We've all seen the advertisements where you can donate your old car -- even if it's not running -- to a charity to help support its good works. The charities make it easy: They come to you, pick up the car and do all the work. But the reality is that many of these third-party programs give very little money of the value of the car to real nonprofits. The for-profit towing companies either resell the car to a new owner or sell it for scrap metal. Then a small percentage goes to a benefiting nonprofit. If you do want to donate a car, go directly to the charity you want to support. Better yet, sell it yourself and donate the proceeds.

Do you have knitting needles, skeins of yarn or other knitting materials that you no longer need? If you took up knitting but gave up, there's no need to let your supplies go to waste. The nonprofit the Knitting Connection wants them so its volunteers can knit new hats, mittens, sweaters and scarves for children in need. As with any donation, be sure to donate only new, quality materials. Learn more at theknittingconnection.org.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Americans throw away about 1.6 billion disposable pens every year. The greenest upgrade is to invest in a refillable pen and use that in lieu of disposables. But a more realistic approach is to limit the number of disposable pens you take from hotel rooms, banks or as freebies from promotional events. Also, if markers or permanent pens no longer work, they may not be ready to throw out. Try dipping the tip in rubbing alcohol; this can "undry" the ink and make the markers as good as new again.