The Maine Agenda › Live in Maine
Where to Donate Used Goods in Greater Portland, Maine: Furniture, Clothes, and the Stuff Nobody Will Take
You cleaned out the basement, the spare room, or a parent's house, and now the good stuff is in a pile by the door. A couch, some lamps, three bags of clothes, a mattress that still has a lot of life in it. You do not want to throw it away. So you search for the donation bin, and the internet hands you a national junk-removal company that will charge you to haul it, a Yelp list padded with a Goodwill in Oregon, and a real estate agent's blog from four years ago. None of it tells you the one thing that matters: not every place takes every thing, and the place that takes your mattress is not the place that takes your clothes.
The trick is to stop asking "where is the donation drop-off" and start asking two questions about the item in your hands. First, what is it: furniture, clothing, general housewares, or something worn out and broken. Second, do you want it resold to fund a cause, or handed straight to a person who needs it tonight. Answer those and the right place picks itself. Here is how the Greater Portland options actually sort out, with hours and pickup rules verified this month.
The fastest option with the most locations: Goodwill
If the item is clean, resaleable, and you just want it gone today, Goodwill Northern New England has the densest footprint and the simplest rules. Every store takes donations at the front of the store, no appointment, and both stores and donation doors are open nine in the morning to six at night, every single day of the week. That daily schedule is the reason Goodwill wins for convenience: the furniture nonprofits below are only open a few hours a few days a week.
In Greater Portland the stores are at 555 Maine Mall Road and Millcreek Plaza in South Portland, 200 Larrabee Road in Westbrook, the Falmouth Shopping Center on US Route One in Falmouth, 102 Main Street in Gorham, and 31 Landing Road in Windham. There is also a Buy the Pound outlet at 34 Hutcherson Drive in Gorham that takes donations seven to four daily. (One caution: some directory sites list a Goodwill on Hannaford Drive in Scarborough. Goodwill's own location list does not, so call before you drive.)
Goodwill takes clothing, shoes, housewares, books, electronics, and smaller furniture. For a large or unusual item, or to check the current no-thanks list, look at goodwillnne.org before you load the car. Proceeds fund job training and workforce programs across Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
The furniture and building-materials specialist: Habitat ReStore
For furniture, working appliances, cabinets, doors, windows, tools, and leftover building materials, the Habitat for Humanity ReStore at 659 Warren Avenue in Portland is the right call. It is a resale store, and every dollar of profit builds and repairs homes for lower-income families in Cumberland County. Donation drop-off is Tuesday through Saturday, ten to four-thirty, no appointment. (Shopping hours are slightly shorter, Wednesday through Saturday, ten to five, so if you are also browsing, come midweek.)
The ReStore runs a free pickup for large items, and it is genuinely easy to use: your item needs to be in a driveway, garage, or on a loading dock, because the crew cannot come inside your home to remove it. You do not need to be there as long as the item is accessible, and pickups run Tuesday through Friday across the Cumberland County towns. Fill out the request form on their site with a photo. If you need it gone faster, or need someone to come inside and disassemble it, the ReStore's paid partner ReSupply can do a priority pickup for a fee.
What the ReStore will not take is worth knowing before you load up: no mattresses, box springs, or sleeper sofas, no baby or children's furniture, no upholstered pieces with stains or odor, no office cubicles or file cabinets, no gas appliances, and no dishwashers more than ten years old. If your item is on that list, read the next section, because one of those exclusions has a home.
The one that takes mattresses and gives them straight to a neighbor: Furniture Friends
Here is the distinction almost no other guide draws. The ReStore sells your furniture to fund homebuilding. Furniture Friends does something different: it gives clean, gently used furniture directly, free of charge, to Southern Maine neighbors who cannot afford to buy their own, working through more than 150 partner organizations. And crucially, Furniture Friends takes clean mattresses and box springs, twin, full, and queen, the exact thing the ReStore turns away.
Drop-off is at their temporary location, 166 Riverside Industrial Parkway in Portland, on Mondays two to five, Wednesdays three to five, and Saturdays nine to noon. No appointment is required, though filling out their online donation form first helps them plan. They also run a free pickup, no charge, within Cape Elizabeth, Cumberland, Falmouth, Portland, South Portland, Scarborough, Westbrook, and Yarmouth. Allow two to three weeks for a pickup slot, and have the item on your porch, in the garage, or outside on the day. Need it sooner or live outside that ring of towns? Their paid partner ReSupply can do a 24-to-48-hour pickup for a fee.
Furniture Friends is picky for a good reason: everything goes into someone's home, so items must be free of stains, rips, pet hair, and any trace of bed bugs, and they take nothing from a smoking household. Beyond mattresses they accept dressers, couches (up to 84 inches wide), assembled futons, love seats, accent and lounge chairs, coffee and side tables, dining tables under five feet and their chairs, desks, bookshelves, working and non-working lamps, and Pack 'n Plays. They do not take appliances, TVs, bedding, cribs, king-size beds, wooden bed frames, particle-board pieces, or anything with glass. When in doubt, check their accept and do-not-accept lists before you drive over.
