At BestReviews, most of what we test still has plenty of life in it. We may run a vacuum through its paces – pet hair, spilled cereal, you name it, but at the end of it we have a perfectly good vacuum that starts to collect dust in storage units around the country. Now, start to extrapolate that out to the dozens of categories and hundreds of products we test annually, and you'll see how a stockpile can quickly develop. Tossing items isn't an option we're comfortable with, and reselling items is a nonstarter.
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So we give it away. We have a line about it on our FAQ page, but it deserves more than a line.
Our most recent donation round went to ReStore Chicago, a resale shop run by Habitat for Humanity Chicago. ReStore takes donations of appliances, furniture, building materials and household goods and sells them at a discount, which then funds Habitat's home-building and repair efforts around the city.
We had several products that we felt fit the bill and Chris Kennedy, Procurement and Logistics Manager at ReStore Chicago and Habitat for Humanity Chicago, assisted with the intake.
Here's what we donated:
A few notes on how this vetting process works. Not everything qualifies. Anything we've taken apart, anything with missing or broken parts, or anything we've tested that's consumable or personal-care items doesn't make the cut.
We want to ensure whatever we're giving away is lightly used, comes with its original manuals or accessories, and will genuinely be an asset to whoever is receiving it. In sum, if we wouldn't give it to a friend due to its condition, it doesn't get donated.
It's a fair question to wonder what a product review site like BestReviews does with the overflowing amounts of product it tests. We test it, we say what we found, and then it goes somewhere useful. If we ever stop doing that last part, we'd want you to know.
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