winter wear Archives - Chicago Textile Recycling

Holiday Clutter

January 27, 2022January 25, 2022

Holiday gift giving and the typical excess that comes with it is a month behind us. A new year has arrived and with it possible resolutions to live healthier (amongst others) in a myriad of ways. You may be walking through your home thinking how do I own this much stuff? Even if your home hasn’t reached hoarder level capacity, clutter has a definite effect on stress levels and finding joy in where you live. I experience it myself in our cozy home with three young children. Toys are everywhere! Clutter abounds and I feel as if I spend most of my waking moments cleaning or tidying and attempting to secretly give things away to donation sites. So what can you do when excess and clutter abound, as you feel your stress levels rise and your fuse grow short with those who share your living space?

Re-Gift or Swap

One option of what to do with Holiday gifts that didn’t quite meet your needs or was simply one gift too many is to re-gift it to someone you know. Or perhaps swap it with a friend. Did you receive a pair of shoes that don’t quite fit, but your best friend wears that size? Give the shoes to him/her. Or even swap them if your friend offers something in exchange. Reduce your clutter by letting go of items that don’t have a place in your home.

Donate

Another option for too many gifts or toys is to donate them. Here at Chicago Textile Recycling, we accept stuffed animals and most textiles – here is our list of acceptable items. Many thrift stores accept all toys (hard and soft) in good condition. They also accept kitchen items, furniture and much more. A different way to donate is through a local “Buy Nothing” Facebook group where one can post free items no longer needed. This option for decluttering can potentially help others out in your community as well. For a textile recycling bin or partner resale store in your area, please contact us.

Donate to Refuge

For a specific way to declutter and help those in need, you can reach out to a local homeless or women’s shelter or other place of refuge. With ongoing admissions at these places of refuge, they are typically always in need of items for their residents. Many popular necessities are clothing, bedding, toiletries, etc. Reach out to your local village hall or simply google places of refuge in your area to find out how to connect with nearby shelters.

Animal shelters are also at times in need of donations, such as blankets, towels and pillows for animal bedding. If these are items you have in excess, call local shelters to ask for needed donations.

Donate Blankets & Winter Wear to Homeless

Last year we posted this blog about where to donate winter wear. Another great option for outgrown or excess winter wear and blankets or sleeping bags is to donate them to the homeless. Typically this can be done through shelters (as mentioned in the previous heading). Sometimes organizations also hold coat drives in the Fall and Winter to help homeless and families in need. As noted in the blog, the Chicago Bears typically hold an annual coat drive in conjunction with the Salvation Army. Though canceled for this year, Salvation Army continues to work to provide those in need with winter coats and offers opportunities for partners to hold coat drives to do the same.

Toys to Hospitals

Once your winter items are cleared out, toys can be the next category to tackle. If your home is similar to mine, it can constantly feel like toys are everywhere. Though we try to contain them in our playroom and the kids’ rooms, we find them spread throughout the kitchen, living room, bathroom and our bedroom on a daily basis. If toys are a large category you would like to downsize, one great place to reach out are local hospitals. For sick children stuck in hospital beds all day for unknown and ranging periods of time, toys can make their stay that much more tolerable. If you have toys in great condition that still work well, look into local hospitals to see what items they accept for donations.

Books to Schools & Libraries

Books are another great item that can be donated to a variety of places. Whether to a library or a school, books offer a way of learning, escape and imagination building to children and adults alike.

If you’re looking for some great organizations that accept book donations for charity and other causes, here is a great article sharing local Chicagoland places to donate.

Return or Exchange

Another option for unwanted gift items is to return or exchange them. If you were given a receipt for a holiday gift or if it still has a sales tag attached, you know exactly where to return the item. For those gifts without receipts or sales tags, you may need to gently ask the giver where he/she bought the item. Returns and exchanges give you the option of buying new items for others or more appropriate and needed items for yourself.

Sell

A last option for clearing out Holiday clutter is selling items you no longer need. There are many online opportunities to sell gifts or possessions, some of which are ebay, facebook marketplace and online resale sites, such as poshmark, mercari, etc. Simply uploading pictures and posting a short description opens opportunities to rid your home of excess.

