Old Clothes. Who should I give them to?

st. joeseph or CHOC

we got rid of a ton of clothes last year... I chose a donation bin based on convenience (it's next to the liquor store down the street lol).

((((2 birds))))

Do you have Occupy Medical or something like that that passes the clothes on for free? A comprehensive free clinic? When I gave Greg's clothes away I wanted to make sure that they would be distributed for free. I guess you might not have Warming Centers in Southern California, eh?

Big project you've got going on!

i can tell you this - 

old tshirts and the like will never make it on to anyones back in most cases.

i worked in a papermill for many years and we purchased rags by the bale. bales were the size of full size refrigerators.

all old donated tshirts. 

im sure the cash we paid went to good use helping out those in need but the folks who folded up their tshirts for pickup or dreamed of their old shit getting worn again were misled.

One of my neighbors was recently collecting clothes for some Kenyan Stanford students. They needed mostly warm clothes. THeres another neighbor doing a clothing drive for kids in Cambodia - she's traveling to an orphanage there soon. I suggest asking your neighbors..or just going with convenience and dropping the stuff off a St Vincent de Paul, or the drop boxes at the liquor store.

The clothes I gave in the winter were handed directly to people who were unhoused and cold, and the ones in the summer were shared with other people without homes.

I hope the money collected by that the people who sell to the paper mills is used wisely.

i bring old clothes to the home depot in passaic. there's a drop off box but i leave them in front of the box. the day laborers sprint to the bags and take what they want. i know those clothes are not going to be sopping up oil on a factory floor.

yes me too judit. i guess the $ serves a greater good than the shirts themselves. those trucks need gas

Candyfrog sent me a box of choice T-Shirts some time ago, and they were too large for my skinny frame. The plan was to learn quilting, but a few have been passed along to other Zoners who(m) would actually wear them. I still intend to learn Quilting.

My old stuff goes into 'Woods-Wear' and then oil rag material.

Woodchucks & Chipmunks laugh at my fashion.

Those clothing bins popping up everywhere are usually used for profit.  A quick google search and you can read about it.

Yes, And I don't often use those bins, but it's still better then putting the stuff in the garbage, especially for shoes and clothing that are too fugly to be worn - or donated to non profits.

>Those clothing bins popping up everywhere are usually used for profit

 i can see this for sure. this is why i leave stuff outside the box. some unfortunate poking around the box will really use the stuff.

and stu - 

  no dead tshirt quilt for husky?

Getting Rid Of Stuff Is AWESOME ! I Recently Did That !!

Stu, I sent Betsy some tour shirts some years back. Opposite, I couldn't fit anymore.

Good ole' Grateful Dead shirts.

The bins are so shady.  I run a business and I get a bin appearing in our lot about once every couple months.  The first one that appeared I tried to call to get picked up because clothes were everywhere, dirtying our lot.  I couldn't get anybody to respond.  Come to find out, this bin wasn't approved by corporate and they illegally placed them on private property.  The most recent one that appeared in the darkness of night looked to have been made in a garage.  All wood with a simple pad lock and stenciled spray paint with a random, gmail email, lol.

^

the "unsecure" bins sometimes serve as crash pads for local homeless drunks around here

Candyfrog,I am still going to learn how to work a sewing machine. Don't worry, your T-shirts are still safe and/or gone to good  homes. Those who(m) leave the stuff near the bins are doing the Right thing. Someone left a few sacks of stuffed animals one day, and I saw an opportunity. "Which of these is the sturdiest?"  So I swiped a Teddy Bear for Hüsky, and that is his truck Bear. He has not destroyed it yet, although he attempts to. That Bear is his Pal.

Really, it is his pet stuffed animal.  That is his Road Bear.

At home, he has a stuffed Lion.which shows minimal signs of shredding. It is his Imperial Lion of Judah. He got that one in New Hampshire last year about Phil's Birthday.

mark - if the org is legit and they sell the stuff as rags and then use the cash to operate thats not necessarily a bad thing.

like i said earlier the trucks don't run on air and the homeboys emptying the boxs aren't working for free either.

Maybe a free medical clinic that offers other services? Yes, Eugene has a great one (Whitebird), but other places must have them, too.

Another scenario is that the stuff goes to Goodwill or St. Vincent de Paul and they sell them to people who are looking for inexpensive clothes. Not my first choice, but at least something...

I'll drop off my clothes at the PADS / homeless shelter. The clothes get to people who need them at no cost.

If there is a bin at an actual thrift store that sells stuff cheap (ir, not consignment shop), that can be an option.  I shop at the ghetto thrift sometimes and most folks who are there are there because they need $2.99 flannels.  Oh wait, that's pretty much what Judit said.

Cleaning  out the clothes makes you feel good! I think that much of the old clothes is treated like a commodity w companies buying big bales of  it, sorting it and reselling to places like Africa. Kinda like scrap metal and wire. Think Goodwill and salvation army are into it.   I love watching a show in a third world and kids are rockin our old first world t shirts in the background. I usually hit a "good bin" right near salvation army and be done with it. Outside the box is a thought. I just want folks to use it.

Our fair community has a resource center which accepts donations of all kinds.

Clothes, food, rides to appointments, and such are provided to those in need.

It takes a village.

I buy people cheeseburgers and brag about it online

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Here is a NPR story about what happens to recycled and donated clothes in America and how they sort it all out.  Much of it ends up as rags or shipped in bundles to Africa:

http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2013/12/10/247362140/the-afterlife-of-...

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MarkD, I am in Columbus, OH.

The Clintonville-Beechwold Resource Center is a gem in our neighborhood.

We have a local org. - Vina Moses - that makes sure that the clothing and other donations they receive go directly to poor people first. Only stuff they feel can't be used locally goes into the overseas recycling stream.

2x post.

Red Cross is usually looking. They distribute to folks who have lost everything to fires. 

A local woman in our community recently opened up a small goodwill type non profit thrift store - specifically to provide job training and employment to a group of single mothers enrolled in a rehab program she started. The women also create original art for sale. I have dropped off a few bags of clothing there and also done some shopping.