Reduce, Reuse, Re-Source York!

Yesterday, before our kickball game, we stopped by Re-source York (formerly Restore York). We’ve been remodeling our kitchen (more to come on that soonish) and had a fairly new oven that we wanted to donate.

If you’ve never been or are not familiar with Re-source York, they are non-profit building supply and home improvement resale store run by Bell Socialization Services. The mission of Re-source York is two-fold: provide a retail outlet for low-cost home improvement/building supplies (either recycled or donated new goods) and provide employment to low-income disabled persons, facilitating employment and socialization skills.  A lot of local businesses donate products like flooring and hardware supplies, so there are quite a bit of products that are still in their packaging. There is also some really cool used furniture that if you took the time, could be fixed up and given a new life. My grandfather, a flea-market fiend, would love this place.

So we donated the oven and were pretty shocked at how grateful the employees were. The store manager couldn’t stop thanking us. We weren’t even sure if we should bring it in because the blur of our remodel we had taken the range to the dump, so all we had to donate was a wall unit oven leaving the next owner to find their own range. But the store manager was really sweet as if we had just made her month – it was completely unexpected to be thanked so profusely. I mean it was only an oven,  some people donate their whole kitchen cabinet set!

We know this because we had a few spare minutes and decided to look around the place. We had stopped in once before, bringing in some lighting fixtures, but had never ventured out of the front of the store. This time we meandered through the maze of their warehouse – I had no idea it was so BIG! If you’re remodeling or need new furniture, you could literally spend hours there. We made a few mental notes of things we might find here for future projects.

Re-Source York also donates any profits above their operating costs to local charities. It’s a fantastic local resource that you should definitely check out if you are currently in doing home improvements, whether you’re looking for some great finds or are in need of a place to donate furniture, appliances, building supplies and the like.  Or if you just want a do-gooder self-esteem boost – they certainly make you feel great about donating!