Clothing Donations

You’ve finally gotten around to tackling that spring cleaning you’ve been putting off.  After going through your closet you find yourself with a pile of clothing that you haven’t worn in months, if not years.  It seems a shame to simply throw perfectly good clothing in the garbage and you’re right, it is.

There are many organizations that accept clothing donations.  Some of these organizations are very well known and all you need to do is look up their name in the phone book and they will either send a truck out to pick up gently worn items, or they will give you the address of the nearest drop-off box.  Drop-off boxes are often placed in parking lots of malls or grocery stores and all a person has to do is collect their used clothing and place it in the box.  Once a week someone from the organization comes by and collects all the items.

There are other places that accept clothing donations that you might not be aware of.  One that most people don’t think of is a local church.  Quite often churches have a congregation that is varied, and at times, members of the church might face difficult times; be it losing a job or facing the horrors of a house fire.  The church will step in and take care of basic needs, including clothing.  If you’d like to inquire if this is the practice at your church, simply ask.

Another place that welcomes clothing donations is pre-schools.  Pre-schoolers have wonderful imaginations and one of their favorite activities is playing dress-up.  They love pretending they are older and with the aid of grown-up clothes they can do just that.  Some items that pre-school age children especially like are suit jackets, skirts and hats.  Visit one of the local pre-schools and speak to the teacher.  If she welcomes clothing donations, sort through your old clothing and choose items that they can use.

Second hand stores also accept clothing donations.  Many of these stores are operated by local charities.  They collect, clean and sell the clothing, with the proceeds going towards a good cause.  Many of these types of stores accept other items as well including furniture, gently used toys and working appliances. 

Winter is a difficult time for many people and now some communities have started coat drives.  How these work, is that during the early winter, coats are collected.  These coats are generally used coats that people have either grown out of or they’ve purchased a newer style and their original coat isn’t being worn anymore.  This is a great opportunity for anyone to donate their coats with the knowledge that someone less fortunate will put it to excellent use.  In many cases, it can be the difference between a comfortable winter and a winter with a constant threat of frostbite.