donation guide

Thank you for your interest in donating! Before loading up your car, please review our list of accepted items.

We are located at 10 Sunnen Drive, Maplewood, MO 63143. Our warehouse docks are open for drop-offs every Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. We are also open the first Saturday of each month from 9 a.m. to noon. Please check our website or social media pages for holiday and weather closures.

When you arrive at our building, follow the signs directing you to pull around to the side of the building where our dock doors are located. A Home Sweet Home staff member or volunteer will greet you, assist with unloading your vehicle, and inspect your furniture donations.

Please note that our staff and volunteers reserve the right to decline donations that are not on our list of accepted items or that do not meet our quality standards. This helps ensure we can provide safe, clean, and functional furnishings to the families we serve.

We accept: 

• Twin, full, and queen size mattresses, ONLY if they are in like-new, pristine condition.
• Twin, full, and queen box springs in good condition.
• Fully collapsible metal bed rails. Please refer to our bed foundation guide. 

Unfortunately, due to limited capacity, we cannot accept ANY other type of bed frame: no headboards, footboards, slats, trundles, cribs, sleigh beds, four-posters, bunk beds, etc. We also cannot accept king-size beds, adjustable / powered beds, or air mattresses. 

We recommend reaching out two to three weeks before your desired pickup date, though we can often get pickups scheduled sooner. Availability varies based on your location and quantity of items. We generally cannot offer same-day or next-day pickups. 

Once you submit your request, we will do our best to respond within one business day. Sometimes, it may take up to two or three business days.

If you need a specific date, please write that into your notes when you submit your pickup request, and we will do our best to accommodate your schedule. (Please note: we do not operate on weekends). 

After the pickup request is submitted, a team member will reach out about scheduling. Your pickup appointment will be narrowed down to a three-hour window of time. During that window, our movers will contact you to let you know when they are on the way.

Our pickup zone is a 25-mile radius from our warehouse in Maplewood, MO – excluding Illinois. (We won’t bore you with all the details, but the department of transportation requires special interstate licensing when crossing state lines. We hope to service some Illinois cities soon!) 

We pick up from houses, apartment complexes, senior living facilities, storage units, offices, businesses, and commercial warehouses. However, all furniture must be on the first floor – no second stories or basements, including walk-out basements – unless an elevator is available. Our movers are not expected to navigate interior stairs when completing a pickup. A few exterior steps are okay.

Please email your contact info, pickup address, and photos to donate@homesweethomestl.org. This will expedite the scheduling process. If you prefer to communicate via text message, you can text Kevin, the donations coordinator, at 314-200-5028.

Outdoor and garage pick-ups are free of charge. If our movers have to enter a building to collect your furniture, we charge a fee of $35. Because entering buildings takes more time and incurs more risk, this nominal pick-up fee helps offset our insurance and labor costs.

Tips for our movers are appreciated, but never expected!

We give our furniture directly to people in need, rather than reselling it. For this reason, people are often surprised that we have high standards for our incoming donations. Many have tried to tell us that “someone with nothing should be happy with whatever they receive.” We respectfully disagree.

As an organization, we do care deeply about diverting items from the landfill wherever possible – but our first priority, evident in our mission statement, is extending our clients a sense of dignity and pride. We aim to fill our warehouse with a collection of great-looking, quality furnishings, because we want our clients to feel considered, and like they are truly getting a fresh start. 

Due to our limited warehouse space and staff, we have to restrict the scope of items that we stock and deliver to our clients. Unfortunately, this sometimes means turning down nice, usable pieces of furniture (like desks and dining buffets) to ensure that we leave room on our warehouse floor for a variety of essential items (like dressers and sofas). 

We do not have the resources of larger organizations with offsite warehouse storage, and we cannot afford to redistribute incomplete or unwanted items to other agencies. For this reason, what we accept has to fit into specific parameters: items that 1.  Fall within the scope of what our organization stocks and delivers, 2. can be used as-is, without installation or assembly, 3. are a suitable size for our clients, who often live in small homes, and 4. can be safely delivered by our moving team to second and third-story apartments. We greatly value our movers’ safety and time, and they reserve the right to reject certain items if they are very difficult to transport. 

No, sorry. Every trip to the landfill costs us hundreds of dollars. We cannot accept any items that do not suit our specific organization and mission. We also cannot allow drop-off donors to put unwanted items in our warehouse dumpsters. We appreciate your understanding!