Spring cleaning tips: Out with the old, in with the new (to you)

Ready to shake off winter with a good spring cleaning?  

Clean out the old, bring in the new (to you)  

As you clean out closets and drawers, set aside items that are still in good, working condition. Instead of tossing them, donate them to a local nonprofit thrift store – and while you’re there, shop around for items you need.   

Donating high-quality items supports the community, and buying from non-profit-run thrift stores helps fund great local causes. 

Plus, you’re avoiding letting good stuff go to waste, which is great for the environment.  For every item that doesn’t have to be purchased new, you’ve saved the energy and natural resources needed to manufacture it – as well as the carbon emissions from extracting raw materials, processing them into new products, and transporting them to the stores where you buy them. 

Check ahead to see if it’s accepted 

Before taking your items to donate, check the organization's website to confirm what they currently accept: This can change depending on their inventory.  

Shop online  

Did you know many nonprofit thrift stores share their items online or through social media? Additionally, Facebook Marketplace has become a resource for affordable secondhand finds local to your area. Shopping secondhand has never been easier! 

Local spots to shop and donate  

• Community Warehouse shares great items from their Estate Store on Instagram. Or shop in person at their Northeast Portland or Tualatin stores. They accept donations of furniture, mattresses, small appliances, and other home goods.  

• ReClaim It shares items on social media - both Instagram and Facebook. Or visit them in person at their shop in North Portland (at North Williams and Killingsworth – not far from Community Warehouse, so check them both out). They accept donations of furniture, home goods, yard and garden items.  

• ReBuilding Center shows what they sell at their large store on North Mississippi Avenue in Portland. They accept donations of building materials and some home goods.  

• Habitat ReStore has an online store or head to their stores in Southeast Portland, Beaverton, Gresham, or Vancouver. They accept donations of building materials and home goods.  

• The Arc Thrift Store is located on Southeast Stark near 82nd Avenue and highlights items through Instagram. They accept donations of clothes and small household items.  

• SCRAP Creative Reuse has an online store or stop by their downtown Portland store. They accept donations of craft, art, and school supplies.  

• Free Geek offers refurbished laptops, tablets, and phones through their online store. They accept donations of computers, laptops, and other technology at their inner Southeast Portland location.  

Swap, share, and resell  

Check out the Resourceful PDX map to find more ways to save, from swapping unwanted items through a Buy Nothing Group, to getting reused and repaired furniture, household goods, and more.  

A new place to buy (and sell) kitchenware in Portland

For a city known for food carts and famous chefs, Portland now has a kitchen-focused consignment store, Kitchen Culture, where you can buy affordable, high-quality, used kitchenware – and sell kitchenware you don’t use. 

Kitchen Culture is unique space on SE Foster Road and SE Holgate, where shoppers can find a constantly evolving selection of used and new cookware, dinnerware, glassware, kitchen tools, and cookbooks.  

The store also offers cooking and preserving classes as well as conversations about vegetable gardening and food access. 

Owner Traci Hildner opened Kitchen Culture in November 2022 with the thought, “I’ve shopped for used cars, music, movies, and books, so why not used kitchen supplies?”  

Traci chose the name Kitchen Culture because culture holds many ideas – and it comes back to food: Where we come from, how we eat, how we approach and share ​​food. One way Traci puts a love of sharing food into action is through cooking meals for local shelters with neighbors, through the Foster-Powell Neighborhood Association.  

A great place to buy & sell quality kitchen and cookware 

Kitchen Culture offers durable, functional, long-lasting, and practical items. Traci explained that she sells silverware and dishware by the piece, so people can buy what they need – whether that’s three forks or thirty.  

Asked about a favorite piece to use in cooking, Traci said her cast iron skillet is her go-to item. As far as other essential pieces, “If you start with good quality kitchen tools and take care of them, most can last a lifetime.” 

She recommends a good knife, butcher block, frying pan, stock pot, wooden spoons, and vegetable peeler. 

