what to do with unwanted underwear?

citizenkitten

harduphester - that tip is great, it is why i have 6 vests in my wardrobe! a bit of lace should nicely update them

jackieO, Moorhen, Souk, dawemouse, frugal thanks for all the charity and one very novel suggestion! LOL!

kath- i would make sure they are clean too before throwing away so that maybe a dumpster mouse would make a home for itself in my bra or something lol

tvbox

See if you have any of those places that weigh bags of clothes and give you about 50p per kilo. The ones near me accept underwear, all they don't accept is bedding, curtains, other textiles like that and dirty/wet clothes so you don't rack up the grams.

For example:
ww.cashinthecloset.co.uk/

See if you have any in your area.

zippychick

As this has dropped down the OS board, ive moved this to green and ethical to see if you get any more recycling ideas over here

Zip

Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com"]forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

PS - love the planting idea !!!!!

Cavemanu

I've faced a similar dilemma....

What about....place the clean underwear in a bag (with a label describing the contents on the outside, as previously suggested) and put it into those Charity textile collection containers (such as Salvation Army), often found in supermarket car parks if you don't want to go into a charity shop with them personally plus you can do this anytime of day (or night!)

If you aren't sure where these containers are sited, you can find these sites normally on your local council website....

They sort and grade the textiles out, for resale or to be made into rags/converted into fibre to be made into industrial cloth wipes.

Got rid of a couple of bin bags of laddered tights, old bras, odd socks etc that way as I can't stand to landfill waste!

A few years ago I went to visit to the Sally Army central depot where they sort the clothing out into various grades and can assure you that everything gets used up.

However, I tend to keep aside old towels, flannels, sheets, linens and blankets for my local animal shelter who use them for cleaning up/drying off animals.

Also, spoke to someone at a local church who was very happy to take clean basic everyday mens clothing that frankly in my opinion has seen better days that I would not think would be suitable for resale in a charity shop (frayed/well worn, shirt, t-shirt, vest, jumper, trousers etc). This is offered as a change of clothes to homeless men who visit their soup kitchen. Apparently there isn't enough supply of this type of clothing, as people feel embarrassed to give something in this condition and less mens clothes are donated than women's. I do sometimes have a battle with my OH on this as he tends to wear old frayed/holey things til they fall apart for gardening!

HTH

Happy recycling/repurposing!

candice-marie_2

Try the Salvation Army. They use clothing that is not suitable for their charity shops (for whatever reason) to give to homeless people. Or just put it in the charity collection bag that comes through the door (if you get those). I saw a TV programme about recycling old clothes and they said that getting underwear for the poorest who really needed it, was very difficult as everyone is so 'genteel' about sending underwear for recycling!

xtinataguba

how about donate??

Katiehound

Two of my local charity shops take rags- they get paid rag weight. Anything that is 'past it' (clean) goes in the bag along with bits of fabric from sewing projects and I mean bits- not even piece sized! I always label the bags clearly as "Rags only".They get some money and it doesn't go to land fill!

celerity

Couldn't you recycle them as the stuffing for some home-made cushions / pet beds?