If you’re like the vast majority of people all throughout the country, you have more articles of clothing than you know what to do with. After all, with the average person consuming upwards of 68 articles of clothing over the course of the year, the average adult of today now consumes up to double what an adult in the United States would have been consuming just 20 years in the past. For most people, this means a surplus of clothing hanging in their closets, lying in their wash baskets, and folded in their drawers. Getting rid of some of this clothing can be a great thing, as it will allow them to simplify their lives and cut out what they are not using.
But how do you know what clothing you should be parting with and what clothing you should keep? It can be a hard choice to make, but there are a few ways that you can make such judgement calls. For one thing, how long has it been since your wore each piece of clothing? For those living in climates where there are only one or two seasons, each article of clothing should be worn at least once in the course of a six month span of time. If this is found to be not the case, it is likely time to part with that particular piece of clothing. In addition to this, it is important to note that you should likely get rid of all your clothing that simply no longer fits you, as such clothing no longer serves you any real purpose. Fortunately, this will help to narrow down your closet considerably, making at least this one aspect of your life all the more manageable.
Unfortunately, however, far too many people are simply throwing this clothing away, sending it to landfills, instead of finding another, better way to part with it. The data that has been gathered on the subject more than backs up this claim, showing that the average American person will toss up to 70 pounds of textile goods, all within the course of just one single year. And with only around 15% of all textiles in this country actually recycled, they now make up around 5% of all municipal waste generated, amount to more than ten and a half million tons entering our landfills on a yearly basis. As most of you are likely to already be all too aware of, this is something that comes at a huge environmental cost, to say the very least.
But even though only around 15% of all clothing is being donated, you can still make a difference through donating clothing to charity instead of throwing it away. As a matter of fact, donating clothing to charity is what has kept upwards of four and a half billion pounds of used clothes out of landfills on a yearly basis. And with more and more people donating clothing to charity on a regular basis, this number is only likely to increase and to grow. Already, donating clothing to charity and knowing when to donate clothes and where to donate household items has already made a considerable difference. Back in the year of 2006, now just over ten years in our past, for instance, we were only, as a collective nation, donating around two and a half billion pounds of clothing per year. Already, we can see that this number has risen quite tremendously indeed, to say the very least.
But when donating clothing to charity, you’ll want to pick a charity with a message that you believe in. For many people, wounded veterans charities provide the perfect place for donating clothing to charity. Helping disabled veterans and helping families in need go hand in hand for many such charities, making donating clothing to charity an easy thing to do when people know where their clothing is going and who it will be helping.
At the end of the day, donating clothing to charity is a hugely important thing. Not only does it benefit our environment, but many members of our communities as well. Therefore, donating clothing to charity is something that matters quite immensely indeed.