Beyond those, think about how much storage your kitchen has, and what tools could help you with things you make frequently. Can opener? Lemon juicer? A good, small grater for cheese, fresh nutmeg, or lime zest?  

If you’re interested in cleaning out your kitchen and earning some cash while seeing your kitchenware find a good home, Kitchen Culture is also a great place to sell your wares. Items are on consignment for 90 days, and you earn half of what the item sells for.  

Food preservation  

Traci has taught food preservation classes for years under the name Lucky Larder and now offers those classes at Kitchen Culture.  

Her interest in food preservation started with an overabundance of vegetables. After moving from an apartment into her first house, she and her husband planted a vibrant edible garden, but it was so prolific, they couldn’t eat or give away vegetables fast enough and some went to waste.  

To expand her knowledge in food preservation and fermentation, she became a Master Food Preserver and a Family Food Educator for Oregon State Extension Services in 2014. 

Traci has taught preservation classes at Mt Hood and Portland Community Colleges, New Seasons Market, Portland Mercado, and various farmers markets.  

Now you can find her classes under the events section of Kitchen Culture’s website. She teaches a variety of preservation classes, including canning and fermentation. 

If you decide to try food preserving at home after taking a Kitchen Culture class, but aren’t quite ready to purchase a dehydrator or big canning pot of your own, you can always borrow one from Kitchen Share, Portland’s kitchen tool lending library. Then if you fall in love with jamming, pickling, or fermenting, you can head back to Kitchen Culture to stock up on your own supplies. 

Learn more

Check Kitchen Culture's website for hours and to learn more about their classes and sign up for their newsletter.

Or visit in person: 6300 SE Foster Road, Suite A, Portland, Wednesday through Sunday.

Repair is in the air: A decade of Repair Cafés and a growing national movement

Repair PDX is celebrating their 10th anniversary and planning for the future. This local, grassroots organization hosts Repair Cafés, and has led the repair movement in Portland. 

Repair Cafés are free events that bring volunteers who like to fix things together with people who have items that need fixing. 

Lauren Gross started Repair PDX based on her experience with Repair Cafés in the Netherlands. She continues to be at the helm of the repair movement, along with many volunteer fixers.

Reflecting on 10 years, Lauren shared her thoughts on the future: “I'd say my vision for the future is the same as our mission: Spread repair culture. It's senseless that we extract things from the ground, use them for a few minutes, and then bury them in the ground again. It's imperative that we make things that will last, and that we take care of those things for as long as possible. That vision extends to seeing that repair and reuse is everywhere and deeply ingrained in our culture.” 

Regional repair events are popping up all the time, including monthly events in Portland and weekly drop-in hours at Repair PDX headquarters at ADX. The drop-in options allow interaction with experienced fixers so anyone can learn about small appliance repair.

Find out more about Repair PDX and the list of local events.

Volunteer fixer Brit with Repair PDX founder Lauren at a recent Repair Cafe.

Repair is in the air

There are shifts in the air locally and nationally, with recent Earth Day promotion and ongoing Right to Repair legislation efforts expanding awareness and enthusiasm for repair throughout the country.

In Oregon, Senate Bill 542 Right to Repair is currently part of Oregon’s Legislative Session. The bill is in the Rules Committee, awaiting amendments, and a possible vote in the Senate. To learn more about the bill, listen to the OPB Think Out Loud segment with Oregon Senator Janeen Sollman, D-Hillsboro, a sponsor of the bill. A similar bill was part of the 2021 session.

At a national level, repair was recently highlighted in a New York Times Wirecutter article and the Los Angeles Times. The Today Show has featured repair twice: once with a live Repair Café and a second about the Northeast Seattle Tool Library.

The Today Show segments highlight core virtues of the community repair movement like thrift, the environment, community building, and skill sharing.

This year also marks the 20th anniversary for iFixit. This open-source online resource has a mission to teach everyone to fix everything.

Partners activate reuse and resale shop in Old Town

Bullfrog’s Treasure N Trash has opened in Northwest Portland’s Old Town neighborhood. It’s a retail store where you can find antiques along with reclaimed furniture and other goods.

