Throwing away clothes

[Blinkingheckythump]

I was at a playgroup and one of the parents said they'd just sorted out their kids clothing and thrown out the stuff they'd outgrown. This really surprised me as I've always passed on or sent outgrown or unworn clothing to a charity shop. Unless it's really badly worn, stained, damaged, or underwear I wouldn't just chuck clothing away and I thought it was the standard thing to reuse it. But the parent said it so casually and no one seemed surprised that it's made me wonder if I'm being unreasonable in assuming that it's normal to do it my way.

So aibu to think you don't just chuck clothing away?

Clothes should not be chucked away

I've always passed on decent stuff and charity shopped the rest.

I never chucked away wearable clothes - always pass on or give to charity.

She might not have meant it literally. When I say that I'm taking a bag of old clothes to the bin, I'm taking it to the charity donation/recycling bin.

Are you sure she literally meant she threw them in the rubbish? I’ve often said I’ve chucked stuff when I just mean I’ve got rid of it which can include taking things to charity shop where appropriate.

By chucking away she might have meant the charity shop or textile recycling. If they are putting in the actual landfill bin then I would be a bit judgmental.

I agree - we take clothes to the charity shop, apart from the rare item that’s worth selling on EBay. Anything too worn to sell goes in textiles recycling.

I often say - I got rid of /cleared out old clothes but I mean I've passed them on or bagged for charity. Maybe it's just an awkward turn of phrase? Think only clothes that ever went in the bin was a baby vest that could not be salvaged after baby got a tummy bug....

Perhaps it was a turn of phrase then and they meant clothing bin or the like. For me thrown out means binned as in rubbish bin but I'm pleased to hear others would use it differently so hopefully the parent in question did too

It's possible she didn't mean that she literally threw them in the bin.

Stuff I know I can get a reasonable amount for goes on eBay. Anything else that's in good condition and will be a bargain for someone (so, not a Primark t-shirt that only cost £3 when it was new) I donate to charity shops. Stuff that's unlikely to sell at the charity shop goes to the clothes bank at the tip, where they sell it on to companies that sort it and either export or recycle it.

Ours goes in the textiles recycling.

The only thing they won't take is a duvet. Not sure why, but that had to go to landfill. I tried a few animal charities (I thought they could use it for bedding or something) but none of them wanted it either.

I’d assume turn off phrase. No one has enough room in wheelie bin to just throw lots of clothes for a start. Lots of car parks have clothing bins that go to charity.

Charity shop or textile recycling at the tip.

I don't throw perfectly usable clothes out. I either charity shop them or take them to the local clothing bank - ours are either at the supermarket car park or at the local recycling centre.

The only things I will bin are used underwear items.

I chuck clothes away - i am not sure what else I am supposed to do with them? I work full-time so could only get to a charity shop on a Saturday. They are right in the town centre and I am not walking round town lugging one or more bin bags full old clothes. We don't have a textiles recycling bin anywhere close that I am aware of and if you don't drive, how are you supposed to get them to a tip/recycling centre anyway?

It seems to be very hard to get charity shops to take kids clothes at the moment, maybe she struggled to get anywhere to take them.

I threw most of my sons clothes away, he grew so slowly (premie) that they had holes in before he grew out of them! But yes, it's terrible just to threw out perfectly good clothes. It's laziness imo.

What nonsense! I don’t think that it made you think maybe you were the unreasonable one at all.

Yes, you’re more environmentally and socially responsible than her: 🎖

NoodleNuts - you dont have to wait until you have a big bin bag full. Little and often would work. Also a lot of areas have charity collections where you leave them on the doorstep on a particulat day (probably not rural) and some schools do a textile collection to raise funds.
Other things can be shifted on local freecycle or buy and sell groups.

Obviously none of those may be options for you - they are just ideas.

With DD2 I’ve found myself binning clothes more often than I would like; between reflux, nappy explosions and weaning so much of her clothing is stained beyond use. Maybe the clothes she had were stained, worn or unsaleable? But otherwise YANBU, if it’s in good condition, donate it, don’t bin it.

There's a sewing circle nearby that took some pretty patterned summer cotton dresses, that had suncream stains at the edges and were perfect apart from that. I saw some lovely patchwork they made from them.

Just an idea, might be worth checking out.

How weird, I thought they liked duvets for dog beds

🙄

I say I'm throwing away old clothes, but I always mean donating them. It's just a habit, when I'm getting rid of something from my own house.

Do you not have clothing bins at your grocery store? Asda, sainsbury and tesco in my area have them, I don't know about Morrisons though.
You could advertise them on your local free site on Facebook perhaps?