‘Resources for realtors: how to care for your clients & the environment’

Guest blog post by Kathy & Lauren Gordon, The Gordons

What benefits your clients is key!

Preparing them for the sale of their home is our first priority in Real Estate. Sometimes preparation requires us to dig into our database for recommendations. Often we’re asked, “What do I do with stuff that is in the way, dated or just won’t be making the move?” 

This is where an agent’s recommendation can serve a greater purpose and help our community.

Here’s our Top 5 resources for realtors of places to ethically dispose of items your clients no longer need or use.

1. Lowe’s Recycling Centres provides consumers with alternatives for disposing of waste or harmful household items – such as batteries, paint etc. Click here to find a Lowe’s Reycling Centre near you.
2. Clothes can take up a lot of room. If you’re cleaning out your closet and drawers keep in mind that the Canadian Diabetes Association has hundreds of Drop Boxes across the GTA. Click here to find a Clothesline Dropbox near you.
3. Furniture banks help provide a fresh start to many including the formerly homeless, those escaping abusive situations, and newcomer families/refugees. Most furniture banks provide a pickup service (for a fee) for gently used furniture & household items. Click here for a list of furniture banks across Canada.
4. If you have tools laying around in your garage, basement or shed think of Tool Libraries. The Toronto Tool Library is a growing community that will take your tool donations and share them with their membership base to use for home projects. A great way to keep tools out of the landfill and save money by sharing. Click here to find locations and operating hours.
5. Utilize tools such as freecycle.org, which helps its users find secondhand items as well as advertise them. This helps prevent needless waste.

Your recommendation goes a long way. Our business can be hard. Everyday stresses of deals, offers, showings etc. make seeing the big picture difficult. Passing along information and resources to a client looking to offload gently used items is one small step in creating a better community. When you avoid dumping items you no longer need in landfills you help create a brighter future. Donating and recycling items can help those in need get back on their feet and protect our environment.

Any other resources for realtors that you know about? Please make reference to them in the comment section or email us at comments@furniturebank.org.

Click here for more suggested places to donate your old stuff.