What happens to the items of clothing we no longer love? Are we bad ex girlfriends toward our unwanted garments? Do we hold on to them so much longer than we should, knowing they’re just not right for us, refusing to give them away because of the price we paid for them?
Do we carelessly dump them straight into the garbage? Or do we set them free to be loved by another?
Where do YOU send those ‘mistake’ purchases, ill-fitting outfits and the ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ pieces?
Do you haul them over to mum, where she distributes them amongst your little cousins who squeal with glee over those über skinny, acid wash jeans? (keeping them in the family). Do you eBay, MissMoneyPenny, 99Dresses or Swap Party the fashion you no longer wear so they find another girlfriend to love them again? (PLUG!!) OR… are you in Sydney and going to hire a stall at Social Change Room’s AWESOME preloved & vintage fashion market on Sunday 11th of December? (Melbourne ladies go HERE – Take 2 Markets). We have so many ways to purge our wardrobes of unloved items (and even recoup some of the moulah!), we really have no excuse for holding onto it for far too long or carelessly dumping our fashion, ruining the friendship forever and adding to already overflowing landfill. And what of those Halloween and costume party outfits you’ll never use again?!? Reverse Garbage to the rescue!! Amongst other amazing crafty and useful items, Reverse Garbage will take your costumes and find them another happy home.
What about donating your fashion to girlfriends in need? Are you a do-gooding ex girlfriend who selflessly finds the time to bag up clothing and send to it charity? And do you ensure you separate the wearable items from the ripped, worn out, one foot in the grave pieces?
A member of a well-known charity organisation explained to Social Change Room how many donated items have to go straight to the bin. They’re not wearable or sellable. Piles of dead clothing become an unneeded expense for charities to have them removed. Clothing donations must be GOOD QUALITY. I’m not doing anyone any favours by handing over an old, semi-transparent, Bart Simpson t-shirt with cola Sunny Boy stains from 1996. A better fate would be to knot it up into a chew toy for my puppy.
You don’t have a puppy, you say?? Don’t fret, you can still be a good ex girlfriend when disposing of your clothing corpses. Unwearable clothing can be turned into industrial rags and even shredded into quality carpet underlay. Call your local vet, animal shelter, pet store or printing house to see if they take clothing donations to turn into their rags. You can even ask your local charity if they accept unwearable clothing as some do have commercial agreements with businesses to accept their fashion rejects. But please, ask first. Not all of them have the capacity to do this.
So, now that we’ve given you a few great ideas on how to be a good ex girlfriend to your fashion, coming up later this week will be some golden advice from founder of Shop Your Wardrobe, Jill Chivers on how to have a better relationship with the clothes we have. As over-shopping is an issue I know many women suffer from, I thought it best to get an expert’s advice on how we can become a more conscious consumer and reduce the amount of fashion we need to break up with.
WATCH THIS SPACE!!
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Jill Chivers is the creator of the online world-first program My Year Without Clothes Shopping. The program addresses the 6 pieces of the overshopping puzzle in an interactive and exclusively online format. Jill started her first business in 2000 after spending ten years in the corporate world, working in IT consulting for a huge international firm on projects all over Australia and as a subject matter expert in North America. After completing her own “year without clothes shopping” in December 2010, Jill created a 12 month program for other women who want to create a healthier relationship to shopping – women who shop continually for clothes, shoes and other items, but never feel it’s ever ‘enough’. Jill is also an advocate for conscious shopping and a frequent commentator in the media, contributing to or being the focus of over 30 media stories in the last 18 months.
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- Johari – Ethical Fashion at it’s Finest
- Renew, Reuse, Recycle Your Fashion
- brandnü – Recycled Fashion in China
Even Today Tonight were talking about the problem with clothing charity donations! Please girls, let’s wash and mend our clothes before donating to goodwill!! Stop them from ending up as garbage. http://au.news.yahoo.com/today-tonight/lifestyle/article/-/11555794/dumped-donations
Here’s a great guide from Vinnies on how to sort your stuff for charity donations and it also give you some good ideas to on what to do with clothing you can’t donate!
http://www.visitvinnies.org.au/sort_smart.php