Many Americans enjoy donating to charities every year. These are charities that help many kinds of people, from making donations to veterans, to helping families in need of natural disaster aid. Total giving to charitable organizations was $358.38 billion in 2014 alone. However, there are other ways to help charities besides pulling out the checkbook. Another common way to give to charity is by emptying the closet of gently used clothing items that you no longer wear. There are several reasons to donate your gently used clothing to charity, as these places put these donations to veterans and others in need to good use. This article will take a look at a few of those reasons.

• It Opens Up Space in Your Closet and Dresser: One reason to make clothes donations to charity is because it can open up space in your closet and dresser. There’s no getting around it: Americans buy at least twice as much clothing as they did 20 years ago, and all of that extra clothing takes up space. It’s not uncommon for many Americans to have more clothes than they actually need. One way to tell it’s time to let clothing go is if you haven’t worn a particular item in six months or more. By letting go of clothing items you no longer need or use, you’ll be opening up space in your closet that can be put to better use.
• Donations Go to Help Those in Need: Another reason to make a clothing donation to charity is because your clothing donations go to help those in need. As previously hinted at, one option is to make clothing donations to veterans charities, but there are many options beyond that. Most charities will accept donations of used clothing that can be used to help individuals or families in need, be it from personal circumstances or natural disaster that’s taken away everything they previously had.
• It Keeps Excess Waste out of the Landfill: And finally, a third reason to donate your clothing to charity is because it can keep excess waste out of the landfill. It’s estimated that Americans currently send 10.5 million tons of clothing to landfills every year, which is a lot of waste to be thrown away. To make it even worse, Americans only recycle or donate about 15% of their used clothing. If that percentage were raised to even 50%, that would equal millions of tons of clothing being kept out of the landfill. This in turn would help the environment, since too much waste is sent to the landfill each year already. The less that can be sent of any item, the better.

In conclusion, there re several reasons to donate your gently used clothing to charity. These reasons include opening up space in your closet and dresser, helping those in need, and keeping excess waste out of the landfill. These are, of course, just a few of the reasons for why you should donate your used clothing to charitable organizations.