Four Reasons to Donate Your Old Clothes

Donate clothing

Another year is almost here, and maybe you?re thinking of de-cluttering your home. If that?s the case, consider donating your household goods and old clothes at the next red cross pickup. Here?s a few reasons why you should:

We Waste A Lot

If you feel you?ve got a closet full of unused clothes, you?re definitely not alone. The people the United States consume almost 20 billion articles of clothing every year. That means the average American is buying a new garment every week.

But then we throw away about 10 pounds of clothes per person, per year! That?s a tremendous amount of waste that could be put back into the economy, or taken to a used clothing donation location and used to bless someone else.

Your Old Clothes Can Do Real Good

When people make clothes donations at a red cross pickup or other donation stop, 63% of the those who are wealthy do so particularly because they want to give back to the community.

And the community needs their donations: and yours, regardless of how wealthy you are. In January of 2015, there were 564,708 homeless people out any given night in America. A lot of those people, about 15%, are considered ?chronically homeless? and are in desperate need of clothing of all kinds.


And it?s not just Americans who benefit fromm your red cross clothes donation or other charity. 14.3 millions tons of textiles donated in the United States end up going abroad to help families all over the world.

It?s a Real, But Inexpensive Way to Give

Every year in America, 70% of us donate to charity. In fact, 3% of our entire national income is given to charity every year. That?s a wonderful statistic, and Americans are some of the most generous people on earth.

But if you haven?t got the cash to donate, you can still take part in this national generosity by donating your clothes, textiles, and household goods at a red cross pickup. It doesn?t cost you anything but a few minutes of your time and does real good for others. Plus, it?s tax deductible.

You Help the Economy

You might not have thought about this, but experts estimate that $666.1 billion is added to our national economy every year by non-profit donations. When you take your textiles to a red cross pickup, you likely aren?t thinking about it as a way to boost the economy; but those clothes are doing a lot more good there than hanging unused in your closet.

Some of those clothes are simply given away, and many are sold for pennies on the dollar to the poor and needy. The money they save on clothing purchases is then money they can use for food, travel, or housing.

It might even be that the old suit you take to the red cross pickup will end up helping someone nail a job interview, get off the street, maybe off public assistance, and enter the national economy as a contributor.

There are a lot of good reasons to give to others and these are just a few of them. Have a look through your used clothes and consider what you might be able to take to a red cross pickup or other clothing donation center. Your clothing donations could be doing good for others, for yourself, and for us all.

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