Office of International Student Services

Household Items Giveaway

Global Opportunities Logo

 

Furniture and household items provided to help newly arriving international students at The University of Toledo!

desk             desk lamp              bed             kettle             table

 


Information for International Students who need furniture and household items

Welcome to Toledo.  We want to help make your stay here more comfortable and pleasant.  We are so glad that you are investing several years of your life in Toledo, studying in our community.  To serve you better, you need to know the following things:

  • This project is only for international students and visiting scholars.  You must be here under an F-1 or J-1 visa to qualify.  We may need to verify your status with the Office of International Student and Scholar Services before we can help you.
  • We give priority to newly arriving students who have nothing.  Students who have been here for a while have access to more resources like driver licenses, friends with cars, and knowledge of where to get help in the city.  Newly arriving students don't have these resources and so our first responsibility is to them.
  • Once we have helped you with furniture, if you move to a new apartment in Toledo, it is your responsibility to move the furniture we have given you to your new apartment.  You can rent a truck for a few hours or a day for around $20-30 from places like U-Haul, The Home Depot, and Lowe's.  Anyone with a driver license can drive the truck, so all you need is a few friends who can help, and you can move your furniture to your new apartment.
  • We cannot provide replacement furniture if your furniture becomes damaged, dirty, or infested with bed bugs.  It is your responsibility to keep your apartment and furniture clean.

Fill out the Household Items Giveaway application

Or download this flyer and follow the instructions carefully: How to request furniture.


What to do with your furniture?

 To protect the furniture that we've provided you and to preserve it into the future, we ask the following six “pleases!”

  1. Please take care of your furniture by caring for it and regularly cleaning and keep it in good condition.
  2. Please move your furniture with you if you move to a new apartment in Toledo.  We must put first priority on newly arriving students who have nothing, so existing students moving to new apartments will not be getting the same priority in the future.  This will be determined on a case-by-case basis.
  3. Please DO NOT throw furniture away at the end of the semester.  We have seen entire dumpsters filled with furniture we have provided, that students have simply thrown away at the end of the semester.  We have had students throw away their furniture, move to a new apartment and request new furniture.  That is an abuse of this system and we simply don’t have the resources to replace furniture.
  4. Please try your hardest to give away furniture to other international students who truly need it.  If you are preparing to leave, please, if at all possible, give your furniture to a newly arriving student who has nothing.  Please start preparing for your move at least a month ahead of time.
  5. Please handle bedbug and pest problems very carefully.  Some apartment complexes are not clean and have pest problems.  If this is the case, and you have to move out, please DO NOT throw away wooden, plastic, glass or metal furniture which can be easily cleaned.  All of these must go to your new apartment and we cannot replace them.  We understand if you have to throw away an infected mattress or sofa, but don’t throw away desks, bookshelves, dining tables and chairs, etc.  Please clean them carefully and take them with you.
  6. Please contact us at least a month before you move out of Toledo.  If you are leaving, please plan ahead.  We are often scheduling things a week or two out, so we need as much advanced notice as possible.  Some valuable furniture has been lost simply because students contacted me and said, “My plane leaves tomorrow, can you pick up my furniture today?”  That puts us in a bad situation.

We need all of you to help so we can continue to meet furniture needs for students in the future!


Information for people who want to help with this extraordinary project

Year round, Global Opportunities in Toledo sponsors a furniture and household items giveaway for international students.

New incoming students will receive a flyer at their International Student Orientation meeting, telling them how they can request the furniture via email.

They will be matched with a driver of a van or pickup truck who will pick them up and take them to the old Banner Mattress Warehouse, where they can select what they might need from available furniture, household items and small appliances.

How you can help

1. Donate furniture and household items.  

Download a Household Items Donation Flyer.

If you live in the Toledo area and have any good used furniture, small appliances, clean mattresses, or other useful household items, consider donating them to our Global Opportunities project.  You may bring the items, by appointment, to our new warehouse at 5055 Jackman Rd.  Please call Wes or Marjie Blood at 419-478-8325 to set an appointment. 

Or we can pick them up.  To arrange for a pick up, please call Wes Blood at 419-478-8325 or email wdbbdw@aol.com.

We are looking for donations of the following decent-quality used items:

  1. Dining or dinette tables (tables of any kind)
  2. Dining or dinette chairs
  3. Clean Mattresses/beds (queen or smaller--we cannot use king sized)
  4. Small or medium sized desks, computer tables and study tables
  5. Office chairs
  6. Lamps (both floor and table)
  7. Microwaves
  8. Full sized and small couches/loveseats (please no big heavy sleeper sofas)
  9. Kitchen appliances like toasters, blenders, mixers, can openers, coffee makers, etc.
  10. Dressers
  11. End-tables/coffee tables/small TV stands
  12. Cooking pots and pans and some dishes (we tend to get an abundance of dishes but always need pans)
  13. Bicycles

Things we cannot use:

  1. Big heavy items like huge entertainment centers, executive sized desks, sleeper sofas, double recliner sofas, king beds
  2. Dirty or broken items (Please don't donate "project" items.)
  3. Old tube-type televisions
  4. Waterbeds
  5. Large appliances (refrigerators, washers, dryers, etc.)

For more information please contact Wes any time.

2. Be a driver 

If you have a pickup truck or delivery truck and would like to help a student pick up their household items, please contact the number below and you will be given detailed information.  To volunteer as a driver, contact Wes Blood at 419-478-8325 or email him at wdbbdw@aol.com 

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Last Updated: 2/1/24