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things we no longer wear

always trying

Veteran

Shortly after the pandemic there were signs "no donations" at the 2nd hand places that I took my nice things. Now they have a person checking what they accept and what they reject at the Salvation Army. Don't have a close goodwill. I sold some at items at my garage sale and am keeping a few things for the next garage sale. I am wondering if all the 2nd hand places just have way too much junk. Seems people are dumping things like worn shoes, stained and worn clothing, etc. So they have to much stuff to dispose of. What do you all do with stuff when you no longer want them?
I know at the Laura's House where I used to donate they have volunteer sorters. There was always a big pile of garments that were bagged up for discarding. The pile for resale was much smaller. So we need to only donate things that others will want--not use these places as dumping grounds----

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25 replies

Latest reply was from Zaeobi

Kathie

Veteran

In my local area, there are groups that collect specifically for fabric donation, used/worn sneakers, "anything with a plug", and a charity that collects only usable children's clothing. It definitely takes space and time to keep everything sorted, but I do what I can to get items to the right place.

kellygirl

Veteran

I was thinking the same thing as I filled up a bag to donate. The thought crossed my mind--does anyone really want this stuff? Everything is in decent/good shape - just no longer in style. After two years of not wearing skinnies with tall boot and longish tops, I'm purging them. It would be different if they were consignment quality but they're just basics from places like the Gap or probably the Rack.

The Cat

Veteran

Where I live, the community has charity bins for clothing, textiles and footwear that people no longer want to keep. In fact, we are strongly requested by the authorities to put such items in those special bins instead of treating them like other garbage.

All items put in the charity bins have to be clean, but they might be torn. They get sorted later. Some items of high quality will be sold in local second-hand shops where the profit is used to support education, food and medicines for people in poor countries. Generally, however, warm clothes are sent to needy people in Eastern Europe, while summer clothes are sent to needy people in Africa. Clothes and textiles of poor quality will be recycled, in production of cloths etc.

Knowing that everything I put in those charity bins will somehow be reused
makes it easier for me to edit and purge.

The organizations behind the above mentioned bins are UFF / Humana People to People. More info here: https://www.humana.org/what-we-do

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

Picking up Kathie’s point—H&M and Patagonia and some others will take used clothing to recycle into new stuff. So even though no one wears exactly the garment you drop off, it also doesn’t wind up polluting the air in Ghana as the landfill is burned.
TheCat, this is where much of the clothing sent to Africa goes https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/ne.....-disaster/

Cardiff girl

Veteran

There was a campaign here a few years ago using the slogan donate don’t dump and it was shocking how much rubbish people were actually dumping.The volunteers had tales to tell and used tongs and rubber gloves to go through the bags.
There are many ways to recycle things but sometimes it’s hard for people to access them so they take shortcuts and dumping stuff at the charity shops is one way of getting rid of things easily.Really we should all ask ourselves would l want to buy this before donating it!

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

I am very aware of this because I used to sort through BAGS and BAGS of wardrobe donations at Dress For Success Seattle. It was NOT fun...

That's why there is something to be said for passing items on in good condition!

https://youlookfab.com/2020/07.....condition/

Most of the time, I pass on items in good condition to people I know who will use them with a happy heart. When items have bitten the dust, I try to recycle them.

nemosmom

Veteran

It’s a great question. I am lucky to have textile recycling bin at our city dump. So, any pieces that are stained, or too tatty to pass on go there.

There are a handful of charity shops that will resell your goods clothes to raise money for their cause (we have a SPCA and a ORT here). Our local dry cleaner takes in old office attire and provides it to people who need interview outfits or work clothes.

In my old town, there was a local mom group that did clothing swaps. Maybe you have something similar?

For anything in great shape that I can’t resell, I pack it up and send it to ThredUP. There, you can choose a credit for your pieces they sell, or to donate the proceeds from your cleanout.

Echo

Veteran

Our Goodwill takes anything in terms of clothing, but I always sort for them, giving a bag of good things that can be used and clothing for recycling.

But my Goodwill no longer accepts furniture. I can understand not taking baby items due to liability, but no furniture at all? Maybe they just had too much due to the pandemic, but as a student, everyone got their furniture from Goodwill! I don't know what to do with nice furniture items if I can't take them to Goodwill!

