Too many clothes. This northern Ontario thrift store hasn’t accepted new donations for months

In a back room at the Closet Share thrift store in Sudbury there’s a pile of dirty clothes – all packed into black garbage bags — that nearly touches a three-metre ceiling.

Melissa Porter, the founder of the charity, said she can’t even hazard a guess at how many clothes are in the bags, which each weigh at least 11 kilograms.

In a second room, there’s a pile of clean clothes that is nearly as large.

A small army of volunteers washes and sorts through the clothing, but the thrift store has a limited amount of space available to display everything.

Despite these efforts, Porter said they haven’t been able to accept new clothing donations since July.

That hasn’t stopped people from leaving bags of old clothes outside Closer Share’s doors, and even outside Porter’s home.

“I have reached out to many different organizations who take in clothing donations like, say, Value Village,” Porter said.

“They've actually turned me away. So I'm at a standstill. And I know that other organizations are dealing with the same thing because they are calling me every day asking me if I could take their influx of clothing and I can't do it.”

Porter expects she won’t be able to accept new clothing donations until March or April.

In the meantime, clothes that were left outside, and are at the bottom of the pile, are starting to develop mould.

Although she and her volunteers try to salvage what they can, she said it’s impossible to keep up with the barrage of used textiles. 

Porter said people should call ahead before they donate their old clothes to organizations like hers.

But more importantly, she said most of us need to rethink how — and how often — we shop for clothes.

“Every time that you purchase a large amount of clothing from SHEIN, for example, you are not only providing clothing or providing funding to these outside businesses, but you're hurting our planet,” she said.