Giving to charity is an important part of many people’s lives. Helping those in need when you have the means, particularly giving donations to veterans, is simply the right thing to do. This is why in 2014, Americans gave roughly $360 billion in charitable donations. Why we should give is a question that most people have an answer to. A more difficult question to answer, however, is when should we give to charity.
When you have just completed a closet purge
Some people are able to spend an afternoon looking through their clothes and decide what to donate on the spot. However, the danger of this method is that we are often tempted to think, “Well, I might wear that someday if a very specific situation arises.” In this way, we end up keeping clothes “just in case,” when we will never actually wear them.
To avoid this, many folks have turned to the “hanger technique.” This strategy takes the guesswork out of donation. To start, turn all the hangers in your closet the “wrong” way — that is, having the open part of the hook facing you. When you wear something, turn the hanger around. After a predetermined amount of time — people often do one month — take a look at your closet. Any clothes with hangers that are still turned the wrong way are clothes that you do not wear in the course of a month, and thus probably do not need. Once the month is over, that is the perfect time to head to nearby clothing drop off locations for charity organizations that you support.
At the outset of the cold seasons
While summer clothes are essential, they tend to be easier to acquire than big winter coats. The stakes are higher as well; people who do not have warm enough clothes in the winter are vulnerable to frostbite and illness. For this reason, it is essential that there are enough donations to veterans that include warm layers. If you have outerwear that you can spare, bring it to a donation organization when people will need it most — when the leaves are turning and the temperature is dropping.
When you have decided it is time to donate some clothes, head to your nearest donation location to ensure that your items go toward helping military families and those in need!