Do a 15-minute sweep before the tow truck arrives. Remove the garage-door remote, spare house keys, toll transponder, parking permits, disability placards, insurance card, registration copy, glovebox documents, and all personal items. Check under seats, visors, consoles, seat-back pockets, trunk compartments, and the spare-tire well. Factory-reset the infotainment system, including Bluetooth pairings, HomeLink, and any saved home address. Leave the keys and the signed-over title with the car.
Your pre-pickup checklist
Remove security access items
Start with anything that could open or access another place. Remove garage-door remotes, gate cards, spare house keys, building fobs, mailbox keys, and workplace access cards. Check the visor, cup holder, console tray, door pockets, and any key ring stored in the car. If another household member used the vehicle, ask them to check for their own remotes or keys before free pickup.
Disconnect billable account items
Pull the toll transponder from the windshield or dash. Then log in to the toll account and remove the vehicle from the toll account so future tolls, violations, or parking charges do not attach to your account. Also take parking garage tags, resident parking permits, campus permits, and any disability placard that belongs to you, not the vehicle.
Pull documents from storage
Open the glovebox, console, door pockets, and seat pockets. Remove your insurance card, registration copy, repair receipts, inspection papers, financing papers, medical information, and any envelope with your name, address, or account numbers. Keep anything you may need for taxes or your records. Do not mix the signed-over title into this pile; the title stays with the vehicle at the end.
Sweep cabin and trunk
Now search the whole interior like you are cleaning out a rental car. Look under both front seats, between seat cushions, in cup holders, inside sunglass holders, behind floor mats, in visor clips, and inside the center console. Check the trunk, cargo pockets, tool tray, spare-tire well, emergency kit, and any hidden storage panel. Take cash, jewelry, medication, electronics, and personal paperwork.
Wipe saved vehicle data
Use the vehicle settings menu to factory-reset the infotainment system when possible. Delete Bluetooth pairings, call history, contacts, navigation history, garage-door codes in HomeLink, Wi-Fi settings, app logins, and any saved home or work address. If you cannot find the reset option, delete what you can manually. Remove CDs, USB drives, SD cards, and phone chargers before you close the doors.
Remove optional aftermarket gear
Take aftermarket items only if they are yours, easy to remove, and not part of how you described the vehicle to RideForward. Common items include dash cams, phone mounts, removable GPS units, upgraded speakers, portable jump packs, roof-rack accessories, and child seats. Do not strip required parts or leave loose wires. The car should remain intact, safe to tow, and as-described.
Leave keys and title
When your sweep is done, leave the vehicle keys and the signed-over title with the car. Include every key you have for the ignition, doors, trunk, wheel locks, or alarm if available. Title signing rules can vary by owner, lien, and title status; if you are unsure which fields to sign, check the Pennsylvania DMV before the tow. Keep your own copies of donation-related paperwork.
Small items donors often miss
Do one slow walk around the vehicle after the main sweep. Open every door again. Look for sunglasses, parking receipts, house keys, work badges, EZ holders, gym cards, spare change, and phone cables. In Greater Philadelphia, many donors also forget garage fobs, apartment access cards, and commuter parking tags because they live in the car every day. For license plates, use our separate guide: License Plates After Donating a Car. For release of liability, use our separate guide: Release of Liability After Donating a Car.
What should stay inside
Leave only what RideForward needs to accept the vehicle and what normally belongs with the car. That means the keys, the signed-over title, and factory equipment that came with the vehicle. Owner’s manuals may stay if they contain no personal notes or receipts. Standard tools, spare tire parts, and installed equipment should stay unless you clearly told us they were missing. If you remove something visible or valuable after scheduling, update your vehicle description so the donation record stays accurate.
Common questions
Should I remove my insurance card and registration?
Yes. Remove the insurance card, registration copy, and any glovebox papers with your name, address, policy number, account number, or vehicle history. Keep records you may need later. The signed-over title is different. Do not remove it with the glovebox papers; it should stay with the car.
Do I need to remove an inactive toll transponder?
Yes. Remove it even if you think it is inactive, expired, or has no balance. Also remove the vehicle from the toll account. Accounts can be reactivated, misread, or billed later depending on the provider’s rules. A two-minute account check helps prevent avoidable charges.
What if I forget something in the car?
Contact RideForward as soon as you notice. Give your name, vehicle description, and the item you left behind. Retrieval may depend on where the vehicle is in the donation process, so do not rely on getting items back. The safest approach is a full sweep before pickup.
Is deleting Bluetooth enough?
Bluetooth deletion is a good start, but use a factory reset if the system allows it. A reset can clear paired phones, contacts, recent calls, navigation history, saved addresses, garage-door codes, and app logins. Also remove physical media such as CDs, USB drives, and SD cards.
More donation prep guides
A clean sweep protects your privacy, prevents billable items from leaving with the vehicle, and keeps the donation handoff simple. Take the checklist in order: security, billing, documents, personal items, data, optional removals, then keys and title. Your donated vehicle helps support Heritage for the Blind (EIN 58-2164446). When you are ready, use this page as your final walk-through.