You may have seen charity clothing drop off locations in your neighborhood and wondered if anyone used them. Is it worth your time to sort through your junk and make household donations? You might even wonder which are the best charities to donate to.
Donations for non profit are definitely worth your while, for a number of reasons. Stuff that seems like it has little value might actually still have real value: to others, but also to you!
When you make donations of clothes, you are benefiting people in need. If you’re like the average American, every year you toss away almost 70 pounds of household textiles. You might think some of your clothes are in too bad a shape to be useful to anyone else, but the truth is that nearly 100% of used clothes could be recycled in some way.
If you take your 70 pounds to clothing drop off locations, that’s 70 pounds of potential good for those in need: both in your community and internationally. If you want to make sure your old things will have new life blessing someone else, though, don’t just use any clothing drop off locations: make sure you support charities with an IRS 501(c)(3) IRS tax-exempt status.
Used clothing donations are also good for the environment. Only 15% of household textiles are currently being recycled, but Americans are buying twice as many clothes on average as they were just a few decades ago. Every year we throw out over 10 billion pounds of used clothes into landfills! Call a donation pick up or find clothing drop off locations in your area and keep your textiles out of the municipal dump. You’ll be doing the environment, and the future, a huge favor.
Donations for non profit are also tax deductible, which is a win for you. Both clothes and household goods are deductible, in fact. You might not realize that something as ordinary as your old coffee maker could get you between $4 and $15 as a tax write-off! Take your used men’s overcoat or an old suit to local clothing drop off locations, and those items could get as much as a $60 write-off. Just remember to get receipts if you make donations in excess of $250.
Next time you pass one of those clothing drop off locations, think about the people who might benefit from clothes you haven’t worn at all in the past year. And if you find yourself wondering whether it’s worth taking the time to go through your home and closet and see what you could do without, the answer is a probably “yes”! Considering that you can help families in need, support green charities, and take a deduction from your taxes, there’s really no reason not to look for clothing drop off locations near you. That old shirt might not fit you anymore, but it still has real value!
