Early spring cleaning: Donations fill local thrift stores

The holiday shopping season may be over, but donations continue to arrive and fill local nonprofit thrift stores, causing some to scramble to find time and room to accommodate increased inventory.

We are getting more donations than we have ever gotten before, said Connie Elliott, vice president at Napas Community Projects thrift store in downtown.

She said one of the reasons is that Community Projects is one of the few Napa nonprofits with retail storefronts that accept donations. Elliottalso said that many Napans, especially those involved with schools, like to donate to Community Projects because they know that Community Projectsuses its proceeds to donate to local schools and charities.

People like to donate to us because it does go back to the community, she said.

Elliott said that as of January, the nonprofit stopped accepting donations on Wednesdays. Before that, the store had accepted donations six days a week, excluding Sundays.

No donations accepted today. Full to capacity, read a sign seen in the parking lot earlier this month. We apologize for the inconvenience.

We dont like to put the sign out but every so often we are just buried, said Elliott. Wednesdays are now used as a catch-up day for sorting whats already been received, instead of processing additional donations, she said. Were hoping that helps us.

Roseanne Kohlhepp, manager at Napas Goodwill store in River Park center, said that this time of the year is always busy for drop-offs.

Most people want to get the tax write-off from making donations, she said.

Napa is such a great supporter of Goodwill, said Brandy Evans, chief operating officer of Goodwill Industries of the Redwood Empire. On weekends we will get absolutely buried.

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Early spring cleaning: Donations fill local thrift stores