We all have those items we keep around the house – everywhere from the garage to the basement to the attic – even though we have no use for them, simply because we don’t feel right about throwing them out when there’s still life left in them. That’s why we’ve compiled this list below to help you determine the best place(s) to donate your household items regardless of where you live across Canada. Not only will you keep more items out of landfill, but your gently-used items will also receive new life and assist people who are in need.

Donate Furniture

Salvation Army

The Salvation Army – As part of its stewardship of the Earth, The Salvation Army Thrift Store offers a unique way to serve through retail and recycling by helping divert waste from landfills. The organization encourages the donation of gently-used clothing, textiles and household items such as furniture. Once received, donated items are sorted and reviewed by production teams to give them the best chance of a second life through retail and recycling. Items deemed saleable end up on the sales floor where they’re sold at affordable prices to raise funds for local Salvation Army programs and services. Items not sold in store are transformed by local recyclers into industrial rags, insulation material, and scrap metal to be used for cars, computers, etc.

Red Door Family Shelter

Red Door Family Shelter – Toronto’s Red Door Family Shelter provides emergency shelter and support for women and children affected by domestic abuse, families experiencing a housing crisis, and refugee claimants with nowhere else to turn. When a family is ready to leave the shelter, the Moving Program provides them with basic furniture and household items to help them get started, allowing them to save money for food, clothing and other necessities, and helping them settle into a place to call home. High-priority items being accepted include: table and chair sets, dining hutches and sideboards; chests of drawers, dressers and night tables; coffee and end tables; shelving units and desks; and TVs (no later than 2010 models).

Habitat for Humanity

Habitat for Humanity – Everything available at 100+ Habitat ReStores across Canada has been donated by members of the community, local businesses or large corporations. Whether you’re planning to clean out your garage or need a solution for overstock product, ReStores can help. Donations may be designated to local Habitats across Canada for homebuilding projects, international building programs, or the Indigenous Housing Partnership. Undesignated donations are directed wherever they’ll have the greatest impact. Sometimes this means they’re used to help build capacity within Habitat Canada so that they can better support local Habitats, raise money and, in turn, support an even greater number of families across Canada and internationally. 

Furniture Bank

Furniture Bank – Redistributes gently-used furniture and housewares from donors in the community to families and individuals experiencing furniture poverty. Revenues generated through the furniture removal service, which is run as a social enterprise, funds its charitable activities that strive to end furniture poverty – one sofa and one family at a time. Furniture Bank’s team and volunteers rescue repair and refurbish lightly-damaged items that would otherwise end up in landfill, and make them available to clients – including women and children leaving shelters, the formerly homeless, and newcomers and refugees to Canada.

JRCC Furniture Depot

JRCC Furniture Depot – Non-profit program in the Greater Toronto Area that aims to provide free furniture to families and individuals in need. Donations of gently-used furniture from the surrounding community are accepted. Inventory includes many essential furniture items for establishing new homes such as tables, chairs, desks, mattresses and sofas. Collaborates with 60+ social services agencies across York Region and Toronto. These agencies work with a variety of vulnerable populations across the GTA, such as new immigrants to Canada, people with chronic illness or disabilities, and people suffering from domestic violence. Providing free furniture to these clients gives them an opportunity to re-establish their lives with basic necessities.

Just Junk

Just Junk – Item removal company that partners with local charities and recyclers to extend the life of unwanted items through donation and recycling. Partners include Goodwill,Habitat for Humanity,Red Cross,Salvation Army,Unicef andUnited Way. With locations in Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, BC and Nova Scotia, they will remove virtually anything – except hazardous waster – for a fee. 

Donate Household Goods

Elizabeth Fry Society

Elizabeth Fry Society – Provides help for women and youth who are, or may be at risk of, coming into conflict with the law. This includes a number of services and programs developed especially for women and youth to proactively prevent crime, lower repeat offence rates and successfully integrate people back into the community. Accept donations for Hygiene Kits – unused and unopened items such as soap, shampoo, conditioner, brushes, combs, deodorant, dental hygiene products, lotion, hand sanitizer and feminine hygiene products. Contact your local Elizabeth Fry Society for full donation details.

