Children grow out of clothes faster than we can blink. With perfectly-good clothes that the little ones can no longer wear, the idea of donating them may have crossed your mind.
However, are there any things to take note of before you pack those outfits and send them to the nearest thrift store? What are the existing platforms that accept them? Keep reading to find out more.
Before you decide to donate your child’s clothes, make sure to check if they are in decent, wearable condition. Are there large food stains that look awful? How about holes that your kid may have torn?
Many thrift stores and donation portals in Singapore conduct quality checks on the items they receive. Understandably, clothes with defects are not ideal, so make sure your articles of clothing pass the quality checklist so that they don’t end up thrown away and find themselves at the top of the landfill.
Before you donate the clothes, it’s always a good idea to wash them first. While some places do clean and disinfect their pieces before putting them on the rack, giving clean clothes is simply the good thing to do – you don’t want to give away dirty clothes!
It may seem like a hassle to wash clothes that you’re going to give away, but don’t forget that they will have new homes in the future, so treat them well!
Since we are talking clothes for children, places such as Praisehaven Mega Family Thrift Store and New2U Thrift Shop (currently not accepting donations, but will in the future) are great options to donate to. If your contributions are accepted, the proceeds of their sales will benefit those who need help. So not only are your child’s clothes going to help another family, but they will also support the thrift stores’ efforts to give back to the community.
If you are looking for more options, you can also choose to “bless” others in community groups. There are various ones Facebook for people to both request items and put up posts of the things they wish to give away. “Bless” is a lingo used in such circles to signify that you would like to give the items away.
Such groups include Bless for Mummies and Babies. With 5700+ members of mums looking to both give away and receive items, it’s a great platform to use if you want to know who your preloved items will go to.
In fact, you can also choose to post in communities that aren’t just catered to mothers. Sgfreecycle is a group that welcomes everyday Singaporeans. Many of their posts are by parents with young children, so there are definitely some on the site that would be interested in the clothes your child has grown out of.
If you have garments that are in poor condition, you don’t have to chuck them into the trashcan in defeat. Instead, you can recycle your clothes by giving them to organisations such as Greensquare.
Unwearable clothes will be given new life by being turned into industrial cleaning cloths so that their lifespan can be extended (just think about all the resources and manpower used to create the fabrics!).
Even though the clothes you donate will not be passed on to somebody else, don’t forget to wash them before giving them to Greenspace – clean fabrics are only common courtesy, after all!