But it’s not just a store. It’s an innovative Reuse Hub focused on environmental justice and workforce development. It was created through a unique partnership between local businesses and nonprofits that facilitates low-barrier job opportunities in reuse, repair, and litter collection.

The organizations that came together to create Treasure N Trash are:

• Trash for Peace, a 10-year-old community-based organization providing hands-on learning, low-barrier job opportunities, and education about sustainability in environments that are peer-led, welcoming, safe, and collaborative. 

• Ground Score Association, a peer-led initiative of Trash for Peace. It celebrated its fourth anniversary in 2022. Ground Score is an association of informal recyclers, dumpster divers and other environmental workers who create and fill low-barrier waste management jobs. Ground Score is collectively organized and seeks to be radically inclusive, prioritizing work opportunities for those facing work and housing insecurity. They aim to build a more environmentally and socially aware community, while also changing society’s perceptions of what and who is considered valuable.

• Junk It Junk Removal, a local, family-owned company that began in 2012 and specializes in residential and commercial waste hauling.

• Frog & Toad Hauling celebrated its third anniversary in 2022. They specialize in waste-conscious junk removal, creative reuse, and home repair. 

These organizations moved into the Old Town warehouse in October 2022 and use the space for many things; a co-working office space, headquarters for Ground Score's peer-led litter collection and reuse/repair program, a meeting spot with a kitchen and lounge; and short-term storage for the two junk removal companies to sort and determine if repairs are needed before moving items to the thrift store.

Reuse has been a large part of both Junk It and Frog & Toad’s business models. Donation and diversion of materials are key elements in how they work with clients to remove unwanted items from homes and businesses. The warehouse provides the companies with a space to inspect and repair items that still have a lot of useful life left in them.

The owners of Frog & Toad, Revel and Sun, shared, “Our goal with the shared retail space is the establishment of a vibrant and useful place for our neighborhood and wider community where ‘stuff,’ which may have once been discarded, can flow towards where it will be treasured, which often is where it is needed the most. We feel that being in collaboration with the other groups in the warehouse is what will make this possible and help our store to thrive!”

Michelle Barrows-Carter from Junk It Junk Removal, said, "We are proud to be a part of a new warehouse space shared with Ground Score Association, Frog & Toad Hauling, and Trash for Peace, where we can prioritize sustainability and creative reuse.”

Low-barrier job opportunities

Trash for Peace partners with local government and other agencies to implement programs for renters in supportive, multifamily affordable housing communities. Based on community interest and initiative, some pilot projects clear unwanted large household items from apartments and homes, like dressers, tables, mattresses, and other furniture. Working alongside the junk removal companies allows thousands of pounds of trash to be diverted from the landfill by utilizing reused and donated materials in other activities that the organization leads.

Ground Score’s G.L.I.T.T.E.R program provides litter collection and tent side waste collection services for members of the houseless community across the Portland Metro Region. The program name was sourced by workers and stands for Ground Score Leading Inclusively Together Through Environmental Recovery. 

“It’s incredible to witness everyone’s unique progress. The sense of accomplishment bursting out of each participant when they finish their tote bag is so powerful! We provide a different type of purpose. You are worth the time it takes to learn a new skill.” - Rachel Linden

Many of the litter collection routes are serviced by electric trikes, as part of Ground Score's goal to create carbon neutral litter collection services. As this program is peer-led, most of the litter collection team are currently or formerly houseless. 

New programs taking place in the shared space

Two programs taking place at the shared warehouse offer a glimpse into other low-barrier opportunities with room for skill building and further growth.

Rachel Linden is an artist and founder of Thuja Studios, an independent design studio dedicated to the dissemination of utilitarian sewing education to marginalized communities across Portland. Rachel has extensive sewing production and teaching experience, and with the help of Molly Mattern, has started a sewing and mending education program for Ground Score workers.

