After an illness or a death, a household is often left with cases of sealed supplies: gloves, gauze, incontinence products, tube-feeding formula, wound dressings. Pharmacies will not take them back and it feels wrong to throw them out. Two national organizations accept exactly this from individuals, several others take it through local clinics, and one category, medication, has its own route entirely. This page lays out who takes what.
MedShare recovers surplus medical supplies and equipment and ships them to clinics and hospitals in under-resourced countries and to safety-net clinics in the United States. It accepts donations from individuals, and says so directly: if you or a loved one has excess supplies or equipment no longer required, you may be able to donate it. Commonly accepted items are unexpired consumable supplies, new or gently used durable medical equipment, and fully functional biomedical devices. It does not accept pharmaceuticals, expired items, or opened consumables.
The process is to review its supplies and equipment guidelines, then complete a donation offer form; questions go to [email protected]. It operates regional facilities in the Southeast, West, and Northeast, so drop-off depends on where you are, and it will tell you whether a small household donation is practical for your region.
Project C.U.R.E. is one of the largest suppliers of donated medical goods to developing countries, and it welcomes individual donations of home health items: crutches, wheelchairs, walkers, knee braces, oxygen concentrators, hospital beds, and consumables such as gloves, gauze, and sutures. It asks individuals to drop off at one of its collection locations whenever possible, because its trucks are committed to hospital and clinic pickups, though it will try to accommodate a collection if you cannot. Items must not be expired, and all of its warehouses provide a receipt for tax purposes.
It runs distribution centers in several U.S. cities, Denver, Phoenix, Kansas City, and Nashville among them, with posted drop-off hours that vary by location. Call ahead, since hours are limited to weekday business hours.
The fastest route for a small quantity is often a mile away. Free and charitable clinics use sealed gloves, dressings, and blood-glucose supplies daily and rarely have budgets for them. Hospice organizations and home health agencies can sometimes place unopened incontinence products and nutrition formula with another patient within days. None of these advertise a donation program; you find them by calling and asking whether they can use what you have. For incontinence supplies specifically, diaper banks in many cities accept adult products; see where to donate adult diapers.
Wheelchairs, walkers, shower chairs, commodes, and hospital beds have a separate and better-developed network of loan closets and refurbishers, most of which lend equipment free to local residents. Our guide to donating medical equipment covers it, and there are dedicated pages for a CPAP machine, a mobility scooter, and hearing aids. Diabetic supplies, including the awkward question of insulin, have their own page: where to donate diabetic supplies.
Ostomy pouches, wafers, barrier rings, and adhesive removers are among the most valuable sealed supplies a household can pass on, because they are expensive, rarely covered in full, and useless to anyone once opened. Both MedShare and Project C.U.R.E. accept sealed, in-date ostomy supplies with other consumables. Two specialist routes exist as well: nonprofit ostomy supply exchanges collect unopened products and ship them free to people who cannot afford them, and local ostomy support groups affiliated with the United Ostomy Associations of America often run a supply closet for members. The rules are the same as for everything else on this page: original packaging, seal intact, date well ahead. Sort by manufacturer and product number before you offer them, since the recipient has to match your supplies to a specific appliance.
Last updated September 2026. Errors: [email protected]
A donated sweater that turns out to be worn costs a thrift store a few cents in disposal. A donated dressing that turns out to be expired or unsealed can harm a patient in a clinic with no alternative. The programs on this page ship in bulk to places where the receiving nurse cannot inspect each package, so they enforce at the door what cannot be enforced on arrival. Sealed and in date is not bureaucracy. It is the whole basis on which a clinic can trust a box it did not buy.
Most household medical donations come after a death, when a family is clearing a room and has no energy for a scavenger hunt. The efficient order is this: medications to a pharmacy kiosk first, because they are the one thing that must not sit around; durable equipment to a loan closet or refurbisher, which will often pick up; sealed consumables listed and offered to a local clinic or hospice by phone; and whatever is left in quantity to MedShare or Project C.U.R.E. Four calls, one afternoon, and nothing usable goes in the trash.