Donate Clothing

New Circles

New Circles – Not-for-profit, grass-roots agency provides basic necessities to those living in poverty, including clothing for low-income individuals living in Toronto (with a focus on residents of Cedar Ridge, Heron Park, Keelesdale Eglinton West, Thorncliffe Park, Flemingdon Park, Victoria Village, Taylor-Massey and Oakridge). GLOW (Gently Loved Outfits to Wear) is a free service that provides quality clothing to help those with limited income meet their clothing needs. Clothing program simulates a retail experience, stocking clothing for men, women and children, including specialty items such as maternity wear and plus sizes. Also provides clothing to Mount Sinai Hospital’s emergency ward every month to ensure that patients are adequately clothed upon leaving the hospital.

Donation Town

Donation Town – Online resource for donating clothing and other household goods to charity. Provides an online directory of charities that offer donation pickup service. Donation Town is free for all charities and donors. Canadian donation pickup services are available in Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, BC, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador.

Donate Food

Food Banks Canada

Food Banks Canada – National charitable organization dedicated to helping Canadians living with food insecurity. Supports a network of provincial associations, affiliate food banks and food agencies that work at the community level to relieve hunger. Focused on maximizing collective impact, strengthening local capacity and reducing the need for food banks. Both non-perishable foods and monetary donations can be made to supply food for those in need.

Where to Donate By Province

Alberta

Donate Furniture & Household Goods in Alberta

• The Canadian Diabetes Association – National Diabetes Trust (formerly known as Clothesline) is a charitable clothing and small household goods collection service, and the social enterprise of Diabetes Canada. Schedule free pickup online or find a donation bin. You can also see online which items are being accepted via pickup or donation bins.
• Habitat for Humanity ReStore – Everything available at Habitat ReStores has been donated by members of the community, local businesses or large corporations. Whether you’re planning to clean out your garage or need a solution for overstock product, ReStores can help. Donations may be designated to local Habitats across Canada for homebuilding projects, international building programs, or the Indigenous Housing Partnership. Undesignated donations are directed wherever they’ll have the greatest impact. Sometimes this means they’re used to help build capacity within Habitat Canada so that they can better support local Habitats, raise money and, in turn, support an even greater number of families across Canada and internationally.
• Interfaith Furniture – Provides furniture for newcomers and those in need as a fresh start. Schedule free pickup online or drop donations off at the store during business hours. Donation details available online.
• Find Edmonton – Works with 17 housing-focused community agencies to furnish homes with donations through the Housing First program. All furnishings are donated by community members for use by community members and all proceeds stay in the community. You can shop online for items as well as find retail and donation centres. Donation details available online.
• Calgary Drop-In and Rehab Centre – Funded by the Calgary Homeless Foundation, the Free Goods Program provides gently-used goods, like furniture, kitchenware, clothing, computers, mobile phones, small appliances, books and more, to low- and no-income Calgarians who are building a life for themselves and their families. Donation details available online.
• Goodwill Alberta – Mission and support programs connect Albertans with disabilities to meaningful employment. When you donate to Goodwill, you also contribute to reducing communities’ environmental footprints. Donating ensures that items aren’t thrown away in landfills but, instead, they’re re-sold in thrift stores to people who can use them. Donation details available online.

Donate Clothing in Alberta

• Calgary Donations – Helps fund the work of MOMS Canada, a non-profit organization helping single moms and their children. Collects donations when you schedule a free pickup. Accepts gently-used clothing, shoes and accessories. Donation details available online.
• Inclusion Alberta – Turns used goods into much-needed funds by selling them to Value Village. These funds are then used to directly support children and adults with developmental disabilities, and their families. In addition to supporting Inclusion Alberta, unwanted merchandise is recycled, keeping it out of landfill. You can donate by booking a home pickup, bringing them to a donation bin or organizing a clothing drive. Donation details available online.