Sal

Veteran

It’s such a complex nuanced topic. Clothing I find simple compared to shoes or used appliances or IT. I often cut up old active wear or softer pieces to use as rags at home or in our workshop.

And I do agree with Angie that sometimes an early donation is better than five years later.

JAileen

Veteran

The nonprofit I belong to gets so much stuff that we only take things three days a week now, when there can be a volunteer dedicated to accepting it. When we opened after being closed for a year we were swamped. I was volunteering at the cash register and it really did look like people were Marie Kondoing their homes. Those who shopped got some wonderful things, both clothing and household items. My area is not fashion forward, so things that are not recent still sell. However, we don’t sell items that are stained, holey, or worn out. Our thrift store has a reputation for having good things, and our proceeds go to help the needy in our community.

Re furniture, we take it if we have space available.

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

Echo, for the furniture, you can see if there’s a Freecycle group online for your area, or see if the Habitat for Humanity Restore can accept it or direct you to a place that can. I’m pretty sure Craig’s list include a section for free stuff, or can sell things for $1, if you’re required to list a price. Bonus is that you can have them pick it up.

Jaime

(website)

Veteran

Wow, this topic hits home. The month or so before Passover is the biggest season for clothing donation in Israel as everyone cleans for the holiday/spring cleaning, etc. The charity shop where I work is not the most known in our town, does not have a super convenient drop off point, and there are city sponsored clothing recycle bins all over the place. Nonetheless, we have been receiving about 1.5 TONS of donations a WEEK. And much of it are things that the shop doesn't sell like children's clothing and bedding. And even the adult clothing is full of very worn clothing that is also not suitable for selling. Plus odd miscellaneous things you would not believe. And this is from people whom are even bothering to separate their clothing and donate them. The amount of textile trash is mind boggling.
There is no solution I can see. For those of you that bother to sort your donations and look for places that will appreciate them I salute you.

cat2

Veteran

Some municipalities have textile recycling.

Jenni NZ

Veteran

We have textile recycling available through a privately owned business called Save Mart. Some of what is donated there is sold through its second hand (thrift) stores and some is recycled, some is also sent overseas to Papua New Guinea. I make sure everything I donate there (in the “clothing bins”) is clean but some might have holes, it could then be recycled. I still feel uncomfortable about it and where it may go, but overall I feel I have got good use already out of what I am donating and this may give it another life? I did read about what happens in Papua New Guinea to the clothes, mostly they get a second life there as there is not much clothes manufacturing there.
If anything is really old like broken shoes I will put them in my own trash, better to go to landfill straight from here than go through more steps? Tricky subject for sure.

ophelia

Veteran

Dumping ground is correct! People who can’t afford to pay retail do not want stained, torn, pilled, ratty, worn out items. The massive amount of clothes make it impossible for the sorters to examine everything. I’ve found pants w/ blood-stained crotch! Thrifts should not function as trash cans.

Sal

Veteran

That’s really sad Ophelia.

Anonymous

I just put them into the clothing bins, or donate to a local thrift shop. Poor condition textiles can be recycled, so I'd rather that than landfill. I have just thrown in the trash some of moms old shoes that were broken/dry rotted, but in general I avoid it. Refuse (most important), reduce, recycle, reuse, rot (compost) is the rule in this house!

Janet

(website)

Veteran

I donate to various places, give away, take to consignment if the items are nice enough to get a bit of a cash return. Occasionally I’ll eBay or Poshmark designer pieces.

As a last resort for worn-out things I take them to our local landfill, which has a receptacle for fabric recycling.

Anonymous

I sell what I can on Poshmark, & generally donate the rest to a charity for victims of domestic violence. I have also given clothing & shoes to a lady who has done work at our home to get it ready to sell. I don’t sell or donate anything that’s in bad condition. I don’t think anyone wants to wear worn-out clothing.

