Maybe it is Christmas, Hanukah, your birthday or just no special occasion at all. You have in front of you a couple of pairs of nice pants, maybe a shirt or two and a sweater. You think to yourself how nice they are and how appreciative you are to your family or friends who have gotten these nice clothes for you to wear. You know you are going to get a great deal of wear out of them because after trying them on, you see how good you look in them.

Then, one day soon after you have received your new clothes, you are standing at the open door of your closet when it occurs to you that you have so many clothes in there that you no longer wear. They might be too small for you now, or maybe you have lost a bunch of weight and the clothes you used to count on are simply too big.

Many people might take the time to pack up these unwanted or unusable clothes and toss them in the attic or even in the garbage. There is a different way to go, however. Used clothing donations are an extremely import aspect of the way many charities function. Used clothing donations are collected by charities and are sold to raise money for the causes of the charities. Many of these causes include aid for the homeless, helping families in need, and wounded veterans charities.

Just under half of all of the used clothing that is recycled is worn as second-hand clothing. This means that just under 50% of used clothing donations are being sold in second-hand clothing stores and the money that is being made goes directly to the charities themselves. The donations are the supply for the store so they can charge low prices because the overhead is so low. This means that people can get incredible deals in many instances and can feel a sense of joy knowing that their money is being spent to help others.

Used clothing donations do more than just help charities, however. When you donate clothing, you are also helping reduce the pressure on the environment. Every year, Americans donate roughly 4.7 billion pounds of clothing and that is brilliant. At the same time, Americans also send 10.5 million tons of clothing to landfills every single year. When clothing and other fabric and textiles end up in the landfills, the damage to the Earth can end up being very problematic.

When you are standing in front of your open closet and seeing how you hardly have room to fit anything else inside, take some time to stop and think about what it might mean to someone you don’t know if you were to take just a few extra moments of your time and gather those used clothes together. You can call your local charity clothing pick up location and arrange for them to come and get all of the used clothing you no longer want or need.

In addition to donating to a worthwhile charity and giving yourself some more room in your overcrowded closet, you will also get a receipt for the value of your clothing that you can use for tax deductions at the end of the year. That is a win/win, don’t you think?