Donate Food in Alberta

• Calgary Food Bank – City’s main charitable food hub and the most accessible food bank in Calgary serving families, individuals and organizations. Relies solely on the generous support of the community. You can donate food, funds or host an event. Donation details available online.
• Edmonton Food Bank – Provides food and services to empower individuals struggling with food security and poverty. You can donate food, funds, sponsor a hamper and more. Donation details available online.
• RescueFood.ca – The Leftovers Foundation is one of Canada’s largest tech-enabled food rescue charities. Reshaping how communities fight poverty, reduce food waste and save the environment. Donation details available online.

British Columbia

Donate Furniture & Household Goods in BC

• Habitat for Humanity – Everything available at Habitat ReStores has been donated by members of the community, local businesses or large corporations. Whether you’re planning to clean out your garage or need a solution for overstock product, ReStores can help. Donations may be designated to local Habitats across Canada for homebuilding projects, international building programs, or the Indigenous Housing Partnership. Undesignated donations are directed wherever they’ll have the greatest impact. Sometimes this means they’re used to help build capacity within Habitat Canada so that they can better support local Habitats, raise money and, in turn, support an even greater number of families across Canada and internationally.
• Helping Families in Need Society – Small group of dedicated volunteers who pick up and distribute used household items to women in transition, single moms, single dads and seniors on income assistance, new immigrant families, refugees and needy families in the community. You can schedule a free pickup or drop off donations at the facility. Donation details available online.
• HomeStart Foundation – Serves people in need from all faiths, social and cultural backgrounds. Clients are referred to services by active member agencies. Partners work with refugees, women’s transition shelters, youth, families in crisis, and mental health and other disabilities. Pickup furniture for a minimum $50 donation. Donation details available online.

Donate Clothing in BC

• Covenant House Vancouver – Serves all youth, with absolute respect and unconditional love, to help youth experiencing homelessness, and protect and safeguard all youth in need. Donation details available online.
• Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre – Provides a safe space exclusively for self-identified women and their children. High levels of violence, homelessness and poverty characterize the Downtown Eastside community. Women and children are particularly vulnerable to exploitation, injustice and injury. Provides practical support to 500+ women, children and seniors daily. As well as providing a refuge and shelter from conditions of poverty and violence, the centre also provides basic necessities including hot meals and free clothing. Donation details available online. 
• Union Gospel Mission – Provides meals, shelter, outreach and chaplaincy services that relieve suffering and renew hope, life recovery programs that offer freedom from addictive lifestyles, education and job preparation that equip for successful living, affordable housing that fosters community and personal contribution, and preventative programs that build healthy families. Donations can be dropped off at the thrift store. Free pickup also available. Donation details available online.
• Big Brothers Vancouver – Enable impactful mentoring relationships, where children and youth can discover their power and potential, in collaboration with local communities. Donations details available online.

Donate Food in BC

• Food Banks BC – Supports members through the provision of resources that provides growth and sustainability. This is achieved through the distribution of food and financial donations, providing access to training and capacity building programs, networking opportunities and the sharing of best practices. Donation details available online.
• Vancouver Food Bank – Provides healthy food to those in need and food support to 90+ community programs such as housing agencies, women and children’s shelters, and after school programs that, in turn, provide hot meals and snacks to thousands of people each week including those struggling with homelessness. Donation details available online.
• Vancouver Food Runners – Responds to the fact that 40%+ of food is wasted while one in nine are hungry. Bridges this disconnect with innovative technology (Vancouver Food Runners app powered by Food Rescue Hero) and a team of dedicated volunteer food drivers. Donation details available online.
• The Salvation Army – Programs and services includes providing community meals, 24-hour and overnight shelters, withdrawal management (detox), residential addiction treatment, a correctional halfway house, low-income housing, and much more. Support clients’ long-term goals through adult basic education, volunteer opportunities, training and job readiness programming. Food donation details available online. 
• Food Stash – Reduces environmental impact of food waste and bridges the food insecurity gap in the community. By rescuing good surplus food from suppliers, that would otherwise go to waste, food is redirected to local non-profits and food-insecure households throughout Vancouver. Donation details available online.
• Surrey Food Bank – Provides food to families living in Surrey and North Delta. Supplies nutritious food in a respectful and dignified environment. Connects clients to other community services as a means of helping them become self-sufficient. Donation details available online.

