If you’re looking to get rid of some of your old clothing, you are far from alone – at least just about anywhere you look here in the United States. This is due to the fact that clothing consumption rates throughout the country are high. Over the course of just one single year, the average American person will consume as many as 68 different articles of clothing and up to seven total pairs of shoes. This means that, in comparison to just a couple of decades in the past, our clothing consumption has doubled. And where an American woman living in the 1930s would have had, on average, around nine different outfits to choose from, the typical American woman of today now has at least 30 outfits, meaning that she has a new outfit for just about every single day of the month, something our ancestors could not even have conceived of as a possibility.
Therefore, it makes sense that most people have more clothing than they really know what to do with. However, getting rid of this clothing can be quite difficult. How do you choose what to keep and what to part with? Fortunately, the solution can be a more simple one than you might initially realize. For instance, you should be getting rid of anything that simply just no longer fits you – or no longer fits you well. Getting rid of pieces that are worn out is another must. And finally, if you live in a season where there are no more than two climates, you should likely also be getting rid of anything that has not been worn in at least six months or longer, as this clothing is not likely to be worn by you on a regular basis again.
But what should you be doing with all this clothing? For certain, you should not just be throwing it away. All too often, clothing and various other textile goods are simply discarded of. But this is almost certainly one of the worst things that you could be doing with your clothing, to say the very least on the subject matter. After all, waste is a growing problem not just here in the United States but all throughout the world in its entirety as well. Over the span of just one single year, a single person in the United States will dispose of, on average, more than 80 pounds of various textile goods. This means, with only around 15% of all textile products actually being donated to charitable organizations, that up to ten and a half million tons of clothing and other textile goods will make their way into landfills on yearly basis, something that is shocking and horrifying all at once.
But what can you do to change this number, this number that is so shocking and terrible in its repercussions to our world as we know it? Simply put, you can donate more clothing and more of your textile goods. After all, clothing donations and textile donations are acceptable for nearly all clothing and textiles, as nearly 100% of these products can be recycled in some way. And clothing donations, as discussed above, are quite easy to give – and nearly always free to do so, for that matter. And clothing donations do not just help to protect the environment – they help people in need as well.
After all, there are a great many charities out there that will accept these clothing donations. Clothing donations are commonly given to the American Red Cross, to name just one example. In addition to this, clothing donations are popular for military charities as well. Veterans charities will almost always accept clothing donations and other kinds of donations, as there are a great many veterans in this country who are in need of help. Fortunately, helping military families and helping families in need can very easily be a cumulative effort – and clothing donations are certainly a step in the right direction in terms of this.
At the end of the day, anything is better than throwing your old textiles away – and clothing donations help many people.
