What Happens to My Stuff? A Sustainable Approach to Decluttering

When you invite Good Space into your home to help declutter and organize, you might wonder: Where does all my stuff go? We take pride in ensuring that as little as possible ends up in landfills. Instead, we channel your items into specific, mission-driven organizations and recycling programs that give them a second life. Below, we’ll walk you through exactly where your things go when we take them away.

Housing Works: Supporting Communities with Clothing & Household Items

Housing Works is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing lifesaving services for people affected by HIV/AIDS and homelessness. They operate a network of thrift stores throughout New York City, where donated clothing, furniture, books, and household goods are sold to support their mission.

When you donate through Good Space, your gently used clothing and home goods go directly to Housing Works, helping fund healthcare, housing, and advocacy for vulnerable populations. If you have high-quality items that no longer serve you, this is a wonderful way to ensure they benefit others while staying out of landfills.

TerraCycle: A Second Life for Worn-Out Shoes and Baby Gear

Not all items are fit to be resold or donated—but that doesn’t mean they should be thrown away. Through TerraCycle, a global leader in hard-to-recycle materials, worn-out shoes and even bulky baby gear are broken down and repurposed into new materials, keeping waste out of the trash stream.

We regularly purchase TerraCycle’s shoe recycling boxes and baby gear recycling boxes to make sure these trickier items are handled responsibly. If your sneakers have reached the end of their wearable life, or your stroller isn’t safe to donate, we’ve got it covered.

NYC Department of Sanitation: Safe Disposal of Paint & Hazardous Waste

Many common household products—such as paint, cleaning supplies, and chemicals—contain hazardous materials that should never be poured down the drain or thrown in the trash. Instead, we ensure these items are properly handled through the NYC Department of Sanitation’s Special Waste Drop-Off Sites and Safe Disposal Events.

These programs safely manage hazardous waste, preventing environmental contamination and protecting public health. If you have old cans of paint, expired chemicals, or other potentially harmful substances, we make sure they’re disposed of responsibly.

ecycleNYC: Keeping E-Waste Out of Landfills

Electronics contain valuable materials like copper, gold, and rare earth metals—but they also contain hazardous elements that can be harmful if dumped in landfills. That’s why we partner with ecycleNYC, a city-run program that recycles computers, monitors, printers, and other electrical waste.

ecycleNYC ensures that e-waste is processed securely and sustainably, preventing toxic materials from entering the environment while recovering valuable resources for reuse. If you have old computers, cords, or outdated gadgets, we’ll get them to the right place for responsible recycling.

Textile Recycling: Responsible Options for Fabric Waste

You know that bag of old leggings, torn T-shirts, and mismatched socks you keep meaning to do something with? We’ve got you. We work with two main partners to keep textiles out of the trash: Retold Recycling and Green Tree Textiles.

Retold is a genius mail-in service that takes your unwearable textiles and makes sure they’re repurposed, not trashed. They sort, redirect, and recycle old fabrics into materials for insulation, industrial rags, or even new textiles. No landfill guilt, no guesswork—just pop your worn-out clothes in a Retold bag and send them off to be transformed.

Green Tree handles fabric waste locally here in NYC and offers community drop-offs at farmers markets and greenmarkets. We regularly drop off textiles through both services, and sometimes use local greenmarket drop-off bins to keep things convenient and efficient.

Kids' Items: Supporting Growing Families and Sharing the Joy

We’re proud to partner with Room to Grow, an incredible nonprofit that supports families with young children living in under-resourced communities. We donate like-new baby and toddler clothes, toys, and select gear to Room to Grow, and we cover the cost of shipping these items using their donation bag program. It’s one more way we make sure your outgrown baby gear continues to support other growing families.

We also redistribute children’s items through Jane’s Exchange, a local, woman-owned children’s consignment shop, Goodwill, and neighborhood BuyNothing Facebook groups. These partnerships allow us to keep toys, books, and clothing in circulation and out of landfills—giving them another chapter in a new family’s story.

JunkLuggers: When It’s More Than We Can Handle

Sometimes a project yields more donations than we can physically manage. When that happens, we call in JunkLuggers. They come in, haul things away, and make every effort to sort, donate, and recycle as much as possible. It’s a great back-pocket option for high-volume clear-outs, and one more way we make sure things don’t end up in the landfill by default.

It Costs to Do It the Right Way

Here’s the thing: recycling responsibly isn’t always free. In fact, the sheer volume of stuff in this country means that many donation centers and recycling facilities have been overwhelmed—and many are now shifting to a paid model to help cover their costs. Programs like TerraCycle and Retold Recycling charge fees to properly sort and process materials that would otherwise end up as waste. Even services like Room to Grow ask for shipping support to make their donation intake more manageable.

And we’re happy to pay them. At Good Space, we build these costs into our work because we believe sustainability shouldn’t be an afterthought. By choosing responsible recycling partners, we ensure that your items are genuinely being reused, repurposed, or recycled—not just disappearing into the waste stream with a “donated” sticker on top.

Why It Matters

At Good Space, we believe that organizing isn’t just about creating a more functional home—it’s also about living with intention. By directing your unwanted items to organizations that reuse, repurpose, and recycle, we help reduce waste and support important social and environmental causes.

As we thoughtfully clear out what no longer serves us, we also encourage a shift in mindset: choosing quality over quantity, valuing what we already have, and bringing new things into our lives with care. Decluttering doesn’t have to mean waste—it can be a step toward a more conscious and thoughtful way of living.

Want to Declutter Sustainably?

If you're ready to refresh your home while making a positive impact, let Good/Space help! Schedule a free consultation call or send us a note to hello@wearegoodspace.co, and experience clutter-free living with a conscience.