Professional Clothing Drive

It starts tomorrow and run this week with multiple drop off locations benefiting the Center for Women in Transition and the Salvation Army.  See here for details.

Week 40 PURGE - More to Empty Tomb

I feel like it's been a while since I've PURGEd to my favorite (cuz I believe in their mission and also cuz they are close to my work, making donating easy) local charity: Empty Tomb. So they are the happy recipients of this week's PURGE.

#270 2 girls T-shirts that I got from a freecycler for Mei Mei - The are ever so slightly off-white but I didn't think I could whiten them without ruining the design.

#271 One of Bean's shirts that he made in the fall of 2007 - He just grew out of it now. Considering it's slightly stained and has his name on it, I knew there was no use in attempting to consign it.

#272 A shirt of mine from my church's children's ministry - A bunch of kids signed it and they're all grown up now, plus it's also a little discolored. I shouldn't wear it anymore.

#273 2 plastic cups - I've had these since high school. They are very fun, but I'm paranoid to drink out of plastic anymore.

#273 Fleece Blanket of Monkey's from when he was a wee babe - We just have too many blankets. We got so many compliments on this, I hope someone else can love as much as we have.

Just FYI, Empty Tomb will start taking fall and winter clothes starting on October 1st. I can't wait! I already have some stuff set aside to PURGE ;)

What do your rooms look like?

Check out the Clutter Image Rating that I found. It is used to assess if a person has a hoarding problem.

For us, our bedroom is a 1. We've gotten good about making this our getaway retreat spot. Only our nightstands have some clutter on them.

Our living room is between a 1 and a 2, but much closer to 1. I have a a couple small piles of books that I want to PURGE, but haven't yet. We don't have anything on the couches that would prevent people from sitting.

Our kitchen is a solid 2. We don't have anything on the floor, but the counters are currently covered with dirty dishes and the kitchen table has an assortment of papers on it. I LOATHE cleaning the kitchen, so the counters and table issue is a more-often-than-not type of situation.

They should have one for your vehicle. Both of ours would be like about a 4 today and 2 to 3 in general.

So, walking through your house RIGHT NOW, no cheating, pick the numbers that describe your bedroom, living room, then kitchen. Be honest!

Next UIECU Shred Event Coming up!

I don't think it's only open to members, so I thought I'd spread the word.

The University of Illinois Employees' Credit Union is hosting it's next "Shred Event" on Saturday, August 28. You can bring up to five boxes of your old documents and they’ll shred them for you while you watch....and it's for FREE!

There are two locations and times:

Five Points Branch

206 East University Avenue

Time: 8 am-11 am

First Street Branch

Urbana 2201 South First Street, Champaign

Time: 12 pm-3 pm

Photo Credit: juvencioroldan

Book PURGE for Urbana Free Library

In case you haven't noticed, purging for fundraising has been on my mind!

Photo Credit: PaPeR.cLiP (It's good to be back!)

We all have books lying around the house that we aren't likely to read again any time soon. Why not PURGE them and have some extra shelf space?

3 times a year the Urbana Free Library hosts a book sale, which raises over $20,000 annually for the library. Some of the book they sell are ones removed from the library's collection, but most are donated by people like us! UFL takes book donations anytime at the circulation desk and they will give you a form so you can even write off your donation on your taxes.

It's so easy! This weekend after the Clean Water Garage Sale, I brought a trunk-load of books over that didn't sell. The librarian brought a cart out to my car, loaded it up for me and wheeled it all back in. So, all you need to do is go through your bookshelves and PURGE.

I'll be doing this over the next couple weeks because the next book sale is on August26-30th (but like I said, they take books all year). I need to attack my school books from grad and undergrad most importantly. I know we also have some cookbooks we can get rid of and a couple novels. I'll be updating with pics and stuff about what we manage to get out of the house.

What books can you PURGE?

