If you have clothing or certain other reusable cloth-based items, you can give you them private companies that have contracts with certain areas, or you can give them to an NGO. Common in apartments and in side streets of residential areas are these green metal bins either with flat roofs or with a semi-circle roof. Private companies use these are collection points where people voluntarily give clothing that could still be used. Clothes, shoes in sets and placed in a plastic bag, blanket, quilts, curtains, and carpets (rugs) are all able items they wish to collect. Cotton blankets, pillows, seat cushions, roller skates, and wheeled luggage are not to be given at these locations and are supposed to be thrown away.
When these units are too full, people usually start to stack items on top of them. Sometimes items that are not to be placed inside, for example pillows, are placed on top of these collection boxes in the hopes that someone else will use it and/or trying to avoid paying for an official trash bag.
If you wish to donate your clothing items to a thrift store, there are several options. The largest is 아름다운가게 (areumdaun gage), English name Beautiful Store (English website, good English overview page). Another nationwide option is 옷캔 (otkaen) but their website is only in Korean. If you are familiar with the Goodwill, you can find them in Korea under the name 굿윌스토어 (phonetically “Goodwill Store”). They have locations in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province along with the cities of Jeonju, Daejeon, Guri, and Changwon. A list of locations is on their Korean language only website. Salvation Army is called 구세군 (救世軍, gusegun) and they have a variety of functions in Korea. Their website is in Korean only. They have a seperate website for their thrift stores, which are called 구세군 희망나누미 (救世軍 希望나누미, gusegun huimang nanumi) along with a list of locations, both are only in Korean. They also have a blog, Facebook account, and Instagram.
As there are more locations of Beautiful Store than anything else we have found, and as they have an English version of their website, we will include information on this NGO for the time being but might expand in the future. Here is one of their storefronts in Daejeon. At the time of this writing, there are four locations within this city.
When walking into any thrift store with a donation, it is a good to greet them and declare the clothes in your hands are a donation. A full sentence is 안녕하세요. 옷을 기부하려고 합니다. To be a little less formal you can say 안녕하세요. 옷을 기부하고 싶어요. If this is going into short-term memory, just learn the word 기부 (寄附, gibu).
Donating items to NGOs will also benefit you when it is time to file taxes in January. As you are donating something, you might as well get tax credit for it. If they don’t give you the form shown below, please let them know by saying 기부 영수증 발급해주세요. 기부 영수증 발급 받고 싶습니다. To be a little less formal you can say 기부 영수증 발급해주세요. 기부 영수증 발급 받고 싶어요. If this is going into short-term memory, just learn 기부 영수증 (寄附 領收證, gibu yeongsujeung) for “donation receipt”.
Here is the form you need to fill out. Sometimes staff highlight required fields to help speed up the process. Let's go over the highlighted terms so the staff don't need to translate things for you. If the image is difficult to read, click it to see a larger version.
(필수) 개인정보 수집 및 이용 동의 - This is giving Beautiful Shop permission to use your personal information that you will write below. This is a required field. If you agree, check the empty box next to 동의. If you don’t agree, you might as well give the paper back.
성명 - Write your name in the order given on your Residence Card. Write very clearly so your name is correctly entered into their system. The field to the right is for if the donation is on behalf of a company. If this is the case, enter the business name.
휴대폰 - Write your cell phone number. In smaller font it is saying this is for notification purposes so they can contact you later on the status of your donation. The field to the right states 이메일 and is if you want to write your email address for notification purposes so they can contact you later on the status of your donation.
주소 - Write your Korean address in 한글 characters. If this is difficult for you to do, don't worry and just leave this field blank for now. Complete all other fields and then show the staff your ARC as your current address is written on the rear side.
기부금영수증 발급 신청 (주민번호 또는 사업자번호를 반드시 기재해 주시기 바랍니다.) - Check this box to declare you want to get tax credit for your donation. If you don't check the box, you will not receive credit.
주민번호 - Write your 13-digit Resident Registration Number as shown on the front of your ARC. The first six digits are your birthday in YYMMDD format.
The second box is optional and is only if you want Beautiful Shop to contact you outside of your donation. If you agree, check the empty box next to 동의.
기증천사 - Print your name and sign on top of (인). Congratulations, you are all done. Hand the form back to the staff. The staff will fill in the quantity of the items you’ve given, which is what the box on the top right is for. They’ll then add the date and sign it.
If you’ve filed in the paperwork correctly, you should get a series of text messages over the course of several weeks. The first message thanks you for your donation and tells you that you are making a difference. The second message states that you’ll be notified in 2~3 weeks as to the value of your donation. The third message declares the donation has been processed and states the date of donation and the value thereof. The fourth message is saying you’ll get that donation credit for when you file taxes in January of the following year.
One other option is to sell your clothes, books, kitchen appliances, etc. to a private company who can visit your home to weight and then give you cash for the items. As they are in business to resell the items, they’ll be picky to only take the items they believe they can resell. The cash value of the items will be quite small as they need to turn a profit on used items, but you have the convenience of someone coming to your home and collecting everything. Sometimes they post stickers in residential areas with the words 헌옷 수거 (헌옷 收去, heonon sugeo) and maybe 업체 (業體, eopche). If you want to go through this option, make sure you have enough Korean skills to communicate both via the phone call to initiate and for when someone comes in person.
