The pandemic gave us a lot of time to clean out our homes and donate to Goodwill, the Salvation Army, and other thrift stores. But the quality of those donated items hasn’t always been great. For example, Goodwill says they’ve had a large amount of broken furniture and dolls, among other things dropped off at their stores.

According to Yahoo!, the cost of throwing out broken things has hurt the mission of thrift stores to the point where they’re asking us to stop. Yes, it actually costs them a lot of money to dispose of the garbage that a lot of people bring to them. Goodwill doesn’t repair or clean the items. The condition you bring them in is what goes on the sales floor.

The Salvation Army is now only accepting “high quality, new and gently used items.” Goodwill may soon follow suit. The key is to bring the stores items that you would want to buy. Another way to think of it is, if you wouldn’t give it to a judgy relative, trash it instead of donating it. You can find more thrift store donation do’s and don’ts here.