PURGE for another Garage Sale Fundraiser

If you missed donating to to the Clean Water Garage Sale, you can still get rid of your stuff for a good cause. A friend of mine e-mailed yesterday about a garage sale she is organizing to build a women's shelter in Ecuador. I pasted her e-mail below so you can see the details. You can contact them for delivery times or pick up. So it's very easy! Happy PURGing for another good cause!

~~~~

Attention Friends and Lovers of Chambana:

I need your help! I am broke broke broke and trying to get to Ecuador to collaborate again with the women in my "extended family" to work to get the shelter we dream of having for women there built and functional! Together with the help of a generous friend of mine, we're calling upon our friends to donate items to be sold in

a garage sale on Saturday, August 21st, 2010 in the Cherry Hills Subdivision in Champaign. All proceeds will help send me to Ecuador!

Please help a sister out and donate what junk (I say that lovingly!) you can to the cause! All donated things can either be picked up by me or dropped off yourself on location between August 19th, from 6pm-9pm (during set-up) at:

2811 Cherry Hills Drive, Champaign, IL 61822. My phone
Organizers, Rachel Storm and Joan Wingo can be reached at:

217-840-8517 (Joan) and 630-677-7219 (Rachel)

We also are looking for volunteers to do the following:

• Staff the sale itself anytime on Saturday, August 21st from 7am-5pm!
• Help set-up on Thursday, August 19th beginning at 6pm!
• Pass the word around! Do you know more people who might want to get rid of their stuff?! Forward this message!

I plan to fly to Ecuador over Winter or Spring break this year and every penny counts. Please help me get there!

_____________________________________________

Kind regards,

Rachel Storm
Program Coordinator, Illinois Women's Resources Center
The Women's Resources Center, University of Illinois

Student Affairs--Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Relations
703 S. Wright Street, Champaign, IL 61820
MC-302
(217) 333-3137 (office phone)
(217) 244-3167 (fax)
(630) 677-7219 (cell)

Freecycle Leftovers from Clean Water Garage Sale

The sale is over, but don't miss out on these great free items! If you want to donate financially to help dig the well in Liberia, you can leave a check in the mailbox to "Quest UMC" with "Clean Water Garage Sale" in the memo.

Now at 3916 Aberdeen in SW Champaign, you can find these and a couple other things:

UPDATE: All of these were picked up before garbage collection day. So basically nothing went in the trash of all those donated items we collected ;)

Funds Raised from Clean Water Garage Sale are "Well Spent"

If you're wondering if your contribution to the Clean Water Garage Sale makes a difference, IT DOES. Check out the pics below of the 2nd well that Quest has funded. The first one was in Wazon, with funds mostly raised from our first garage sale in 2008.

A procession of singing and dancing on the way to the dedication of the well in Zoeger Town, Liberia

Words of appreciation from Zoeger Town UMC to Quest UMC and that includes you too!

Dedication Ceremony

Drinking the first flow

This well to access clean water in Zoegar Town...

Means no more of this: carrying gallons of dirty and diseased water from the nearby creek.

MANY THANKS for all your help and support with the Clean Water Garage Sale!

Come shop again at our next sale this Friday from 8-noon and Saturday from 8-2 at 3916 Aberdeen in Champaign. And don't miss the $1/bag at 1pm sale on Saturday! If you want to volunteer, you can sign up here.

US'Again - When to use them

In Week 12 and this week, I PURGEd some pretty junky textiles that were in pretty bad shape, by dropping them into one of those red US'Again drop boxes. There are several locations around Champaign-Urbana generally in business parking lots. I wanted to share a few words of caution when using these bins. Really, they should be a last resort for getting rid of your textiles (clothes, shoes, bed sheets, etc.) for a number of reasons:

1) They are for profit. Even at the last stage, people in Third World countries are still buying the textiles that you donated. Granted, it's for very cheap, and it created jobs, they are making money off of your stuff.
2) They are not local, so more gas is consumed for transportation of the items (maybe not by you, but by them), especially since they seem to deal a lot over seas. In my opinion it's better to give a charitable organization in your local community.
3) They recycle, and it's best to see if your item can be re-used first, as your item currently is. But this is also a huge plus of them over other organizations. If they can't reuse a textile because it is too worn or stained, they can recycle it into something that can be used. Now, while this keeps your items out of landfills :), let's not forget all the energy needed and all the pollutants released into the earth in order to recycle that item into something useful :(

Now, I'm not sure what charitable organizations such as the Salvation Army do with textiles they can't use. They might bring the clothes to be recycled by another group such as US'Again, but they might just toss them into the garbage. So, if your item is not in that great of shape, save your local charitable organization the work, and just make a trip to your closest US'Again drop box. But like I said use it as a last resort. You'd be surprise by what people will take off your hands if you offer it on Freecycle.

The Story of Stuff

This video is a must see analysis about where our stuff comes from and where it goes. The Story of Stuff can have a happy ending but it's our job to change the cast of characters now!