Household Goods, Inc

Finding and securing housing is essential for health, wellbeing, and stability, but it is only the first step. Without basic furnishings like beds, a couch, chairs, a dining table, and kitchenware, a house or apartment is little more than a shelter. Our core program is synonymous with our mission: to provide a full range of donated furniture and household items, free of charge, to help people in need make a home.

Our clients are people in vulnerable, low-income populations and are often recently homeless or transitioning out of shelter environments, or veterans who are struggling financially, survivors of domestic violence, single parents, victims of disaster, or coping with illness or disability.

More than 300 agencies throughout Massachusetts refer clients to Household Goods each year, making us an essential component of the larger network of safety net organizations. As the largest furniture bank in the region, Household Goods strengthens the efforts of these agencies to stabilize their clients’ lives in ways no other entity in New England can match.

People are living without basic furniture and household goods because they struggle to balance the financial demands of rent, utilities, medical care, childcare, transportation, and food and often cannot afford the high upfront expenses of furniture and household goods, even when purchased on a secondary market. Beds and bedding, couches, a kitchen table, or a bureau, are often simply impossible for low-income households to afford, particularly when these individuals and families are transitioning from homelessness or shelter environments into permanent housing.

Providing furniture and household essentials free of charge to families in need helps them meet the immediate, practical needs of their household (providing places to eat and sleep) while helping ensure their long-term financial stability. Our services prevent people in vulnerable households from going without furnishings or using limited funds needed for food, clothing, transportation, medication or bills. Having the basics of beds to sleep in, a table to eat at, and cookware to make meals all add to family stability. Social service agencies report that these families and individuals are much more responsive to interventions when they have stable, adequately furnished housing.

Household Goods not only gives people of limited means their choice of household essentials, but the process itself affords them dignity and respect and cultivates hope as they begin to rebuild their lives.

At the heart of Household Goods’ efficient operation are the hundreds of volunteers who selflessly donate tens of thousands of hours of labor each year. These resourceful and dedicated people of all ages and abilities participate in every aspect of Household Goods' operations, helping to keep our staffing costs to a minimum and ensuring that we can continue to grow to meet the community need without substantially increasing our costs.

Donors supply our entire inventory. Ranging from one set of towels to a truckload of mattresses, we receive more than 12,000 donation visits in a typical year. In addition to thousands of donations from residents of the surrounding communities, Household Goods has relationships with commercial donors such as hotels, universities and manufacturers.

Although relying on furniture donations is by nature unpredictable, we strive to have enough items available for every family to receive everything they need. To do so we proactively seek out and maintain ongoing relationships with retailers, colleges, moving and renovating companies, and furniture manufacturers willing to supply us with large numbers of key items as they become available.

Household Goods’ volunteers welcome clients six days a week and helps each one select the items they need. Our approach is to make it as efficient as possible for referring agencies to work with us and for our clients to obtain needed household essentials.

Clients typically arrive with their own truck or an agency-provided mover and a list of needed items. We pair them with a volunteer who helps them “shop” for their items. Volunteers are continuously available to answer questions, give advice, and help load items onto clients’ trucks. Feedback from agencies and clients indicates they value the caring, respectful attitude that is present throughout the process.

Household Goods is an invaluable resource not only for the thousands of clients who are able to adequately furnish their homes at no cost, but also for the hundreds of human service agencies working to help their clients move forward. The agencies we support, the donors who generously give us their household items and the volunteers who are vital to the effectiveness and efficiency of Household Goods, all play an integral part in helping stabilize the lives of thousands of people in need each year.

One of our clients described the impact of Household Goods on his family. Ramond wrote, “Thank you so much. We have been homeless for 10 months. To have a home is everything. You guys are amazing.”