Quebec

Donate Furniture & Household Goods in Quebec

• Le Chaînon – Provides needed services to women 18+ including counseling, housing accommodations and improving living conditions. Thrift store sells clothing, furniture and home accessories at affordable prices from community donations. Donation details available online.
• Renaissance – Facilitates social and professional integration of those having difficulty entering the job market, while encouraging everyone to take concrete steps towards preserving the environment. To give and purchase at Renaissance means helping change the lives of thousands of people each year while also preserving the environment, thanks to the diversion of millions of kilos of clothing and household items away from landfills. Donation details available online.
• Boutique Les Petits Frères – Brings kindness, dignity, respect and joy to elderly people in Quebec. Affectionately referred to as Elder Friends, these once isolated seniors, aged 75 and up, can count on Little Brothers until the end of their lives. Programs help create a family for older women and men who find themselves alone in life. Fosters relationships between volunteers and Elder Friends by way of various celebrations throughout the year, long-term pairing program, vacation getaways and end-of-life commitment. Donation details available online.
• ReStore – Habitat pour l’Humanité – Everything available at Habitat ReStores has been donated by members of the community, local businesses or large corporations. Whether you’re planning to clean out your garage or need a solution for overstock product, ReStores can help. Donations may be designated to local Habitats across Canada for homebuilding projects, international building programs, or the Indigenous Housing Partnership. Undesignated donations are directed wherever they’ll have the greatest impact. Sometimes this means they’re used to help build capacity within Habitat Canada so that they can better support local Habitats, raise money and, in turn, support an even greater number of families across Canada and internationally.

Donate Clothing in Quebec

• Armée du Salut – As part of its stewardship of the Earth, The Salvation Army Thrift Store offers a unique way to serve through retail and recycling by helping divert waste from landfills. Encourages the donation of gently-used clothing, textiles and household items such as furniture. Once received, donated items are sorted and reviewed to give them the best chance of a second life through retail and recycling. Items deemed saleable end up on the sales floor where they’re sold at affordable prices to raise funds for local programs and services. Items not sold in store are transformed by local recyclers into industrial rags, insulation material, and scrap metal to be used for cars, computers, etc.
• Grands Frères Grandes Soeurs – Enables life-changing mentoring relationships to ignite power and potential in young people. Donations can be made in bins or through free pickup. Donation details available online.
• Accueil Bonneau – Accompanies homeless people or people at risk of homelessness in their daily lives by providing the basic necessities for a better quality of life and wellbeing on their path towards social reintegration and housing stability. Donation details available online.
• Dans la Rue – Helps homeless and at-risk youth through dedication, empathy and respect. Cares for their immediate needs and helps them acquire the skills and resources needed to lead more autonomous and rewarding lives. Donation details available online.

Donate Food in Quebec

• Moisson Montréal – Gathers food donations and basic products, and distribute them free of charge to community organizations to prevent hunger on the Island of Montreal. Donation details available online.
• Les Banques Alimentaires du Québec – Ensures the fair distribution of food between its member Moissons across Quebec, and the pooling of resources, expertise and information in order to better serve the needs of Quebecers who live in poverty and rely on community organizations for emergency food assistance. Donation details available inline.
• Club des Petits Déjeuners – Breakfast programs ensure that all students have reliable access to nutritious food in a safe and supportive environment, in order to positively impact health and learning. Donation details available online.

