magazines, boxes of tile and chewing tobacco.
Storing all of this was making me twitch, but tossing it would dredge up my Scottish guilt. Although construction workers dump usable building materials all the time, my Scotland-born mother would disapprove. She is so frugal that she reuses Baggies, saves all the clips that come off bread bags, and always finds a second life for margarine tubs. You can’t grow up in a house like that and throw useful stuff away with a clear conscience.
One day, when I was complaining about this remodeling runoff to a building supplier when he shared this age advice: “Donate it to Habitat.” That was when I learned that Habitat for Humanity, an international organization that builds affordable homes for the disadvantaged, wanted my leftovers.
Cowabunga!
Habitat, which has more than 1,700 affiliates in the United States and Canada, doesn’t use your building materials to build houses. Intead, the organization sells the materials in its Habitat ReStores at a discount. Proceeds go toward buying materials to build affordable homes.
To make sure I wasn’t dreaming, I called Kate Pride Brown, spokeswoman for Habitat for Humanity, headquartered in Americus, Ga. “By all means, we want your leftovers,” she said. “It’s a three-way win. The community gets discounted building supplies. Recycling materials is good for the planet. And the money helps build housing for the poor.”
Actually, it’s four-way win. She forgot to mention my clean garage and tax deduction. I didn’t point this out because I didn’t want to dash any notion that I was purely motivated by a higher purpose. When the truck pulled into my driveway, I blinked hard and rubbed my eyes, and that wasn’t just because the man who hopped out looked like Ashton Kutcher. He pulled the loading ramp down from his truck, and then I watched as his truck swallowed the contents of my garage. Sure enough, everyone made out – except the field mice.
Marni Jameson is a nationally syndicated columnist who lives in the Denver area. You may contact her through marnijameson.com.
How to give along with your thanks
If you, too, want to do some Thanksgiving purging of building materials to offset this season of consumption, here’s how:
Look up your local Habitat for Humanity affiliate at habitat.org and find a Habitat ReStore near you. There are more than 400 ReStores in the United States and Canada.
Tell the affiliate what you have and ask if the store will take it. Each store differs in what it accepts. For instance, ours wouldn’t take paint or furniture, but others will.
If you’re planning a remodeling project that involves demolition, ask the Habitat to send out its deconstruction team. They will tell you what they can salvage from your wreckage. “Eighty percent of a home is recyclable,” Brown said.
List everything you’re donating. Take a photo as backup proof. When the truck comes, have the Habitat volunteer sign your list and give you a receipt. The total market value of your donation is tax-deductible.
Give thanks that your garage is clean, and that other people are benefiting from your generosity. Then, pass the cranberries.