The Sewing Department offers accessible, professional machine sewing education where members of the Ground Score community can gain competency and hands-on experience in the field of production sewing. Every participant is guided through the production process of a basic tote bag where they learn about strategic fabric selection, pattern reading, marking, and cutting out components, and sewing processes. Currently, the emerging sewing team focuses on the mass production of hand-mending sewing kits made from discarded fabrics that would otherwise be sent to the landfill. After being produced and filled with relevant, second-hand mending tools, these kits are then distributed back into the Ground Score community through professional, classroom-style, hand-mending workshops offered every other week with a $30 stipend offered to participants as extra incentive to learn.

“I’m in my element.” - Beck, a Ground Score employee

"Here at Ground Score, we're making space for folks to form community. Through jobs we help them reclaim the fruits of their labor stolen by poverty and houselessness." - Toma Solano

Another Ground Score manager, Toma Solano, previously trained houseless community members to design and build structures for several of Portland's tiny home villages while also contracting for private residential clients. At Ground Score, Toma helps provide low barrier jobs to houseless individuals as apprentice carpenters. Together they use donated and salvaged wood to repair and upcycle furniture. They also build trellises, lamps, bookshelves, and flower boxes.

If you would like to get involved or donate, visit the Trash for Peace website at www.trashforpeace.org.

If you would like to visit Bullfrog’s Trash N Treasure retail store, check out the website for current information, contact information, and social media handles.

Easy ways to green your spring cleaning

Spring cleaning is here!

Did you know the average person in the U.S. uses about 40 pounds of household cleaners each year, and many of those products have harmful ingredients that can affect our health and damage our waterways?

We all want a clean home, but cleaning well doesn’t have to mean using harsh chemicals.

Make your own cleaning products

You can make your own cleaning products with common ingredients from the grocery store that are safe to use around kids and pets while being just as effective at getting rid of dirt and grime. Find out how at Oregon Metro’s Green Cleaners webpage.

Purchase safer cleaning products

Find out how to avoid harsh chemicals in store-bought cleaners by reviewing these tips from Oregon Metro.

Or shop at one of Portland’s small businesses that specialize in bulk items, including household items like laundry and cleaning supplies, and bath and body products. Read previous Resourceful PDX posts about The Realm Refillery and Mama and Hapa’s Zero Waste Shop.

5 safe cleaning tips for a healthy home

1.      Use natural ingredients that are tough on germs.

Vinegar, hydrogen peroxide and soap are effective at killing bacteria and some viruses without using harsh chemicals that can harm our health.

2.      Avoid aerosol products.

Products such as hairspray or oven spray cleaners release chemicals that can make our air quality worse and cause health issues, especially affecting children.

3.      Opt for wet-dusting instead of dry-dusting.

Dust often contains harmful residues from the products we use in our homes. Wet dusting is the most effective way to remove these chemicals.

4.      Skip the air fresheners and dryer sheets.

Artificial scents contain chemicals that lower air quality and harm our health. Try using scents from essential oils, lemons, cinnamon, and herbs.

5.      Safely dispose of harmful cleaners.

Leftover cleaners shouldn’t be poured down the drain. Call 503-234-3000 or visit oregonmetro.gov to find out where you can take things that are harmful for you and your family.

Metro resources

Green cleaning – Make your own cleaners at home using safe and affordable ingredients. 
Buying safer cleaners - Learn how you can buy safer cleaners that are better for your family and the environment. 
Common hazardous products - Understand what household products are hazardous, how to handle them. 

ReDeploy serves Veterans through reuse and repair

G.I. Junk Removal, and its nonprofit arm ReDeploy, were created by Matthew Calhoun, a former member of the U.S. Army and the Oregon National Guard.

Matt started G.I. Junk Removal in 2018, just a few years after retiring from the military. Three years later, he created ReDeploy as a way to provide Veterans employment, furniture, and other goods.

Creating community and a second life for usable goods

At ReDeploy, Matt employs former military, including his father-in-law, Kevin Knerr, who is active on the board and with Veterans in Vancouver, Washington. ReDeploy is based in Oregon City, but they deliver goods throughout the Portland metro region through their mobile service.

