Who specifically did you contact to get the ball rolling? Was the volunteer GC also a professional GC? Were they timely? Who provided the appraisal for the writeoff? Details please, and thanks for bringing this all to our attention.

The Habitat website has an option to search for a "Restore" in your area. Just enter the zip code.

In our area the boom in the economy and construction also affects this organization. With a few exceptions they cannot pick up donations here, we would have had to bring them which wasn't an option for us. They just don't have the manpower to do all this with the amount of reno work going on in the city.

Here is a link that might be useful: Habitat for Humanity

We are in the Seattle area and did this for our last remodel. They actually work through a retail operation here that specializes in used building materials. It was this company that actually did the pickup. For large projects, they'll even remove the cabinets. I was very happy with how it all worked out.

We just did this, too. Donating appliances, faucets, sinks, light fixtures and cabs to Habitat for Humanity just seemed to be a Win/Win situation. We had our GC pull out everything and H4H picked what they thought they could use. They do have an age cut off for appliances, though. Still, what they couldn't use, Goodwill could. I'm glad you brought this up here, as Habitat for Humanity is a fantastic organization.

Hi there.....I'm om Canada. In my case I emailed 2 different ReStore sites and one of them responded. They sent one of their people to assess the kitchen and bath. They told us that they would take the kitchen cabinets, countertop and the vanity in the bathroom. While I wanted to send our appliances their way, we were told that they don't take appliances older than 5 years ( my appliances were 9 years old and in good condition but that was their rule).

On the designated day, they showed up, took the cabinets and vanity, cleaned up and were gone - in 2.5 hours.

I have been telling everyone that I can about this......this doesn't fill a landfill, enables someone who thinks that my kitchen/bath would work for them to get something of a decent quality for low dollars, supports Habitat with the money raised and the unexpected bonus of a tax receipt for a charitable donation.

What a great scheme - a win all around.

I did the same thing except not for my kitchen cabinets (they went in the garage), but for everything that was left over from fixing up my house, hardiplank, a vanity base, tile, light fixtures, ceiling fans, and lots more. I already had it removed and just left it on my front porch for them to pick up. Our area doesn't remove it though as they don't have the man power.

Also I'd suggest shopping the restore when you are looking for things when re-doing your house. Ours often have large amounts of tiles, wood floors, laminate floors, good light fixtures and a lot is new too that is donated left-overs from new construction.

We are leaving the cabinets in the current garage, but will shop for cabinets for the shop at habitat in the future.

Our cabinets and countertops went to my brother but we donated a brand new window and our fridge to them along with left over building supplies. They were happy to take the fridge even though it was about 19 yrs old.

It still irks me that our #$%^y GC trashed the "old" window which was a Pella and still in reasonable shape. I was planning on giving it to H4H as well.

Thanks so much for bringing this to my attention. I checked the website and they do accept donations in my area, so when it is time for the demo, I will definitely give them a call. What a great idea!

Yes, Loves2cook brought up a good point: make sure that your GC and all subs are very clear ahead of time about what *specifically* you plan on donating. I forgot to mention the perfectly good window and frame and they broke it taking it out, not thinking we wanted to give it to H4H.

The H4H chapter in my area had a volunteer (a contractor, not the one that installed my cabinets)come and take out the cabinets.
They also took my 10 yr old appliances.
I guess different chapters have different ways of doing things.
He did mention that there are times when he goes into a home and has to tell the homeowners that they can't use their cabinets and/or appliances.
He also said there there are times when they take the cabinets but not the appliances.. but offer to take the appl. anyway and dump them..
As I said in my OP... doing this saved us $700. They gave us a 'blank' donation form, we fill out what we think the cabinets are worth.. in this case, they were worth $700. They may be worth more or maybe less... there really isn't any way of knowing.