It’s a common sight in Berlin – you walk through the neighborhoods and you find lonely sofas and mattresses lounging in the streets. If you are lucky enough, you may even find perfectly usable items such as irons, tripods and TVs lying around outside apartment buildings.  If you live in one of those, you may just be going out to throw your trash and find a perfectly good ironing board lying next to the bins.

It’s no surprise that in a metropolitan city such as Berlin – with its constant influx of newcomers – there are a lot of things people use temporarily and then dispose of which could use a loving home. Thankfully, the Berlin Stadtreinigung (BSR) (or the Department of Sanitation and Recycling for the non-German speakers) has put up a comprehensive list of locations sorted by districts, where you can donate all your old items (ranging from bikes, clothes, electronics, and everything you can possibly think of!).

If you click here, it will redirect you to the BSR website – specifically the page with the list of locations where you can donate. It should look a little something like this:

Clicking on the ‘+’ sign will reveal a drop-down list with more information, such as the exact address of the donation points, the type of items they are looking for and whether the goods are donated to the needy or sold, or whether they can be picked up free of charge in Berlin. Here is an example of what you will see if you click on the ‘+’ sign for any district (translated into English):

PRO TIP: The website is in German, which may be a deterrent for some of you that don’t speak German. But do not despair! A simple copy-paste in Google Translate should do the trick. As a bonus for Chrome users, there is a Google Translate extension that can automatically translate the page into English or any other language you prefer.

And remember, clothes aren’t the only things that are “donate-able”!

Happy donating! 🙂