When you begin unraveling years worth of possessions, one also resets psychologically. As a woman expected to maintain a standard of beauty I’m not ashamed to admit this, giving away my clothes was darn hard. They were an extension of my personality, an obvious identifier to everyone else. Ah yes, this is YOU. It was achingly clear, isn’t it time to redefine that standard for myself? So, the clothes went, and a new sense of self arrived.
Just in time for cargo pants and trainers, here are some ideas on how to unload the old.
SELL THOSE THREADS
Consignment
Find a consignment store that matches your fashion style, it will be easier to make a sale. A consignment store simply takes your undesirables, puts them on the floor for resale, and passes you a cut of the profits. How to do this hundreds of miles away? The key to overseas payout is finding an establishment willing to make special arrangements and pinpointing a trusted friend able to get you the money. Ensure the store can make cheques payable to your friend, who can then transfer funds into your account. My savior? My Best Friend’s Closet. After 5 items sell, they will happily accommodate my fussy needs. If nothing sells, the store will donate to a charity on my behalf. Typical percentage split is 60/40. Certainly not full value, but face it, the second you purchase anything new, value automatically drops. www.facebook.com/My-Best-Friends-Closet.
eBay
If you have time to spare, eBay is a decent way to rid yourself of garments. You can divide them into categories, convenient for others to browse and find your items. Ensure you aren’t selling clothes that are stained or have holes. You’ll also sell faster if you have a verified PayPal account. Quality is what counts here. www.ebay.ca.
DONATE DUDS
Dress for Success
For former cubicle dwellers, this charity might be right up your alley. Dress for Success is a non-profit providing interview suits, and confidence and career development workshops to low-income women in over 75 cities worldwide. Those suits gave me the power to change my life, why not someone else’s? www.dressforsuccess.org.
Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre
Vancouver’s most notorious neighborhood, infamous for a raging homeless and drug addled population has a hidden jewel. The Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre is a male free environment where women can get a hot meal and meet a kind, non-judgmental face. They also take donations. Rather than draw conclusions on their controversial lifestyles, give what they don’t have. A waterproof coat. A sparkly hair tie. A pair of shoes you may be wore once. http://dewc.ca.
Any Shelter or Charity of Your Choice
This applies to men or women’s clothing. Seek out your local shelter or an Interfaith/Salvation Army outfit. Any of these places would be happy to take your clothes. The versus of eBay, it’s acceptable to donate quantity. Some charities will also pass on pronounced rejects to textile recyclers. Do make sure the clothes are clean prior to donating. A quick list:
- Textile Recycler Inc. – a Houston based company specializing in recycling used clothing, shoes and wipers.
- Council for Texitle Recycling – a great round-up of information about textile recycling.
- Canadian Textile Recycling Ltd. – originating from the Netherlands, this company is now based in Canada and exports used clothing to 20 developing nations worldwide.
DIY RECYCLING
See this?
Every man, woman or child could use a sweat absorbing headband crafted from an old t-shirt. Maybe you’re a wizard with a pair of scissors and a Brother sewing machine. If so, take some of those unwanted clothes and envision them anew. I can think of a few travel accessories besides this headband that would add to any pack. How about a scarf from recycled sweaters? Or turn that canary yellow windbreaker into a shopping bag that folds tightly. Save yourself some money and make what you need. Craft blogs:
- Craft Gossip – full range of projects using recycled materials.
- ThreadBanger – the website devoted to DIY anything.
- Sew, Mama, Sew! – a great blog about everything sewing. Check out projects or inspiring books!
Photos: Craft Gossip and Godt.
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi,
I had read your article and totally agree with your opinion of give away your undesired. I recently built a website serving the same purpose as what you mentioned. Thought that it would be very advisable to post a link to your article. Hope the idea can be spread widely to save the planet.
http://www.lemonnomel.com. (it is the combination of lemon + the reverse of lemon .com)
Aw, Buffalo Exchange =( That just made me really miss San Francisco. There’s nowhere that I know of in Melbourne to sell clothes on consignment. Not close to where I live anyway. I just give them all to the Salvation Army. I’m on a travel diet at the moment and finding that I’m wearing things over and over. I haven’t bought clothes in six months!
@Emily – Thanks Emily! Great add on to this post!
@James Clark – And then what do you do with that stuff you weren’t using? Give away or keep?
@Nisha – You’re welcome. Hope some ideas spring forth.
@ayngelina – 90% That’s a high percentage of hate? What else were you wearing that sucked so badly?? :)
@Jen – I felt intimidated too! Once I broke it down into whys and the long term benefits, it became easy. Glad you enjoyed the post!
@Jen – Thanks for your suggestion! Definitely missed that one. Everyone – here’s the website to check it out! http://www.freecycle.org/
@Jen –
Addendum: I shared your post and got a suggestion you don’t have listed. Have you ever heard of FREECYCLE? It’s a non-for-profit network that connects people who are looking to unload to people who need things. Pretty cool.
Awesome post. I feel slightly intimidated by the idea that I must dump all my belongings. Though looking at it from a “I could use the money way more than I can the stuff” certainly lessens the blow.
On recycling old clothes: I once made a bathing suit by kind of following the Threadbanger’s “How to Make a Bikini Out of Old T-Shirts” video. It was fit great and was completely original. Since then I’ve been altering all my unused stuff so that it’s travel friendly, which is going to save us a fortune on those stupid little useful things that cost so much money for no reason.
Anyway, thanks for the suggestions.
My clothes were easy to get rid of because I hated 90% of them and loved that I could make money from them in consignment. Whatever they didn’t take I gave to charity and I haven’t missed a single work shirt or pair of black dress pants yet.
Great idea. I keep trying to reuse my old stuff in some way or the other but these sites tell me more.
Thanks for sharing.
Getting rid of stuff seems so hard and yet I find when I get back from a long stint away I see all my stuff I wasn’t using and wonder why I was keeping it in the first place.
Good ideas! I also know of Buffalo Exchange (for more upscale clothing, US only and mostly West Coast, but a few in other states) and Plato’s Closet, if you’ve got more “youthful” clothing. They’re in both the US and Canada. The great thing about Plato’s Closet is that they’ll take your clothes and give you cash right away. Probably not as much as if you’d waited, but it beats the hassle of having to wait for your money :)
http://www.buffaloexchange.com/
http://www.platoscloset.com/
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