Options Abound

With all of these options of what to do with excess and clutter, it is easy to clear out belongings you no longer need or want. Regardless of which option you choose, clearing away the clutter will have mental and emotional benefits in decreasing stress in your home. And reducing stress is always a good way to start the new year! For more information on Chicago Textile Recycling and donation locations, please contact us here.

Programs

New Year, New You

January 5, 2021December 11, 2020

Happy New Year! 2020 was a year to be remembered. Covid-19 made its way around the entire world, taking countless lives and causing fear in every home. Schools shut down and shifted to e-learning. Countries refused to import used clothing for several months. Thrift stores and donation bins were overwhelmed by donations of those stuck at home during prime spring cleaning time.

2021 is a brand new year! We have a new president taking office in the United States. The pandemic remains, but there is hope on the horizon, hope of a vaccine, hope of lower death rates as the initial onslaught subsides, hope of a new way of living as billions stayed at home, slowed down and reconnected. Whatever 2020 brought to your life, the new year is the perfect time to reassess, continuing on with the positive gained from last year, and letting go of the negative.

As you reassess for the year ahead, here are a few positive things you can implement in your own life this new year to care for our planet and for yourself:

5 Easy Recycling Resolutions

Last year, we posted this blog for the new year all about recycling resolutions. In it, we challenged our readers to:

Recycle Textiles
Reduce Textiles
30 Item, 30 Day Wardrobe Challenge
Recycling More than Textiles
Go One Step Further (with alternative wrapping paper, reducing junk mail, etc)

These resolutions help shape finite ways to play a part in caring for our planet and reducing anxiety in your own life around owning too much stuff. Recycling helps us feel good about doing good and slows down the amount of stuff that reaches the landfill each year. These ideas also give you avenues of creativity in finding alternative methods to doing everyday things such as picking clothes to wear or wrapping gifts. For the latter, check out this article posted last month about great alternatives to traditional wrapping paper.

Try Something New

As we continue to endure stay at home orders during our coldest season, why not try something new? If you are like me, being forced inside begins to make me feel like the walls are closing in, and though I am a transplanted southerner that would rather admire winter white by the window from the comfort of my warm home, I have three young children that often require my supervision outdoors.

When being stuck at home gets to be too much to bear, don that exquisite secondhand coat and that American-made, eco-friendly matching hat and gloves and see what fun new things you can try outside. For instance, I have never been on a snowmobile but would love to try it sometime. Neither have I cross-country skied. From what I’ve read from others, the key is dressing appropriately for the cold weather and committing to having fun!

Winter Wear

Have your children outgrown their coats and boots this year? Read this blog to see where to donate winter wear. Children’s resale sales abound in our area, and some have even gone online this year in the pandemic, allowing parents to shop from home and simply pick up items the following week curbside.

Reach out to neighbors and fellow moms to share items that children outgrow. Go through your own items and have your spouse go through theirs to pare down to what you most need and share your bounty with those in true need this winter. For those excess donations headed for your local thrift store, remember to check in with that location to find out pandemic hours and what they can and cannot accept. And never drop off to a location that is closed. Your items will not be resold but most likely head for a landfill if the location is overwhelmed and not accepting donations.

Happy New Year

As we head into this new year of the unknown, let us encourage each other to continue in hope. May we find fulfillment in doing good, in loving our neighbor and those inside our own homes well, in finding new (and old) ways of caring for our planet and in hoping for the future and for a time when this pandemic ends and we continue on in kindness. And may we always recycle our textiles. Happy new year!

Programs

Where to Recycle Winter Wear

January 14, 2020January 13, 2020

The new year has arrived, and as you start to unpack all the accumulated gifts from their boxes and piles in a post-Holiday haze, take stock of new coats and scarves and hats and mittens and other wintry textiles you’ve received recently. As you unload the new, or the new to you, remember to clean out the old, the ill-fitting, the broken, the hole-y, and start a pile for the donation bin, or the resale store, but definitely not the trash can.

