Americans are among some of the most fortunate people in the world. We have so much more than we could ever need. While living in the land of prosperity is a good thing, sometimes we get so weighed down with stuff that it actually has a negative impact on our health. Studies show that the human brain develops a sense of anxiety when a person owns more possessions than they feel in control of. When the brain is cluttered with physical possessions, it’s difficult to think clearly or to be productive. When you feel overwhelmed with physical possessions, it’s a good idea to consider making household or clothing donations to a charity.
The far-reaching impact of making clothes donations to an organization you support is multi-faceted:
Three Things That Benefit When You Donate Your Unneeded Goods to Charity
- You Win.
Doing good is good for the mind, body, and soul. Whether you’re making donations to Purple Heart organizations that help veterans, or to a charity that keeps stray puppies off the streets, or to the Red Cross, that sense of warm fuzzies you get gives you energy. You feel good about yourself, and that makes you healthier and happier. It’s free to give the stuff that you aren’t using and don’t need to a good cause, and it’s therapeutic to you!
In addition to that, decluttering your home is good for your mental clarity. As we mentioned before, when you’re surrounded by stuff, stuff, stuff, you get weighed down. It’s hard to think clearly through all the stuff you have. When you box it up and make donations to Purple Heart organizations, for example, you get a clean start. When you’re in a clean house with only the stuff you need, you have a clear mind. - Your Local Economy Wins.
The financial impact of your donation goes far beyond the value of your donation. Lets think about it. Let’s say you make the donations to Purple Heart groups for the benefit of wounded veterans:- First, obviously, when you make donations to Purple Heart organizations, the veterans who benefit from the charity that you donate to are served.
- Sometimes your clothing donation actually puts a shirt on the back of a wounded veteran, but in most cases, the organization you give them to will sell your donated goods in a thrift store to convert your goods into cash to meet other needs that the veterans have. That thrift store offers goods to the public at a fraction of the price. The people who shop at the thrift store benefit from your donation by getting goods they need without having to spend the money they’d have to spend if they bought them new.
- Then, the extra money that is saved when a person buys a low-cost good from a thrift store that supports a good cause, is spent on another good or service in your local community. In this way, your local economy gets a little extra cash flow. This might even trickle back to you.
- The Planet Earth Wins
Mother Nature loves it when you make clothing donations to charities. Americans have a terrible policy for throwing away goods before they’ve fulfilled their entire purpose. When something goes into a landfill, it basically gets dumped into a hole, where more and more trash builds up until it’s full and a new trash hole is started. It doesn’t take a mathematician to understand that this is not a sustainable way of life. When you donate goods to charity, you’re saving the planet in two ways:- You’re giving your possessions a second life, prolonging their time on Earth before they end up in the trash hole we mentioned. Americans put 10.5 million tons of clothing in a landfill every year; imagine how many millions of tons of clothing could be saved if more people donated goods to charity instead of trashing it.
- The person who ends up with your donated goods isn’t reusing your goods instead of buying a new one. This means two people used one item. If you hadn’t donated those goods, two people would have used two items, and two items would have ended up in a landfill eventually. Not to mention you save the energy associated with producing the item again, and the packaging for it.
