Spring Cleaning With A Purpose

Spring is in full swing in my house. Which means I am responsible for purging all the stuff out of the garage that we don't use anymore. It's hard to believe we accumulate so much stuff- but we really do. Spring is like a giant reset button for us and everyone feels less stressed when there is less junk in the house.

Typically I work on getting rid of old stuff and my wife works on deep cleaning, but this year we are both sorting through things to donate. Why? Well because we are trying to see how many hours of on the job training we can help Goodwill provide. Did you know that Goodwill provides that service? Last year, nearly 2 million people engaged in face-to-face Goodwill services to advance in their careers. More than 35 million people accessed education, training, mentoring and online learning tools offered by Goodwill virtually to strengthen their skills and gain industry-recognized credentials.

Goodwill’s career centers, training programs and staffing operations give people the resources, skills and confidence that changes thousands of lives each year.

Thanks to the programs and support services made possible by donations of clothes and household items, Goodwill helped place more than 312,000 people in jobs in the United States and Canada in 2015 – that’s one person finding a job every 23 seconds of every business day.

If you are not sure where your local Goodwill is, you can use the Goodwill Locator App available for Android and iOS devices and at http://www.goodwill.org/ (click “Explore Our Map” on the homepage). Simply input the items you’re donating to calculate the number of hours of career counseling, on-the-job training, résumé preparation, financial planning classes, and other services you’ve helped provide people facing challenges finding employment. When jobs thrive, communities thrive.

We cleaned out just the garage and the pile of stuff we brought to Goodwill will help with over 10 hours. How crazy is that?