Bedding is one of the few donations where condition decides the destination, not whether you can give at all. Clean, sellable sets go to thrift stores. Worn, stained, or mismatched pieces are welcomed by animal shelters, which wash everything anyway. And a few items, like used pillows, are hard to donate anywhere. Here is who takes what, including the answers charities give for bedspreads, duvets, and comforters.
Animal shelters are the best destination for towels, blankets, and sheets that are too worn for resale. Shelters need a constant supply of washable bedding for kennels and grooming, and most accept items regardless of cosmetic condition as long as they are clean and washable. The common exception: many shelters decline duvets, comforters, and stuffed mattress pads, because the filling shreds when chewed and clogs washers. Flat sheets, towels, and woven blankets are ideal. Call your nearest shelter or check its online wish list.
Goodwill and the Salvation Army accept sheets, blankets, towels, and bedspreads in clean, resellable condition, and complete sets sell best. The Salvation Army takes clean linens and bedding, including bedspreads and comforters in good shape, but stained or torn textiles are sorted out at the store's expense. See what the Salvation Army accepts for the full list.
Shelters and transitional-housing programs need twin-size sheets and blankets most, since that is what shelter beds use. New or like-new pillows are sometimes accepted here when nowhere else takes them; hygiene rules vary by program, so ask first. People moving from a shelter into a first apartment also need full bedding sets, which some programs collect.
Beyond shelters, veterinary clinics use towels and blankets daily for surgery recovery and exam tables, and wildlife rehabilitators line enclosures with soft textiles. These smaller operations rarely appear on donation lists and often have no supply budget at all, which makes them grateful takers of worn but clean linens.
For odd pieces, spare pillowcases, curtains, or a duvet no organization will take, a Buy Nothing group or Freecycle post usually finds a taker within a day. Crafters also pick up fabric for quilting and rags, keeping textiles out of the landfill.
Last updated June 2026. Errors: [email protected]
Thrift stores are retail: your donation must sell, so a faded or pilled blanket is a cost to them, not a gift. Animal shelters are the opposite: bedding is a consumable that gets washed daily and chewed weekly, so cosmetic condition is irrelevant. Sorting your linen closet into two piles, sellable and worn, before you load the car means every piece lands where it is actually wanted, and nothing gets thrown away by a store clerk.
Pillows are the one bedding item with almost no takers. Thrift stores refuse used pillows on hygiene grounds, and shelters that accept them usually want new or like-new only. Options that remain: animal shelters occasionally take them for bedding (call first, many refuse), textile-recycling drop-offs handle the rest, and new unopened pillows are welcome nearly everywhere. If you are buying to donate, new pillows are one of the most requested and least donated items at homeless shelters.
If you want your bedding to be used immediately, twin size is the answer. Homeless shelters, group homes, camps, and children's programs run on twin beds, and complete twin sets are chronically short. Queen and king sets sell fine in thrift stores but are less useful for direct service. Donors buying new to give should pick twin sets, towels, and pillows, the trio shelters ask for most.
Bedding that fails even the animal-shelter test, stained, mildewed, or shredded, still does not need the landfill. Many cities run textile-recycling programs, some charity bins accept "rag grade" textiles that are sold by the pound for industrial rags and insulation, and retailers with take-back programs accept worn household textiles. Wash and dry everything first; wet textiles mold in collection bins and ruin the whole load.