Cartoon by Gabbie Evans

MADI MCGUIRE | OPINION COLUMNIST | mjmcguir@butler.edu

Spring time means the end of the school year for students.

The end of the year brings summer fun, warm weather and, the less luxurious factor, cleaning out rooms to move back home for the summer.

If you are anything like me, I started off with a considerable amount of things in my room and around my apartment.

However, I failed to take anything home over the course of the year. I just seemed to add to my long list of belongings every time I went home.

Now, I have too many clothes for my closet, too much random junk on my desk, books I no longer need and ample memorabilia.

I want to provide you with some helpful tips on how to declutter and pack up your room.

First, I start with pictures, books and stuff that sits on my desk like my globe and other trinkets. These are easy to box up and condense first to make space on your desk for later.

The things I do not want to keep, I either throw away or they are placed in one of two boxes: the giveaway box or the sell box.

You can give away these things to younger siblings who might need them for school, Goodwill or your friends who may want them.

I always sell my items on eBay or the Indianapolis Garage Sale Facebook page.

I pack up my pictures, saved tickets and programs that I kept in shoe boxes. I label the year the memorabilia was collected, so I always know where to find it and it isn’t scattered anywhere else.

Then, I move onto clothes and shoes, which have the same process. I usually go through drawers first and then make piles of what I want to throw away, keep and give away. I fold the clothes from my drawers tightly to fit in suitcases and my laundry hampers.

I then go through my closet and the hanging clothes. I put them in trash bags by cutting a hole at the top of the bag and slipping the hanger through. The trash bags keep the clothes together and makes sure they don’t wrinkle.

As far as the giveaway pile goes, I take a large amount to Plato’s Closet. This store will sort through your clothes and pick what they want to keep and will pay you for what they keep.

Another good way to sell your clothes is to make an Instagram account for your closet; take pictures of the clothes you want to sell and follow all of your friends. You can have them pay you with cash in-person or they can Venmo you.

Venmo is an app for phones where you can link your credit and debit cards in order to virtually pay other people.

Alternatives, again, are eBay and garage sale Facebook pages, where you can list and sell your stuff for free. There is also an app called Depop where you can make a free account to sell your things; it makes the communicating and shipping processes super simple, and you won’t be limited to just people in this area.

I, personally, will be donating clothes to Thrifty Threads which is run by the Julian Center. The Julian Center helps women and children looking for shelter and basic necessities to live. When you donate to Thrifty Threads, you are helping victims of trafficking, domestic violence and many other women who are in need.

Another great place to donate is Dress for Success. They accept gently used business and business casual clothing in order to help women get a fresh start and be able to dress presentably for interviews and jobs.

Goodwill and its sister store, Vintage Vogue, are always options as well. Goodwill is a place to take all items you do not want to keep including books, furniture and clothing.

When you go through your pantry and discover any non-perishables, such as canned and boxed foods, you can donate it to places like the Julian Center or, a closer option, the Boulevard Place Food Pantry.

For everything else you pack up, you can call any local Lowes, Walmart or Meijer and ask for spare boxes to pick up. This will make your moving easier.

As for books, you can always sell back to the Butler bookstore or you can sell on Chegg- a website for textbook rentals- Amazon and eBay.

I hope that your spring cleaning is not too stressful, and you are able to declutter a little to clear some space for new clothes and school supplies next year.

Not only is it refreshing to declutter and maybe make some money off of your unwanted things, but donating is also very rewarding.