Ontario

Donate Furniture & Household Goods in Ontario

• Furniture Bank – Redistributes gently-used furniture and housewares from donors in the community to families and individuals experiencing furniture poverty. Revenues generated through the furniture removal service, which is run as a social enterprise, funds its charitable activities that strive to end furniture poverty – one sofa and one family at a time. Furniture Bank’s team and volunteers rescue repair and refurbish lightly-damaged items that would otherwise end up in landfill, and make them available to clients – including women and children leaving shelters, the formerly homeless, and newcomers and refugees to Canada.
• Habitat for Humanity – Everything available at Habitat ReStores has been donated by members of the community, local businesses or large corporations. Whether you’re planning to clean out your garage or need a solution for overstock product, ReStores can help. Donations may be designated to local Habitats across Canada for homebuilding projects, international building programs, or the Indigenous Housing Partnership. Undesignated donations are directed wherever they’ll have the greatest impact. Sometimes this means they’re used to help build capacity within Habitat Canada so that they can better support local Habitats, raise money and, in turn, support an even greater number of families across Canada and internationally.
• JRCC Furniture Depot – Non-profit program in the Greater Toronto Area that aims to provide free furniture to families and individuals in need. Donations of gently-used furniture from the surrounding community are accepted. Inventory includes many essential furniture items for establishing new homes such as tables, chairs, desks, mattresses and sofas. Collaborates with 60+ social services agencies across York Region and Toronto. These agencies work with a variety of vulnerable populations across the GTA, such as new immigrants to Canada, people with chronic illness or disabilities, and people suffering from domestic violence. Providing free furniture to these clients gives them an opportunity to re-establish their lives with basic necessities.

Donate Clothing in Ontario

• Oasis Clothing Bank – Oasis Addition Recovery Society is a non-profit organization in Toronto providing post-treatment employment-focused programs for people in recovery from drugs and alcohol. The work done is largely supported by the Oasis Clothing Bank. Donation bins can be found around the city at fire halls, community centres, Toronto Parking Authority lots, shopping centres and condominiums as well as local businesses. Free pickup can also be arranged. Donation details available online.
• Diabetes Canada – Clothing donations provide an investment in diabetes research, the opportunity for kids with type one diabetes and their families to attend D-Camps, support for prediabetics and diabetics, and the chance to divert textiles and household items from landfills. Free pickups available as well as donation bins. Donation details available online.
• Kidney Clothes – Transforms used clothing into kidney research and programs that help fight kidney disease. Free pickups available as well as donation bins. Donation details available online.
• Covenant House – Serves youth who are homeless, trafficked or at risk. Comprehensive youth-driven programming is centred on unconditional love, absolute respect and relentless engagement. Provides services for awareness, prevention and early intervention, housing and aftercare, health and wellbeing, and education and employment. Donation details available online.
• Horizons for Youth – Provides at-risk and homeless youth in Toronto with support, life-changing programs and a home for as long as they need. Donation details available online.

Donate Food in Ontario

• Feed Ontario – Provincial collective of hunger-relief organizations. Works with food banks, industry partners and local communities to end hunger and poverty by delivering fresh and healthy food, developing innovative programming, and driving change through research and advocacy. Donation details available online.
• Second Harvest – National food rescue charity with a dual mission of environmental protection and hunger relief. Redistributes nutritious, unsold food across Canada to charities, non-profits and Indigenous communities. Free essential service helps nourish people through school programs, seniors’ centres, food banks and regional food hubs. Donation details available online.
• Daily Bread – Provides food to nearly 200 food programs across Toronto with a fleet of five trucks. Free pickup available for food drives. Donation details available online.

Recycle Everything Else

Depending on your location, many household items can be recycled. Be sure to look at your local options before sending anything to landfill to help protect the environment and provide resources and materials where they’re needed most.

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