Here at Chicago Textile Recycling, we accept:

-coats

-jackets

-scarves

-hats

-mittens

The one wintry item we don’t accept is winter boots, but with all of these cold weather items, we encourage you to donate the gently used ones to local charities and organizations that help members of your community. And although we do accept these items, a large percentage of the items we receive are sent to individuals in warm-weather, developing countries so there is not a large need for these items. Because of this, we encourage you to first donate to those in need in our local communities and city that could reuse winter items to help keep themselves warm this winter.

“The Center for the Disease Control and Prevention reported that from 1999 to 2011, a total of 16,911 deaths in the United States, an average of 1,301 per year, were associated with exposure to excessive, natural cold.”

Why Donate? – Winter is a Time of Need

Many families and individuals in our country struggle year round with bills, rent, and many other needs. Winter compounds all of these by adding the physical need to stay warm, including clothing and heat for your home. Those who sleep outside in the cold have an even harder time as they “face the risk of dehydration, frostbite, and/or hypothermia.” When pulling together donations of winter-related items, whatever they may be, please take the time to reach out to those who could really use these items, such as coat drives and other places described below.

Another population in great need during winter is children.

“41% of all [American] children are living in low-income households.”

The struggle is more ongoing with children because they outgrow boots and coats and jackets so quickly. Children are constantly in need of larger sizes in coats, jackets, mittens and boots. With winter already presenting a strain on low-income families to simply keep the heat on, an easy way to help those families in need would be providing new and gently used coats and other cold weather items.

So the question is, “How can I help?” Here are a few local places you can send your winter item donations:

Where to Donate – Coat Drives and Resale Stores

Both resale stores and coat drives are great options for donating winter items. Although many coat drives are run during the final weeks of Autumn, some have longer periods of collection and would love to have your donations in the new year.

Coat Drives

Salvation Army Chicago Bears Coat Drive is running from November 11th to February 28th. Partnered by Jewel-Osco, Salvation Army, and the Chicago Bears, this coat drive accepts new and gently used coats in Chicago and its suburbs to give to those in need this Winter. You can drop off donations at any Jewel-Osco location in the Chicagoland area. Read here for more information.

Button & Zipper is another local charity that disperses new and gently used coats to local Chicago homeless adults and at-risk youth. There are numerous collection sites at different companies in the Chicagoland area and their collection runs until February 28th also. Read here for more information.

Other places you can donate wintry items such as coats, scarves, hats, mittens, and boots are local homeless shelters or women’s shelters.

Host Your Own Coat Drive

Know of an area in need of coats and other winter items and feeling inspired to make a difference in your own community? You can partner with One Warm Coat, a national non-profit in setting up your own Winter Clothing Drive. Simply choose a local nonprofit in need to donate the items you collect. Read more about the process here. One Warm Coat provides free tools and resources to advertise your winter clothing drive.

Resale Stores

Resale stores are another great option for donating the winter items you no longer need or use. Local resale stores that serve your local community are especially important to choose as donations then go back into serving members of your own community either through work with local nonprofits and charities or at least providing affordable clothing to community members. Many of our partner stores are great options for this very reason, so feel free to contact us for information about stores we work with that serve their communities.

Where to Donate…Winter Boots

Although Chicago Textile Recycling bins are unable to accept winter boots, most resale stores will take them and resell them in store. You can drop them off with other winter items and textiles, which will provide low income families with an inexpensive way to shop for the wintry season.

Care for Real is a Chicago-based organization that serves low income families and persons in Chicago. They are always accepting donations of food, clothing, and personal care items. Winter coats, hats, scarves, shoes and boots were all listed under items in need for the clients they serve. Read more here.

And lastly, another great option is to donate shoes and boots to Share Your Soles, a local nonprofit that accepts new and gently used shoes and boots to give to those in need. They have numerous locations in the Chicagoland area accepting donations. Their goal is to provide shoes to those in greatest need of them around the world. These shoes are given away to recipients who may have never owned a pair of shoes. You can read more of the story behind the organization here.

Spread Warmth this Winter

Regardless of which of these great places you choose to share your winter wear, always remember to donate textiles you no longer wear and do not throw them away. We can share some winter warmth with our fellow neighbors in this small, simple way and keep the spirit of giving on into the new year.

(If you know of other organizations accepting gently used winter textiles and boots, please reach out to us on our facebook page so we can help get the word out.)

Statistics found here and here