A Very Short Post Explaining How I Finally Got Rid of My Mattress Foundation

Thanks for all of your advice!

Three weeks ago today I asked you what I should do with an unused mattress foundation (or “box spring”) that had come with this new mattress I bought in February.

What Should I Do With This Mattress Foundation?

This week I finally put all of your good advice into practice.

I started with my local Buy Nothing group, who… didn’t want it.

Then I checked out Goodwill, since there’s a drop-off location a few blocks from my apartment, but Goodwill does not accept mattresses or box springs. Neither does Value Village.

Then I looked for local homeless or domestic violence shelters that might take furniture donations. I found a list of centers and shelters in Seattle that accepted donations, only to learn that many of them had closed since the list was made.

I found a different list of “places to donate household goods” maintained at Seattle.gov, but many of those organizations had closed as well. The organizations that were going strong, like Big Brothers Big Sisters or Habitat for Humanity, didn’t want mattresses or box springs. (I get it. Bedbugs.)

Then I finally decided to check out the Salvation Army, which I know has its issues, but… they do help people. (To quote Forbes: “[The Salvation Army] might be an organisation perhaps a little religious for some tastes but there’s absolutely no doubt that they do good work and do it well.”)

And they do accept box springs. They also provide pickup services, and they make it really easy to set up a pickup online.

So they’ll be picking up my mattress foundation two weeks from today, on June 22.

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