Okay. Right after Christmas, there’s this flurry of gift returns, right? The sweater that’s the wrong color or size, the gadget she hasn’t the faintest intention of ever using, and so on. Of course not everything can be returned, and many folks feel guilty about doing so.

Then there’s the perfectly-good items that get stashed away in place of the new and highly-coveted gifts: the old stroller replaced by the jazzy new model, the lamp that has to make way for the one she really wanted…. and people feel guilty (and cluttered!) in those cases too.

How about if your shop could do something about it?

Think: you’re helping your clientele out with excess possessions; you’re assisting in the recycling aspect; you’re addressing exactly what they’re thinking about this week: “What do I do with X? It’s too nice to throw away/ I appreciate the thought if not the gift/ someone would really like this.” That’s cool.

What more could you do? That would be good for your community, the earth… and a heck of a media story as well?

Maybe you could make “Consignment Helps Charities Week” out of it all. Or “Resale Realizes Need Days.”

You encourage consignors, sellers, donors to bring in what they don’t need… but others might… for you to put into the consignment accounts of local charities. You have on hand, tax slips for each of those charities. So Joan, who never cooks, can donate the spring-form pan set she got from Uncle Fester, to the account of the homeless shelter. And the homeless shelter gets the proceeds.

It’s a win-win-win: Joan feels better that the gift, rather than going unused and cluttering up her kitchen cupboard, is magically turned into cash for blankets and towels for the shelter. The shelter gets the money. The earth doesn’t groan under the weight of unwanted, unused goods. Some lucky baker snags those spring-form pans he’s always wanted. Your consignment or resale shop gets some feel-good media stories out of it.

(I think that’s 5 wins…)

You can bribe donors to participate if you feel they won’t be enthused about helping their communities, but keep it small and in tune with helping their neighbors in need with stuff they don’t need. Maybe your shop will donate money for each item going into a charity consignment account? Maybe each item donated into these accounts gets a chance at a drawing for something great… like an iPad? Maybe all donors will be invited to come to a Preview Party of all the items (and first dibs!), if you want to set them aside and have a January 15 “unveiling”?

Now would be the perfect time, of course, to line up those consignment accounts for your charities if you’ve been meaning to do so but haven’t gotten around to it.