PANDEMIC HALTS MOST CLOTHING DONATIONS

Hold spring-cleaning discards for later recycling

If this is the time when you usually do your spring cleaning, we have good and bad news for you. The good news: You can still organize and purge items from your closet. The bad news: You will have to hold on to most of them until shelter-in-place orders are lifted.

Following are guidelines for how to proceed and the status of the largest national organizations (which ones you choose to support because of religious or political affiliations are up to you).

Can I donate my clothes?

In general, no. It is certainly not advisable to dump bags of garments outside the doors of outlets like the Salvation Army and Housing Works in a rare expedition outside. The stores are closed, and the garments will simply be left where they are, ultimately adding to garbage or getting destroyed by weather. The network of Goodwill stores across the country are independently operated, but “98 percent are closed” currently, according to Goodwill Industries.

Should I still do my spring cleaning?

Yes. Using this time at home to organize your wardrobe and really think about what you wear (and why) could be a valuable head-clearing exercise, especially for the time when we emerge from hibernation and start to consider what’s next.

There is little doubt that buying habits will change after the pandemic, becoming more deliberate, out of both economic necessity and a shift in values.

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