Matt shared his vision of the organization: “Beyond the redistribution of usable secondhand goods from the junk removal service, ReDeploy will also become a place where Veterans can volunteer their time and skills to refurbish and fix up items destined to be donated to fellow Veterans in need. Also, our warehouse will become a place of camaraderie for Veterans to regain that sense of belonging to a group.”

G.I. Junk Removal and ReDeploy owner, Matt Calhoun.

ReDeploy donates directly to Veterans who are getting housed and can benefit from usable, donated household goods and furniture. Items such as couches, tables, chairs, dressers, nightstands, and beds. ReDeploy also donates to partners and other organizations that provide goods to those in need.

The G.I. Junk Removal crew is trained to offer a compassionate approach when working with customers and emptying spaces. They also know how to spot usable items for donation or resale. Furniture that may need a small fix before being donated can get a second chance because Kevin has a wood shop and repair skills.

In the future, Matt aims to build a workshop space within their warehouse for Veterans to fix and refurbish items on site.

Partnerships are key to success

Over the years, Matt has built relationships with social service agencies and nonprofit and community-based organizations, including many that serve Veterans. These include:

• A Caring Closet provides gently used durable medical equipment to those in need at no cost.

• Fort Kennedy provides essential food, clothing, and resources for homeless and low-income veterans and their families living in Oregon and Washington.

• LoveOne Community provides clean laundry, showers, meals, personal care resources, and community connections to those in need in Clackamas County.

• Tools 4 Troops collects and donates tools to Veterans and active-duty service men and women.

ReDeploy also received grant funds from Metro to help set up their warehouse with storage and tools for assessing, sorting, storing, and refurbishing salvaged items.

Contact ReDeploy through G.I. Junk Removal, to set up a donation pick up or clean out service.

A note about clean out companies   

Portland residents have many bulky item drop-off and pick-up options for recycling, donation, and disposal. This includes from many junk removal companies in the region, like G.I. Junk Removal. These businesses will clear out and clean up your unwanted stuff and haul it away for a fee. Do a web search for “junk removal Portland” to find other options. 

Customers are responsible for ensuring your materials are handled legally and taken to a facility. Ask for a receipt with the person or company's name, address, phone number and vehicle and driver's license numbers.  

New Beginnings Market: A new way to support community through donation and reuse

This past fall, IRCO, the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization, opened the New Beginnings Market in northeast Portland. The Market, located in a large warehouse space, is a no-cost shop offering used and new furniture, clothing, and household items to immigrants and refugees, plus those coming out of homelessness, and domestic or gang violence.

New Beginnings Market allows individuals to choose the items they need as they build a new life in a new place. This “shop-our-store” format has long been used by another local nonprofit, Community Warehouse, and gives individuals a greater sense of choice in how they set up their new homes.

Megumi Harn, IRCO’s In-Kind Fundraising Lead, shared that since the New Beginnings Market opened in October 2022, they’ve served 2,215 clients, with a total value of household items offered at over $135,000.

The Market is a new program from a long-standing Oregon nonprofit

IRCO has deep roots in Portland and throughout Oregon. IRCO Fundraising Manager, Nami Bigos, shared that there are over 100 programs, including 19 food pantries, that serve 20,000-30,000 people a year.

After 45 years of providing refugee employment services, IRCO recently became a refugee resettlement provider under the United States Commission of Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), a national volunteer agency. In the past year, they have welcomed over 250 new arrivals from Afghanistan and Iraq. With the Ukrainian humanitarian crisis in February 2022, over 2,000 Ukrainian humanitarian parolees arrived in the Portland-Vancouver area also needing resettlement help, with limited support from traditional resources.  

New Beginnings Market is one of their newest programs and was created to provide a one-stop shop for basic needs. Navigating support services can be hard for anyone, and even harder for immigrants and refugees who are learning a new language and culture. IRCO aims to make the Market shopping experience easy for clients: The Market is located on a TriMet bus line and IRCO will deliver large furniture directly to clients. 

