Winter warmers: donating clothes in Brussels

As the temperatures drop, so snowmen are built, long johns make their annual comeback and ski trips are planned. Inevitably, new year resolutions are broken too. But if there is one resolution worth keeping, it’s to give your wardrobe the once-over.

This would allow you not only to make room for your next clothes shopping spree, it would also give you the opportunity to do the sensible thing and give your unwanted garments to someone who might need them. Here is where you can do so.

Les Petits Riens

Known as Spullenhulp in Dutch, Les Petits Riens is perhaps the best-known Brussels-based initiative for the homeless, chiefly because – Châtelain neighbourhood oblige – it has cleverly rebranded some of its old tat as vintage. Founded by the indefatigable Abbé Froidure in the 1930s, the organisation also often acts as a first port of call for former inmates looking for work. You can donate your clothes at the address below, or drop them in one of the many collection bins around the city.

30-32 Rue du Provost, 1050 Brussels, 02.537.30.26, www.petitsriens.be

Oxfam-Solidarité

Contrary to popular belief, Oxfam’s fight against poverty and injustice isn’t confined to war- and famine-ravaged African countries. The charity works (with and through partners and communities) on long-term programmes and has several second-hand shops across Brussels, where you can donate your unwanted items of clothing. Alternatively, you can use the collection bins.

02.501.67.00, www.oxfamsol.be

Collection bins

You can’t have missed them: green for Oxfam, yellow for Les Petits Riens. They have become part of the Brussels landscape, which is both a good thing and a sad indictment. They are extremely easy to use but please stick to the following guidelines:

•All items must be clean and in good condition, free of tears or holes

•All items must be deposited in bags

•Items that go in pairs (shoes, socks and gloves) are to be tied together

“I have been working for Oxfam for twenty years, and every year I spend more and more time sorting odd socks and getting rid of items we can’t do anything with,” says Lucienne Lippens of the Rue de la Brabançonne branch in Schaerbeek. 

Contact the commune

Every commune has a public centre for social action (CPAS), and heaven knows warm clothes could be used at this time of year. Some communes  organise clothes collections themselves; if they don’t, or if you have just missed a big collection event, they will redirect you to one of the organisations listed above.

Organise a clothes collection

Why not get together with a handful of friends and put together a clothes-collection drive? Make it a fun event and hand out prizes, for the most generous contributor, the most outrageous garment and so on? However you decide to get involved, do something. There is something very, very wrong about good clothes being thrown away.