Q. What is the Spare Parts Center For Creative Reuse?
The Center facilitates the intake of pre-owned creative materials and supplies that would otherwise be thrown away or underutilized and offers them back into the community through our program offerings and storefront.
Most major cities in the United States have a creative reuse center, a few include: Austin Creative Reuse (Austin, TX), Seattle ReCreative (Seattle, WA), Indigo Hippo (Cincinnati, OH), and SCRAP Creative Reuse (Portland, OR).
Q. Where are you located?
The Spare Parts Center for Creative Reuse is located at 13491 Wetmore Rd, San Antonio,Texas, 78247 in the North East “Uptown” area. The nearest major intersection is Thousand Oaks and Wetmore Rd.
Q. What are your hours of operation?
We are open to the public on Sunday, from 10am – 2pm and Friday-Saturday, from 9am – 6pm. Material donations are by scheduled appointment only. Please do not bring donations when you shop. See below for donation questions.
Capacity at this time will be limited to 16 including staff and properly fitting masks are optional for vaccinated individuals. Please bring your own reusable bags to shop with.
Q. What is the best way to contact you?
- For general questions, please fill out the contact form on this page.
- For questions about other programs offered by Spare Parts, please email hello@sparepartssa.org.
- For Center For Creative Reuse questions, please email store@sparepartssa.org.
- For volunteering questions, please email our coordinator at volunteer@sparepartssa.org.
Q. Why don’t you have a phone number listed?
We try to provide as much information on our website as possible to limit the need for phone calls. For information needed outside of that, we prefer email since we do not have regular staff dedicated to phone inquiries. On open shopping days we do not want to take our focus away from customers, especially at checkout. You can usually expect a response within 48 hours, if not sooner.
Q. Do you offer classes and workshops?
We have started to offer a couple of workshops per month. The subject matter ranges but is usually targeted towards beginners looking to learn something new. Please visit our online store to see what workshops are currently being offered.
Q. What is a VIP member and what are the benefits?
Annual VIP memberships receive a 30% in-store discount on the first full weekend of month and a 10% discount on remaining weekends. VIP members also receive special announcements and other perks.
Q. How can I become a VIP member?
New VIP memberships are available at checkout anytime during operating hours or through our online store.
Q. Why is the VIP membership $30 that seems high?
As a nonprofit organization, we rely heavily on monetary donations from the community to continue to operate and grow. The Center for Creative Reuse is still in its infancy so the $25 fee is our way of raising funds from generous supporters so that we can continue to operate, grow, and eventually provide other services and programs to the community.
Q. Will my VIP membership be tax-deductible?
No. Although our $30 VIP membership is not tax-deductible, if patrons give a monetary donation in addition to the fee, the additional amount will be tax-deductible.
Q. How can I donate materials?
At this time we schedule donation drop-offs by appointment only. Please visit our donation page for more information.
Q. Why do I have to schedule a donation?
We have chosen the appointment model of donations at this time to provide the public an option for donating while being able to process an appropriate volume of donations for our space by our volunteers.
Donations days not only include receiving donations but also weighing, sorting, pricing, and sometimes cleaning.
We estimate it takes 3-4 volunteers 6 to 18 hours to process roughly 200 pounds worth of donations.
Q. What material items do you accept?
We accept items like office supplies, fabrics, art supplies, jewelry and beads, mason jars, kid craft materials, and so much more. Please see this page with a complete guide of what we can and cannot accept. If you have any specific questions about an item not listed, please email store@sparepartssa.org.
Periodically we may announce a public “ask” for specific items we are in great need of.
Q. What items do you not accept?
We cannot accept appliances or electronics, batteries, bedding, clothing, flammable or hazardous materials (spray paint and solvents), styrofoam, prescription bottles, stuffed toys, toiletries, or anything water damaged, rusty, sticky, moldy & dirty. See this page for more examples of what we cannot accept. If you have any specific questions about an item not listed, please email store@sparepartssa.org
Q. I have a large donation (greater than 200 pounds) or I am a business owner with bulk materials that I would like to donate. How do I go about this?
Please send an email to store@sparepartssa.org with a description of your donation. If the Center is able to accept we will make special arrangements with you.
Q. Can I get a receipt for my donation since you are a 501(c)(3) organization?
Yes, receipts are provided upon request.