Donated Tees and Housewares Go to Charity

Thursday 03rd of June 2010 09:48:56 PM

Donated Tees and Housewares Go to Charity

All those old t-shirts, sweaters, children’s clothing the kids outgrew, and housewares stored in closets are worth something to charities. It’s amazing how many things people own that never see the light of day and are just taking up space in the closets.

TK Maxx and HomeSense in the UK decided to do something about this situation. The companies held a biannual charity event and collected all the unwanted clothing and housewares their customers were willing to donate. The ‘Give Up Clothes’ events have been enormously successful. The last event was held in April and £2.3 million worth of clothes and other items were collected. Generous shoppers also donated £250,000 in cash.

So where do all these collections go? They are going to the shops of Cancer Research UK which is a nonprofit charity organization. Donated items are collected for approximately 3 weeks during each event. TK Maxx and Homesense provided free donation bags to customers to encourage donations.

The Trading Director of Cancer Research UK is Simon Ledsham. He said, "[Our partnership with TK Maxx] just continues to go from strength to strength. We were really pleased to have HomeSense supporting the charity for the first time this year too." In the past the charity event was sponsored only by TJ Maxx which has raised £9.5 million between 2004 and the most recent event. Supporting the event are a number of celebrities who agreed to let their photos be used in advertisements, The celebrities included famous faces like that of Jade Jagger and Liz McLarnon and many others.

It’s easy to let old clothes collect in closets and to eventually just toss them. But this event is held twice a year and those old clothes are put to good use when donated to Cancer Research UK. So start cleaning out your closets but save those used clothes liketees and housewares for the next collection event. Cancer Research UK needs your help to continue doing its research work in over 35 cities in the United Kingdom.