Guidelines
- Large appliances – refrigerators, stoves, washers/dryers, etc.
- Automobile parts of any kind – tires, rims, hubcaps, etc.
- Hot water heaters
- Furnaces
- Carpeting and padding
- Mattresses, bed springs, sofa beds, hospital beds
- Magazines
- Household trash and garbage
- Scrap lumber, concrete, bricks, stones
- Air conditioning units
- Paint, household chemicals, insecticides, etc.
- Food items
All donations that Goodwill can sell in its stores are greatly appreciated. However, when Goodwill receives items that cannot be used, staff must dispose of them, raising expenses and reducing the revenue available for employment and educational services.
Where possible, items that are placed on the sales floor but do not sell are recycled and sold for salvage.
When Goodwill receives items that it cannot sell, such as broken, torn or damaged items or products that have been recalled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, we are forced to dispose of those items for the safety of our customers. The fees for disposal of these items raise our expenses and reduce the revenue available for employment and educational services.
Items Goodwill accepts
Your local trash pick-up usually can remove items on their “heavy pick-up” days. Gas tanks should be removed from grills and other gas-powered equipment and disposed of at a toxic waste site before these items can be picked up. Call your local trash pick-up service for details and pick-up information.
Household paint products can be taken to Tox-Drop at 7400 N. Lafayette Road, Indianapolis, on the first or third Saturdays of the month or to Tox-Drop at 4925 S. Shelby St., Indianapolis, on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month. For hours or more information about either Tox-Drop location, call (317) 327-4TOX.
Car batteries can be dropped off at Ace Battery, 2166 Bluff Road, Indianapolis. Ace Battery does not accept nickel cadium batteries. For hours or more information, call (317) 786-2717
Regrettably, there isn’t much chance of retrieving items that are donated accidentally.
If an accidental donation can be found, Goodwill is happy to return it. Donors may wish to call the manager of the store where they made the donation. If the donation was made recently, it might not be too late to locate the item in the store.
If your place of business would like to make a donation, Goodwill will gladly work with you to make arrangements for pick-up and transportation. Goodwill accepts commercial donations, such as clothing, office supplies, furniture and other bulk items.
Making a commercial donation to Goodwill provides your business with a tax deduction for the value of the donated items, eliminates and saves on the cost of product storage and recycles the items. For Goodwill, it becomes valued merchandise in Goodwill businesses and further supports Goodwill’s employment and educational services.
To make a commercial donation, contact Jerry Jamison at (317) 524-4551 or e-mail.
To make your donation process go smoothly and to ensure that you are donating items Goodwill can sell in its stores, here are some tips for checking the items you plan to donate:
- Check your items before donating to make sure all are items you want to give to Goodwill.
- Cross reference Goodwill’s convenient online list of items we can accept.
- Check pockets of clothing for jewelry, money and other valuable items that you might not want to donate.
- Separate clothing into different bags/boxes than household items.
- Check to ensure that items you are donating are not soiled, stained or ripped.
- Test electrical equipment and battery-operated items to make sure they work.
- Include all pieces and parts to games, toys and household appliances.