Rejoiceandbe

I volunteer at a local thrift store and have observed (and sorted) a range of donations. It seems to me that sometimes it is easier for people to part with their excess "stuff" if they feel that it is going to a good cause. I see a range of emotions on people's faces as they drop off their donations - mums who are sad that their youngest child has outgrown their toys; seniors who are downsizing; people who are relieved to clear of clutter.
Our store is small enough and local enough that we are happy to take these donations and divert as much as possible from landfill. What is not saleable is sorted. Metals are given to the local service clubs for resale, grungy linens and towels go to the animal shelter and clothing to a charity that resells rags for paper manufacture. It's time consuming but we feel that we are meeting a community need for "permission" to let go.

Joy

Veteran

A local art museum with a textile exhibit had a video that followed a bundle of used clothing cast offs from a US thrift store to a small town in India where women and children had to sort through the stuff to see if anything was worth saving. The bundle was huge and filled the back of a truck. What is sold hinderers local fabric craftsmen and has done away with national dress. It was sad. Most second hand shops are at the mercy of their volunteers for the choices, which reflect the volunteer’s tastes, not what is actually wanted. These countries do not want our cast offs. They contribute to job loss and pollution. I don’t know what the solution is.

Jules

Veteran

It's due to the burden of sorting that I don't feel bad dropping my stuff at Value Village, a for-profit business that has various streams (resale, textile recycling etc). At least people are being paid to sort items. I'm sure it's problematic in other ways. I see people being quite particular about where they want to send specific things and other than perhaps kids' clothes, I don't think things have quite the same value as people ascribe to them (eg. the women's shelter regularly asks for clothes in plus sizes, not size zero). The last time I tried to go through my stuff for a specific refugee family being sponsored by friends of friends we were told women's size L, so I found a few things in good condition that I thought might be useful. When I eventually saw a picture of the family, the sole female was definitely not an L, probably an S. I'm glad I also made a cash donation. Why not let a business which has some idea of what sells where figure it out?

LaPed

Veteran

I don’t mind sorting. Our local thrift stores, which are always short staffed and in need of volunteers, are overwhelmed with donations so unsalable stuff often ends up in a dumpster. The two animal shelters near me usually turn away old sheets and towels because they already have more than they can store. I take anything with holes or stains to a textile recycling program instead. I keep a bag in the garage and fill it up perhaps once or twice a year.

Jenni NZ

Veteran

I agree with Jules, that’s why I am willing to let Save Mart ( a for-profit business similar to Value Village) have some of my clothing including my textile recycling. I have also benefited from purchasing from their store several times.

Zaeobi

(website)

Veteran

Even though it may technically be someone's job, I still sort through my donations to make sure I'm not giving away anything in bad condition. I'm pretty sure no one wants to wear stained clothing - whether they're poor, needy, African, European or Asian - let alone have to sort through someone else's stains, lol! Erghh...

Back home, I would drop my donations at a high street charity store where I had a relationship with the owner (used to volunteer there) so I knew what sort of clothing they were looking for. Driving made it so much easier to do a big haul!
Anything outside of that MO was taken back home to Pakistan as hand-me-downs (the pushchair I used as a child is *still* being used over there now, after my own siblings - they don't make 'em like they used to lol!) Anything in worse condition, I'd cut into rags.

HK is weird in that, although charity shops do exist here, there isn't a big secondhand market due to cultural taboos around buying pre-owned (in particular, my MIL is worried we'll pick up something that may have belonged to someone now deceased). Sooo I sadly could no longer use old clothes as rags whilst living there - she'd insist on buying a brand new teatowel for it instead...

As a result, secondhand shops here are either the hipster vintage variety (which I never donate to because I don't know what's 'in' lol) or Salvation Army (usually far away from me). So I instead use the recycling bins for various charities nearby to home (no car). Though I'd say they're more like giant skips than 'bins' - big enough for someone to crawl into! (Unfortunately some folk have actually done this in the past to keep warm...)
Sooo thankfully this means that the charities regularly sort through the donations they receive to avoid that from happening - you see them doing it right there, by the skips.

As for clothing in worse condition, I no longer live somewhere where moth holes etc are an issue, so I have not faced that issue yet - that said though, small holes are easy enough to darn. So I now have a local community where we will donate clothing to anyone who's new to HK & struggling (HK has very few official resources for refugees since the govt don't home any of them here permanently but also don't allow them to work... as you can imagine, money is tight!)