American Red Cross clothing donations are a much desired item to people in need from military families to victims of natural disasters to the homeless and needy. When you give used clothing donations to this non-profit organizations, they can help the people the need them the most. You may not every see who you are helping, but you can be happy knowing that your clothes donations very well could have saved someone’s life. Sometimes all a person needs to know is that someone cares. If you are donating, you care and that means the world to them.
Many people give American Red Cross clothing donations because it is their way of giving back to the community. Maybe they were once in a place that they needed help and the community was there for them, whatever the case may be, they are appreciated and donations show that thankfulness. There are many more reasons why giving to a non-profit organization is a good idea. Let’s go over a few of those.
To Feel Good About Yourself
It’s important to feel like you are making a difference. Feeling good about yourself goes above simply feeling sorry for the less fortunate. It is not referring to a snobby, holier than thou kind of attitude. It means to be glad that you can do something that makes a difference. You can bring some good into a person’s life who is probably experiencing mostly bad things at this point in time. American Red Cross clothing donations can show someone that somebody out there, cares about them and cares that they get back on their feet and have some fortunate things happen to them. There’s nothing wrong with feeling good about that.
To Get Over Yourself
It’s so easy to get wrapped up in our own little lives and forget about all the amazing things that we have been blessed with. We can tend to focus on the negative things and toss aside the positive as meaningless. Giving to charity is a great way to remember that you are apart of something far bigger. The world doesn’t revolve around you and your problems. In fact, you will likely realize that your problems are really not that big of a deal compared to what some of these other people are going through. It’s a great way to get some real perspective in your life.
To Pay Less Taxes
Donating has a great incentive- you can write it off on your taxes. Who doesn’t want to keep more of their hard earned money? The more you donate, the more you don’t owe in taxes. Just make sure that you get receipts every time you make a donation. If you use the pickup service and aren’t going to be home, you can ask the driver to leave your receipt in your mailbox. That way you can prove all of the things that you gave trough American Red Cross clothing donations. If you have underestimated what you are going to owe and find out that you probably will have to pay back to the government instead of getting a tax refund, giving donations is a great way to chip away at that number without having to change your budget at all.
To Stop Wasting Items
Americans as a whole go through 20 billion garments a year. That is more than 68 items of clothing and 7 pairs of shoes per person. That’s more than one new piece of clothing a week per person and a new pair of shoes more than every two months. Talk about wasteful. What happens to the old clothes once our fancy new things are filling up the closet? Trash can. Too many clothes get thrown in the dump that could have been gone to a good cause. Statistics show that more than 10 pounds of clothes per person get thrown away. Guaranteed, some of those could have been in good enough shape to donate to someone who need them. Reduce, recycle, reuse; by donating clothes, you are helping to save the environment one stitch at a time.
These are just some of the reasons why donating is better than throwing things away. Think about this the next time you are getting rid of ‘clutter’ in your home or closet.