When you want it to go straight to people rebuilding a life
Some donations are less about resale value and more about getting essentials to families who arrived with nothing. Maine Needs at 2385 Congress Street in Portland works as a bridge, connecting donated clothing, hygiene items, and household goods to refugees, asylum seekers, families leaving domestic violence, and people rebuilding from scratch. Their Cumberland County resource page is the single best map of the smaller church pantries and mutual-aid closets around Portland, each with its own short list of what it needs most.
A few standouts from that network: Freeport Community Services at 53 Depot Street runs a thrift shop (Monday through Friday nine to five, Saturday nine to four) whose profits fund food, heat, and medical and transportation help for local Mainers, and it accepts clothing, housewares, linens, working lamps, and furniture on approval. Preble Street takes clothing donations at 18 Portland Street (Monday, Wednesday, Friday mornings and Tuesday, Thursday afternoons) for people experiencing homelessness. And a Scarborough volunteer effort called Making it Home furnishes empty apartments for New Mainers leaving the shelter system, arranged by phone. These are direct-to-people channels, so call ahead and give only clean, ready-to-use items.
The honest part: where the worn-out stuff actually goes
This is the fact most donation guides get wrong, and it costs charities real money. Stained shirts, ripped jeans, single socks, and unwearable fabric do not belong in a thrift-store donation. When you drop trash-quality clothing at a resale charity, they cannot sell it, so they pay to throw it away, and your good intention becomes their disposal bill.
Worn-out textiles have their own destination: textile recycling. Apparel Impact places collection bins around Greater Portland (including at the South Portland Transfer Station on Highland Avenue) that accept clothing, shoes, and household textiles in any condition, including stained, torn, and unwearable items. They sort what can be reworn, more than 85 percent of what comes in, and send the rest to textile recyclers rather than the landfill. So the rule is simple: if you would be comfortable handing the item to a friend, donate it; if not, it goes in a textile bin, not a donation door and not your trash bag.
For the things that are neither donatable nor recyclable as textiles, an old TV, a broken dresser, a dead appliance, that is a disposal question, not a donation one, and it is covered in our guide to getting rid of big and hazardous stuff in Greater Portland. For everyday trash and curbside recycling rules, which change town by town, see trash and recycling by town. And if you are doing all this because you just moved to Portland or are pricing out the cost of living here, the fastest way to a lighter move is to route each pile to the right door the first time.
FAQ
Where can I donate used furniture in Portland, Maine?
Two nonprofits handle most furniture. The Habitat for Humanity ReStore at 659 Warren Avenue resells furniture, appliances, and building materials to fund homebuilding, with free pickup for large items left in a driveway or garage (Tuesday through Saturday drop-off, ten to four-thirty). Furniture Friends gives furniture free to neighbors in need and also offers free pickup across the core towns. Goodwill takes smaller furniture at any of its stores, seven days a week.
Who takes used mattresses in Greater Portland?
Furniture Friends accepts clean twin, full, and queen mattresses and box springs (no king), because they go directly to people setting up a home. The Habitat ReStore does not take mattresses, box springs, or sleeper sofas at all. If your mattress is stained, damaged, or otherwise not donatable, it becomes a disposal item; see our bulky-waste guide for how to get rid of it by town.
Does anyone pick up donations for free in Greater Portland?
Yes. The Habitat ReStore offers free pickup of large, resaleable items left in a driveway, garage, or loading dock, scheduled Tuesday through Friday across Cumberland County towns. Furniture Friends offers free pickup in Cape Elizabeth, Cumberland, Falmouth, Portland, South Portland, Scarborough, Westbrook, and Yarmouth, with two to three weeks of lead time. Both cannot enter your home; items must be accessible outside.
Where do I donate used clothing in Portland, Maine?
Goodwill takes clothing at the front of any store, nine to six daily, and has the most locations. For clothing that goes straight to people in need, Preble Street (18 Portland Street) and the church pantries mapped by Maine Needs accept seasonally appropriate, clean clothing. Give only wearable items; anything stained or torn should go to textile recycling instead.
What do I do with clothes that are too worn out to donate?
Put them in a textile-recycling bin, not a donation box or the trash. Apparel Impact bins around Greater Portland, including at the South Portland Transfer Station, accept clothing, shoes, and textiles in any condition, including stained and torn. Donating unwearable clothing to a thrift charity just forces them to pay to throw it away.
Are donations to these places tax deductible?
Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity, Furniture Friends, and Freeport Community Services are all registered nonprofits, so donations are generally tax deductible, and each can provide a receipt at drop-off. Keep your own itemized list and estimated values, since the organization records the donation but does not assign a dollar value for you. Confirm specifics with a tax professional.
What is the easiest place to donate if I just want it gone today?
Goodwill. Its Greater Portland stores (South Portland, Westbrook, Falmouth, Gorham, and Windham) take donations at the front door with no appointment, nine in the morning to six at night, every day of the week. The furniture nonprofits do more targeted good, but they are open only a few hours on a few days, so Goodwill is the fastest drop-and-go.