Where to donate clothes, and what they accept

Sort by condition before you choose where to go

Make three piles. The first is clothes you would give a friend: clean, intact, with working zips and all buttons. The second is wearable but tired, such as faded T shirts, jeans with a thin knee, or a sweater that has pilled. The third is damaged beyond wearing, stained, torn, stretched out or smelling of mildew. Each pile has a different best destination, and mixing them makes more work for the people receiving your bag.

Charities that sell or give away clothing need the first pile. The second pile is still useful for some programs and for fiber recycling, and some of it can be rescued at home in ten minutes with our guides to removing pilling or sewing on a button. The third pile should go to textile recycling, not a thrift store. Wash everything first; donating clean, dry clothes is a basic courtesy and protects everything else in the bag. If you have not yet decided what to let go of, our guide to decluttering your clothes comes before this one.

Charity thrift stores

For most people, the easiest answer to where to donate clothes is a thrift store run by a nonprofit. Large national charities operate staffed drop off points across the country, and many cities also have local thrift shops that fund a hospital, a hospice, an animal shelter or a housing program. The staffed drop off matters: someone takes the bag, can tell you on the spot what they cannot accept, and can give you a receipt. The clothes are sold, and the money funds the organization's programs, so the most useful gifts are pieces that will sell: current, clean and in season.

Before you go, check the organization's website or call. Accepted items, hours and rules differ from store to store even within the same charity, especially for shoes, bedding, children's items and anything with a stain or tear. Some charities offer free donation pickup for larger loads in certain areas, often scheduled online; if you are asking who will pick up donations in your area for free, the charities' own pickup schedulers and your city's waste or recycling department are the places to look.

Shelters and programs that need specific clothes

To put clothes directly on someone who needs them, look to shelters, crisis centers, refugee resettlement agencies, school clothing closets and community fridges or mutual aid groups that collect clothing. These places give clothes away rather than selling them, so they need particular things at particular times: warm coats, boots, gloves and hats before winter, children's sizes at the start of the school year, and practical everyday clothes in larger and smaller sizes year round. Many post a current wish list, and following it is the single best way to make a donation count.

Programs that prepare people for job interviews accept professional clothing such as suits, blazers, dress shirts, skirts and leather shoes in good condition; our guide to what to wear to a job interview gives a sense of what such programs hand out. In fall, watch for seasonal coat drives run by schools, places of worship and local news outlets. Be aware that many shelters do not accept used underwear or socks for hygiene reasons and ask for new ones instead, and that some cannot store bulky donations, so ask before dropping off a car full.

Donation drop boxes: read the label first

Metal bins in parking lots are convenient, but they are not all charities. Some are run directly by a nonprofit, some by a for profit company that pays a charity for the use of its name, and some are for profit resellers or textile recyclers with no charity involved. None of these is illegal in itself, but you should know which one you are feeding. Connecticut's consumer protection department, for example, requires bins there to state in large letters whether they serve a charitable purpose, name the charity and the share it receives, and give the owner's contact details, and it has warned about look alike bins that imitate charities.

Before using a clothing donation drop box, read every panel. Look for the name of the organization, a phone number or website, and a statement of whether donations benefit charity. Look the organization up if the name is unfamiliar. Do not leave bags beside a full bin, where rain ruins them and they become litter, and remember that an unattended bin gives you no receipt if you care about a tax deduction.

Textile recycling for worn out clothes

Clothes too damaged to wear still have value as fiber for insulation, wiping cloths and new yarn. The EPA estimates that only about 13 percent of clothing and footwear in American household waste was recycled in 2018, which means most of it went to landfill or incineration. Many cities now run textile drop off points or clothes recycling bins, and some list a textile recycling center in their recycling guides; New York City, for instance, lists programs that accept ripped and damaged clothing alongside wearable items. Search your city or county name with textile recycling to find the local program.

Some clothing retailers also run take back programs for used garments of any brand, sometimes in exchange for a store voucher. Terms change, so check the current details in the store or on its site before you bring a bag. Whichever route you choose, keep textiles dry and separate from other recycling unless the program says otherwise, because wet or mildewed fabric often cannot be processed.

How to make a donation most useful

The uncomfortable part of donating clothes is that far more clothing is given away than local shoppers can use. Green America describes how unsold pieces typically move on from the shop floor to discount outlets and bulk sales, and finally to textile recyclers that cut them into rags, shred them for fiber or ship them overseas. The EPA's waste figures do not even count clothing that is reused, so nobody has a precise national picture. Giving well is not about giving more. It is about giving pieces that someone will choose: good condition, clean, in season and in the category the organization asked for.

A few habits help. Bag clothes by type or size and label the bag. Keep pairs of shoes together with a rubber band. Donate coats in early fall and swimwear in spring, when they are wanted. For children's clothes, check that jackets and hoodies in small sizes do not have drawstrings at the hood or neck; federal safety guidance tells resellers, charities included, to remove them from children's upper outerwear in sizes 2T to 12, and it is illegal to sell recalled products. If the pieces you hold are valuable, consider selling them online and donating the proceeds or the rest.

Receipts and tax deductions

If you itemize deductions in the United States, donated clothing can be deductible at its fair market value, which for used clothing is generally what similar pieces sell for in thrift shops, not what you paid. IRS Publication 526 says clothing and household items must be in good used condition or better to be deductible, with a narrow exception for single items claimed at more than $500 with a qualified appraisal. Ask for a receipt at a staffed drop off, list what you gave, and keep the record with your tax papers. Rules differ for larger totals and change over time, so check the current publication or a tax professional before claiming. In Canada, the rules for gifts in kind are set by the Canada Revenue Agency and differ from the American ones.