New Beginnings Market allows IRCO to collect and distribute donated goods more efficiently: They no longer must move donations to and from storage units. The space also allows IRCO to collect more items, display them in a more customer-friendly way, and provide clients with a better shopping experience. 

The need for donations is great

Not only are people’s needs greater since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but resources are slimmer. Also, with the startup of the refugee resettlement program in 2021, placing families in completely outfitted homes has become a core part of IRCO’s service delivery.

In addition to collecting donated goods from Portland community members, the Market receives donations from businesses and corporations including Columbia Sportswear, Nike, Rejuvenation and BedMart. IRCO also relies on volunteer groups and individual volunteers to help organize and run the Market.

How you can support New Beginnings Market

While the Market is not a retail space, or open to the public, a variety of new and gently used donations are welcome!

The most needed items are:

• Diapers

• Laundry detergent

• Mattresses

• Couches

• Dressers

Other items needed include:

• Kitchen, housewares, and décor 

• Beauty and personal care products 

• Cleaning supplies 

• Baby and school supplies 

• Linens and clothing 

See the full list of items IRCO needs. This list is regularly updated, and things may be added or removed from the list based on client needs and current inventory.

For gently used donations, IRCO wants clean and functional pieces, with no stains, tears, or pet hair. The Market Team will check for pest infestation.

Before you donate, contact the New Beginnings Market to describe the items you would like to donate: Donations@IRCO.org or 971-271-6461. Emailing photos of your items helps staff determine which items would best meet their clients’ needs. Once you’ve heard from IRCO staff about which items they can use, you can drop them off Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Market staff will provide the drop-off address.

For larger items, like couches or dressers, IRCO may be able to pick them up from your home for a suggested donation to cover transportation and gas costs. 

To learn more about the New Beginnings Market, how to donate new or gently used goods, or to volunteer, contact Nami and Megumi at Donations@IRCO.org or call 971-271-6461. Monetary and Amazon Wish List donations are also welcome.

Shop small, shop local

The Small Shops Big Hearts holiday event helps you be intentional about how and where you spend your money. They make it easy for you to find businesses owned and operated by people who live in our communities and care about the neighborhoods where they operate and the people who live, work and play close by.

The event begins Thursday, November 17 and continues through Sunday, December 11.  

Check out the Shop Small Win Big event page to discover 100+ small businesses with amazing gifts that will make you a winner in the gift-giving department. You can see a full list of prizes and participating small businesses where you can pick up raffle entries for visiting, and more raffle entries when you make purchases.

Discover more holiday gift ideas to save money and shop local.

No Space for Waste at The Realm Refillery

The Realm Refillery is a package free grocery store in Northeast Portland that provides a more sustainable way of shopping by allowing customers to buy as much or as little as needed, creating less food waste, and less packaging waste.

Owners Brit Snipes and Ryan Knowles work hard to assure the products they sell support local businesses and are sustainably and ethically produced. Ninety-five percent of their products are organic, and they look for items that are fair trade, chemical-free, cruelty-free, vegan, and use minimal packaging. They source products from over 30 small, local vendors and numerous local farms, and purchase from wholesale vendors that share the same values.

Brit said, “We need to all do our best to make sure the choices we make when consuming are focused on going straight back into our local economies as a community. Having the ability to buy local and with a small business is key to doing just that. Large corporations aren't the answers for progress.”

Shoppers are a mix of regulars and new customers who walk in to see what a package free grocery store looks like. Brit says they have an attention to cleanliness of containers, respect for food allergies with no cross contamination, and an intimate community.

Social media has been integral to an increase in young customers, especially Tik Tok which offers another way to share what the store is doing through short videos. Brit and Ryan want to build community by offering events and swaps as ways for customers to get to know each other.

There is a DIY aesthetic in the store, with Ryan taking the lead on building out the space and working with other local makers to complete the look. 

