I itemize my deductions. TurboTax has a place where you can put in the item and whether they're in "fair" or "good" condition and it'll tell you what they say is the value. I can't remember this year's #s but an example was a pair of jeans (men's) that I donated a few years ago -- I got $13.00 or so for them by deducting and would've gotten $.50 at the garage sale. In total, this year's taxes I had $800.00 in deductions and it made a difference of $200. on the final taxes. In another words I got $200.00 back on taxes where I would've MAYBE gotten $50.00 at the garage sale. I haven't had a garage sale since.