Deseret Industries Stores Won’t Accept These 17 Items in Idaho, Utah or California

Ever look around your home and feel like you can’t breathe because you have so much stuff? It’s in those moments when you’re over taken by the urge to declutter and get the “stuff” out of your house. Rather than sending it to the landfill, you try to find it a new home by donating it to a local thrift shop. 

And you’ve got a lot of options. Goodwill, Idaho Youth Ranch, Savers, St. Vincent de Paul, and Deseret Industries come to mind. The last one was founded by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1938 and was meant to be a job training facility. Church leaders had four goals when they opened that first location in Salt Lake City: to help people, reduce waste, create jobs and provide great quality items at low prices. 

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After just one year in business, they expanded into California by opening a store in Los Angeles. In 2023, they have 46 stores in eight states including Idaho, Utah, California and Washington State. 

What’s very cool about Deseret Industries is that they don’t just sell gently used goods. Back in 1954, they acquired a woolen mill and started training people to produce blankets and rugs. They continue that sort of work today making things like beds, mattresses, chairs, dressers, night stands, pillows and mattress pads. They sell these items new. 

New and thrift items that don’t sell in the stores are regularly donated to worldwide humanitarian efforts. 

Deseret Industries is happy to accept your donations and put them to good use, but there is a list of things that they cannot accept as donations. This isn’t a complete list, but these are no go items listed on their website.