To Donate or To Sell?

Selling or Donating items is something that many people face every year.  You go through your clothes and items to try to purge your closet.  This helps you start fresh every season, and you can make room for new clothes and items you have bought.  However, do you sell your items or do you donate them?  Learn more in this blog excerpt about the pros and cons of both.  You can also find out more information at Closet Factory.


Now that you have decluttered the closets, garage and kid’s rooms, it’s time to decide what to do with all the stuff that you don’t want. Do you give everything to a local charity or do you sell it? If you don’t need the money then the most obvious answer would be to donate it all. But in today’s economy it can be hard to give away all your stuff.
There are five questions you can ask yourself to help decide if you should donate, sell or recycle an item.

1. How much can you sell the item for? Are similar items already for sale?
   Browse popular websites like amazon.com, craigslist.org and ebay.com to see how much others are selling the product for.  Keep in mind if other people are selling the same item, you will need to list your product at a competitive price to sell.
2. How much time do you want to invest in selling the item?
   Before making the decision to sell, think about how much time you have and are willing to put into it. Will you make the time to post the item on craigslist.org or will you be able to ship the item when someone buys it on amazon.com? This is a big deciding factor for me, if nobody in the house is willing to take the time to post it on a resell site there is no point in keeping it around.
3. Are you willing to take the time to ship the item?
   Keep shipping costs in mind when posting stuff on amazon.com and ebay.com. Amazon provides you a flat fee for shipping which is often less than the cost of shipping the item. So keep that in mind when pricing your items.
4. Is the item in good condition?
   Only sell items that are in good working condition. If you a selling locally then the buyers will want to test out the product before they buy. If you use an online reseller like amazon.com, you stand the risk of the product being returned.
5. Is it taking up valuable space?
   If space is an issue then you may want to donate or recycle the item quickly. We have several items in our garage that my husband was supposed to be selling however they are still there three months later taking up space. If you want to clear stuff out quickly, you may want to call a local service to have the items picked up.

When we moved over the summer we did a combination of all three. We sold high-end items like electronics, strollers, baby equipment, and appliances.  We donated clothes and toys that the kids outgrew and trashed and recycled broken and damaged items. Keep in mind that most donation services will not accept used mattresses and furniture however; you can call the city and ask for bulk item pickup service.

We Are Penn State!

Penn State is going for it's third wrestling title in a row starting today.  Junior David Taylor may be taking on three time champion from Cornell Kyle Drake in the final match.  The match is being held in Des Moines.  Keep reading to learn more about the title fight, and you can find out more information through USA Today.

Penn State begins its pursuit this week of a third straight wrestling national title, but that daunting quest might be overshadowed by the hype over a marquee matchup that could cap the NCAA championships.

If Nittany Lions junior David Taylor defends his individual title at 165 pounds, he would likely have to beat Cornell three-time champion Kyle Dake in the final.

Dake won his third title at 157 pounds last year, after winning the two years before at 149 and 141. He's the only wrestler in NCAA history to win three championships at three weights. He's trying to become just the third four-time champion in a sport that's been crowning champions since 1928.

The action starts Thursday in Des Moines. The potential Taylor-Dake showdown is so anticipated that the NCAA — in an unprecedented move — announced that it would start the championship finals at 174 pounds and end at 165 pounds.

That means Taylor and Dake would hit the mat last — if they last that far.

But odds are good that they will. Taylor (26-1) was last year's winner of the Hodge Trophy, wrestling's version of the Heisman Trophy. Dake is 32-0 this season with 18 falls.

"When you see an MMA (card) or boxing, they save the biggest bouts for last," Penn State coach Cael Sanderson said. "I think that's what they're trying to do. I can understand that."

Taylor lost to Dake 3-2 in overtime in the championship finals of the Southern Scuffle Tournament on Jan. 2, and by a point in a November exhibition. He seemed to embrace the significance of the showdown.

"I think it's great for the sport," Taylor said. "You want to wrestle the best guys. You want to wrestle the best guys in the national tournament. You want to win matches that you're going to be remembered for. That's the kind of match that you win that people will remember."

It might also be just the kind of buzz that wrestling could use after the sport was voted out of the Olympics by the International Olympic Committee.

Sanderson, an Olympic champion in 2004, has been an outspoken critic of the move. He and wrestlers worldwide have mobilized to try to persuade the IOC to reverse course.

"Fans are out there. ... You've got presidents of countries fighting for this. That shows you the importance around the world," Sanderson said.

Right now, he said, he's concentrating his efforts into his own team.

"I'm just trying to do the best we can with our program now and do the best we can with the position we hold," Sanderson said. "I hope that's what every other college coach is doing right now, too, is just building their program up."

Just don't call Penn State's quest for a third team title a "three-peat."

"That's not coming from our staff," he said. "We want to win nationals this year. ... Everything in the past is great, but we celebrated that already. It's time to do something else."

Besides Taylor, junior Ed Ruth is looking to defend his title at 174 pounds, while senior Quentin Wright is also looking for a second career crown. After winning at 184 two seasons ago, Wright lost in the finals last year.

"They're not defending anything, but there's a big difference between a one-time national champion and a two-time national champion," Sanderson said, "and they have an opportunity to win a second national championship."

A Happy Valley Documentary

 A Happy Valley feature length documentary will be premiering at the end of this year in Penn State.  This feature film shows the world what Happy Valley is about, and the qualities that make this one of the best Universities in the world.  Read more about the documentary below, and you can find more information at Happy Valley.

365 Days: A Year in Happy Valley is a feature-length documentary will explore the community that is and surrounds Penn State as it seeks to move on past the events that shattered the happy-go-lucky community of State College.

365 Days in not an analysis of innocence or guilt, fair or unfair. It is a look into the science of how perfectly reasonable human beings are capable of being unreasonable to the point of carelessness. The film walks away from absolutes and seeks to understand why we allow ourselves to be conformists, why we follow the unreasoned thought, why we join cults and commit ourselves to a destructive path, even when we are conscious of doing so. The film uses a study on human conformity as its framework and, in an effort to draw a wider range of viewers, takes a critical look at when and how the ‘herd mentality’ is commonly formed and destroyed.

All the while, the film watches Happy Valley and the town of State College for the period of one year, beginning with the kickoff of the 2012 football season, watching the town and its people embrace the best qualities of the human spirit. In the end, the film aims to show how people from all backgrounds, galvanized by tragic events, can do great things.


The film will be premiered Christmas Day, 2013, in State College and across Pennsylvania.
We’re thrilled there are so many ways for you to get involved during the year – from liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter, signing up for email updates, or donating money to help fund the project. We encourage you to engage with the film in every way you can as it develops into the true story of the State College community.