Ryan shared, “The DIY music scene and the ethos that comes with it was very impactful on my life from a pretty young age. Naturally, we wanted to do as much as ourselves, not only to reduce cost and waste, but so we could see out our vision to its fullest. We had never done anything to this level before and thanks to close friends and YouTube, we were able to get it all done ourselves. It's an amazing feeling to walk into the store every day and see our hard work come to life.”

Weigh, tap, tare

The Realm Refillery offers many products, including snacks, spices, baking ingredients, granola, olive oil, laundry and cleaning supplies, bath, and body products – even local, seasonal produce.

For bulk items, all jars have an initial deposit of $2. Once the jar is returned, the deposit rolls over to your new container each time you shop.

The staff are there to answer questions and assist with fast checkout with their weigh, tap, tare process. “We use a system called Filljoy in the store, which allows us to save the weights of all containers we use in the shop so we can easily deduct the tare for the customers. We even have all our paper bags weighed out, so customers won't ever pay for anything except exactly the amount of product that they intended to purchase.”

Brit and Ryan continue to make changes, with a free loyalty program as a recent addition. For every $1 you spend, you receive one point. When you get to 100 points, you receive a voucher to use in the store.

The monthly membership is like a co-op. Members don’t pay the deposit on containers and can take advantage of 20% off rotating items that are marked with a decal. You can also get more bulk items with discounts.

Future changes to bring your own containers

Customers often ask if they can bring their own container, but this is not currently allowed under Oregon Law. As part of the broader reusable container conversation, Brit and Ryan are involved with the Surfrider Foundation on a petition and possible legislation to change this law for the state of Oregon and approve bring your own containers.

You can sign the petition to help change the law.

Learn more about The Realm Refillery at their website, including frequently asked questions, and by following them on Instagram, Facebook and Tik Tok.

Just moved? Get thrifty.

Whether you need a lamp for your bedroom, pots and pans for your kitchen, or extra chairs for when friends come over, you can find great deals at Portland’s many nonprofit thrift stores.  

In addition to saving money, you’ll be giving back to your community – your purchases fund great, local causes. 

Out with the old, in with the new (to you) 

As you unpack, you may find that items that fit well in your last place don't work in your new space. Instead of tossing them, donate them to a local nonprofit thrift store – and while you’re there, shop around for items you need to fill your new place.  

Shop online 

Did you know that many nonprofit thrift stores share their items online or through social media? So you can browse from your couch – or that empty spot on the floor that’s waiting for a couch.  

Local spots to shop and donate 

Community Warehouse shares great items from their Estate Store on Instagram. Or shop in person at their Northeast Portland or Tualatin stores. They accept donations of furniture, mattresses, small appliances, and other home goods. 

ReClaim It shares items on social media - both Instagram and Facebook. Or visit them in person at their shop in North Portland (at North Williams and Killingsworth – not far from Community Warehouse, so check them both out). They accept donations of furniture, home goods, yard and garden items. 

ReBuilding Center shows what they sell at their large store on North Mississippi Avenue in Portland. They accept donations of building materials and some home goods. 

Habitat ReStore has an online store or head to their stores in Southeast Portland, Beaverton, Gresham, or Vancouver. They accept donations of building materials and home goods. 

The Arc Thrift Store is located on Southeast Stark near 82nd Avenue and highlights items through Instagram. They accept donations of clothes and small household items. 

SCRAP Creative Reuse has an online store or stop by their downtown Portland store. They accept donations of craft, art, and school supplies. 

Free Geek offers refurbished laptops, tablets, and phones through their online store. They accept donations of computers, laptops, and other technology at their inner Southeast Portland location. 

Before taking your items to donate, check the organization's website to confirm what they currently accept: This can change depending on what their inventory is. Some organizations ask that you send photos in for pre-approval. 

Swap, share, and resell 

Check out the Resourceful PDX map to find more ways to save, from swapping unwanted items through a Buy Nothing Group, to getting reused and repaired furniture, household goods, and more.