What Happens to Items That Don’t Sell at Thrift Stores?

Stacks of various plates and kitchenware on a table — Credit:
paula sierra / Getty Images

Most thrift stores only keep donated items on the sales floor for a limited time—around four weeks at Goodwill and up to about two months at smaller shops.
Unsold items are rarely thrown away immediately; they are often sent to outlet stores to be sold by the pound, listed online, or eventually sold in bulk to salvage buyers for resale, recycling, or repurposing.
Smaller thrift stores may re-donate unsold goods to shelters or other organizations, and items that still can't be reused are taken to specialized recycling centers in an effort to keep as much as possible out of landfills.

Whether you're decluttering your home for spring or have a few items that are no longer useful to you, the most eco-friendly thing to do is to donate unwanted items instead of tossing them in the trash. Donating to thrift stores helps keep items out of landfills and gives them a chance to be reused and loved by someone else.

But, inevitably, there will be items on a thrift store floor that won't sell. What happens to these things if the goal is to reduce waste and keep items out of landfills? We spoke with experts at Goodwill and other smaller thrift stores to learn what happens to items that don't sell.

Cynthia Traxler, a thrift store volunteer and founder of the site Review-Reuse-Repair.com
A spokesperson for Goodwill Industries International

How Long Items Stay on the Thrift Store Floor

When you donate your unneeded items to a thrift store, the hope is that they'll sell quickly. But how long will a store keep your item out for shoppers to discover?

Well, it depends on the type and size of the store. For instance, at most Goodwill stores, items are typically on the floor for about four weeks, a spokesperson for Goodwill told us. “Most items sell during their first two weeks on the shelf," the spokesperson says. "Some Goodwill stores use a colored tag model that will reduce the price of an item the longer it sits on the sales floor.”

Smaller, local stores may keep items out a bit longer, depending on the space they have and the type of item they're working with. “For things like clothing and household goods that get donated on a regular basis, things tend to stay on the sales floor for about two months,” says Cynthia Traxler, a thrift store volunteer and founder of the site Review-Reuse-Repair.com. “Special or unusual items may be allowed more time.” She notes that timing is dependent on how full the shop and back storage room are—if the shop is running out of space, they'll look to move items faster.

Sometimes, Goodwill lists unique items on its online marketplace for more visibility. The marketplace, ShopGoodwill.com, uses an auction format, with auction windows that stay open for eight days. Items listed on the marketplace typically sell faster than those in stores. “Because ShopGoodwill.com aggregates items from Goodwill organizations across the country into one searchable hub, an item that might not catch the eye of an in-person thrifter can be found by a collector across the country in minutes,” the Goodwill spokesperson says.

What Happens When Items Don’t Sell

But what happens to those items that don't sell past that four-to-eight-week window? For larger chain thrifts like Goodwill, items go through a process once it's time for them to leave the main store's floor. Even when items leave the main floor, these goods are still kept in circulation with the intention of keeping them out of a landfill.

“After four weeks, in most Goodwill regions, donated goods will be sent to a Goodwill outlet where product is sold by the pound,” says the Goodwill spokesperson. Goodwill outlet stores are wholesale stores that sell donated items at even lower prices than the retail stores.

And when items don't sell at the outlets, they move further down the pipeline. “After exhausting all of those channels, the remaining product is sold in bulk to salvage buyers who sort the materials into hundreds of categories for resale, recycling, or rags/wipers, depending on the needs of their own network of buyers,” says the Goodwill spokesperson.

For smaller local thrift stores that can't send items to another outlet, donated goods are actually re-donated in some cases. “Sometimes we have arrangements with other organizations to take the things we can't sell,” says Traxler. “We also have volunteers that sort out stuff like clothing and personal care products, and they bring them to the women's domestic abuse shelter or the homeless shelter.”

For items that can't be re-donated, Traxler brings them to her local CHaRM (Center for Hard to Recycle Materials). “I literally fill up my van with metal items, styrofoam, broken toys, mop buckets (durable plastics), and non-working appliances,” she says. “We do everything we can think of to keep stuff out of the landfill.”

How to Help Your Donated Items Sell Quickly

The goal of donating items is to keep them out of landfills and give them a second (or third!) life. To ensure that your donated items have the best chance of selling, you will want to do these things:

Clean the item and ensure it is free of stains.
Ensure the item is in working condition and not damaged, broken, or ripped.
If you have the original packaging or tags, include them with the donation.

By far, the most important thing is making sure the item is clean, so make it a habit to always clean items before donating them to a thrift store. “Dirty or stained things may get priced 'As Is' for about half of the normal price, or we just won't put it on the sales floor and have to figure out how to get rid of it,” says Traxler.