If you take the time to practice loving generosity, you’ll usually be rewarded in many ways.
In a little less than an hour, someone I don’t know will be stopping by my driveway to pick up one of our toddler beds. This weekend, I am hoping to pass on, to a friend, some new clothes that don’t fit me, and there are a couple of bags of things sitting in the car waiting for a trip to the local thrift store for donation. A box of preschool toys is waiting upstairs in one of our bedrooms to be given to the church nursery (if I can get my kids to keep their hands out of them long enough!).
I’m trying to say this as a matter of fact, not to illustrate any kind of generosity on my part (It probably more illustrates that we have too much stuff). I know we could be so much more generous than we are–and we are working on that goal, because you see, we have been blessed with many free things ourselves.
Just two days ago, for example, one of our neighbors dropped off a couple of bags of clothing for my eldest son. Her grandson had outgrown them. Last week, someone dropped off soup. Last month, we were given a porch swing that needs a bit of work, and the month before that…well, you see what I mean.
I just wanted to make the point of being generous with items that you can no longer use. I have a bug, so to speak, because of a couple of things that have happened in the course of the last few days.
The first the fact that my inbox has been graced this week with not one but four separate email messages concerned with telling me that I should be selling my children’s outgrown clothes for top dollar. While there is nothing wrong with creating a legitimate and ethical home business from such a venture (great way to stay home with the kids), I prefer to simply pass on most of outgrown items to others when I can. I wanted to add this as an option to anyone cleaning out the closets. A lot of times we frugal people find it second nature to try and save (or make) money.
The second thing that I came across is a little more iffy. An acquaintance admitted that she often got things for free with coupons, deals or sign ups and then returns them to the store for the cash. In our day and age of stores keeping track of the price of every purchase you make, I’m not sure how she does it (nor do I want to know), but there you go. That squeaks over the ethical line a little too much for me, especially when she bragged about “returning” a diabetic tester to Target and pocketing $25.
So, if you don’t mind me being a little preachy, I’d like you to consider passing on your old items to others. You’ll be rewarded by helping someone else, and might even be blessed in other unexpected ways, yourself.