Some people are obsessive about buying shoes. I’m obsessive about buying glasses frames. I’m sure this has something to do with the fact that I’ve worn glasses since I was seven and, after having my kids, developed an eye condition that prevented me from wearing contacts. What also helps is that I have double-wide feet (yes, like a trailer) so I can’t just buy shoes off the rack. Anyway, I loved getting new glasses frames, though with our new frugal budget, I haven’t splurged on frames in over two years. However, I’m due for an eye exam and who knows? I might need some new glasses and some new frames.

But back to my obsession with glasses. This means that over the years, my glasses have come in and out of style just like the fashions. For instance in the preppy 1980s, when I was wearing Topsiders and Izod shirts, I had oversized, horn-rimmed glasses. In the grunge-oriented 1990s, when slopping clothing was all the rage, my glasses were dark and daring. These days I’m all about looking neat and professional, and so are my glasses, thus the frameless glasses I’m wearing in the picture on this blog.

What this also means is that over the years, I’ve accrued a lot of glasses frames that I no longer need–either because the frames went out of style or I never bothered to update the lenses to match my changing prescription. A quick search of my bedroom nightstand uncovered five pairs of glasses that haven’t been in my regular rotation for years now. Truth be told, I keep one pair (it’s happens to be Giorgio Armani frames) as my painting glasses. Currently, these high-fashion frames look like a high-fashion Jackson Pollack painting.

While I’ve been very diligent about donating clothing I’m no longer interested in wearing to charity, I haven’t done the same with my glasses frames–mostly because I wasn’t sure how. But in the spirit of reduce, reuse and recycle, I’m glad that, this week, the PR person for Give the Gift of Sight got in touch with me. She wanted to let me know about the organization’s kick-off campaign to get people to think about donating unused eyeglasses as they think about spring cleaning. That is, as you clean out the old to make room for the new, don’t forget about those eyeglasses that you might have piling up in your nightstand like I did.

Here’s what she told me about this worthy organization:

Give the Gift of Sight is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing free eye exams and glasses to people (men, women and children) around the world who need glasses to see but can not afford them. To date, the Gift of Sight has helped over 6 million people internationally.

I’m told that you can find Gift of Sight donation drop-off boxes at all Pearle Vision, LensCrafters and Sunglass Hut stores. You might also find similar collection boxes, which the Lions Club sponsors, at non-chain optician stores. I’ll have to check to see if my local eye doctor has one.

So, folks this is one more way you, too, can reduce, reuse and recycle, and one more thing that you can keep out of landfills–eyeglasses–and help a good cause at the same time.