Minimize & Donate Clothing & Help the Poor in your nation & globally

Most charities that you donate to resell the clothes for profit to aid in their cause, their organization or people in need. However, make sure that you are donating to a reputable charity. I always make it a habit of checking charity Navigator or the Better Business Beaureau, but smaller charities may not be listed there. In that case, I do a google search of the charity and take a look at their website and activities. I also check their WHO IS information, to see who registered the website, although that is not always a clear indicator because a volunteer may have purchased the domain for the site. Reputable charities usually have a .ORG domain. I like to check the charity because even though it is clothing I may not be in need of, I have seen people selling used clothing on stands, such as in Canal Street in NY for personal profit. A charity sells back clothing, but at least some of the money from the sales go to fund research for illness or to help the homeless, etc.

I wish there was a way that the clothing would go directly to the poor, such as how the New York Coat Drive gives coats directly to the homeless. I am sure that many really needy and poor people cannot afford the clothing. However, most reputable charities do use the money to help others, such as Goodwill or Housing Works, which uses it's proceeds to help the homeless and people with HIV.

In many third world nations, things are so dire that I have seen many documentaries of India and Africa where the children are not wearing clothes not due to cultural customs, but because the family can barely get 2 meals a day, much less buy clothes.

Whatever clothes cannot be sold in some charity shops, like Salvation Army, Oxfam or Kinderkriegshilfe,  are sold by the shops to wholesalers, who pay a small amount for them. Then these clothing are exported to third world countries, where they become rags or are sold in the second hand clothing market. So, people in third world countries still have to pay for the clothing, but it is less than buying a new item.

So, donating your used clothing does not help poor people 100% as they have to purchase it, but it help organizations with their mission as well as provide cheaper options to those less fortunate. Additionally, you clear out your house and also help the environment.

If you would like to help the less fortunate directly, perhaps holding a garage sale, ebay sale or yard sale is a good way to make money and then donate money directly to charity organizations to help the poor in your country or other countries. There are lots of people in need everywhere, and most of us really don't need all that we have.

A few great charities for those in the U.S. in addition to those mentioned above are:

Planet Aid

Vietnam Veterans of America

Goodwill


Housingworks

Salvation Army

Oxfam

Kinderkriegshilfe

Please feel free to add any more charities that you know of, and I will add more to this post as I come across them as well.

Most of all, forgive yourself for having over consumed in the past, but make a decision to not do so in the future. You can then use your funds directly to further your life as well as help others, rather than purchasing things and storing them up unused in your home.