If you live in the United States, it is quite likely that your closet is virtually overflowing, if not literally so. After all, someone living in the United States today is actually likely to own up to two times the articles of clothing than would have been commonplace for someone living even just a mere 20 years ago, two decades. And whereas an average woman in the 1920s would have had only just nine outfits – if she was lucky – a woman in today’s world (who is also living in the United States) will actually have just about one completely separate outfit for every single day of the month. In just one year, over 20 billion articles of clothing will be consumed in just this one country alone (about 70 per person, to put things in more perspective).
Therefore, most of us should consider donating clothing to charity. Donating clothing to charity is likely to be hugely beneficial in streamlining our lives,, and the value of charitable donations and donating clothing to charity in specific is certainly high. But how, exactly, do you determine what you will be donating and what you might instead keep? For one thing, get rid of any and all clothing articles that simply no longer fit you. Don’t wait to gain or lose weight – get rid of them now and only keep the articles of clothing that you feel comfortable wearing. And if you live in a climate with only one or two seasons, any clothing that has not been worn for six months or longer should also be given away and is the perfect candidate for donating clothing to charity.
But why, exactly, is donating clothing to charity so very worthwhile, especially when it is so easy to simply just throw clothing away instead? For one thing, donating clothing to charity prevents this clothing from ending up in the landfill, saving more than four and a half billion pounds of it from such a fate each and every year. But still only around 15% of all the clothing that we discard is donated instead of sent to charitable organization such as wounded veterans charities or the American Red Cross. This means that, unfortunately, up to ten and a half million TONS of old clothing and various other textiles end up in landfills throughout the country.
Simply donating our old clothing and even other types of old textiles can help us to avoid this quite completely. After all, just about all types of clothing and other such textiles can be donated instead of thrown away. In fact, such remains true no matter what condition these goods might be in. For one thing, only around 45% of all clothing that has been donated to any given charity will actually ever be worn again as clothing. But this does not mean that the rest of donated clothing is worthless – the opposite is true, as such clothing and other such textile products can be used in so many different and recycled ways. For instance, you can turn old textiles into factory rags and they can even be transformed into stuffing for couches, chairs, and a number of other types of furniture to boot. Therefore, the worth of donated textiles and other donated goods is immense, quite immense indeed.
In addition to this, when you donate clothes you are helping those that are in need. From veterans in need or even to families in need in their entirety. You are helping to support your own community and you might even be helping to people halfway across the world from you. All kinds of charitable donations can help all kinds of people indeed, and donating clothing to charity is just one way to do this. Donating other textiles to charity can help as well, as can, of course, a variety of monetary donations (as you might have already assumed).
All in all, underestimating the value of donating clothing to charity is not to be done. Donating to charity and making charitable used clothing donations can have a big impact at the end of the day and in the lives of a great many people indeed.
