Green Your Wardrobe: The Other Side of the Coin

March 12, 2010 by 3 Comments

In my last couple of posts I talked about recycling clothes by donating them to charities or passing them onto friends and family either via hand-me-downs or clothing swaps. But just as giving your old clothes a second life is a great way to recycle, the other side of the coin is another excellent way to do it too. Why not shop at your local thrift and consignment shops? You may not be able to meet all your wardrobe needs this way but you’d be surprised how many great finds you can get this way. And of course, you can make more of your future clothing purchases with an eye towards acquiring stylish pieces made from sustainable fabrics by eco-friendly companies.

To summarize, greening your wardrobe can be achieved through a variety of activities including recycling your old clothes by donating them, selling them through consignment shops, hosting, organizing or otherwise participating in clothing swaps, buying lightly used clothes from thrift or consignment shops, acquiring clothes from clothing swaps, buying new clothes made with eco-friendly sustainable fabrics and processes, and last but not least, reclaiming re-usable parts of your old clothes to make new ones or use them for other decorative crafts!
For more ideas on this, check out Planet Green’s Top Green Wardrobe Tips.
What are you doing to “green” your wardrobe?

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Green Your Wardrobe with Clothing Swaps: A Great Way to Recycle Clothes!

March 9, 2010 by Leave a Comment

woman with shirtsOne of my favorite ways of recycling clothes is to organize or host a clothing swap. This is a fun way to connect with family and friends (or make new friends depending on where the event is hosted), find a new home for some of your old clothes, and maybe pick up a few new items for your wardrobe.
Basically you have a small potluck party (I like to host them as brunches myself) and invite anywhere from 5 to 12 of your friends, family or neighbors, and encourage them to invite some of their friends as well. Everyone is required to bring at least one bag of lightly used clothing, shoes and accessories they want to get rid of to the event.
As people arrive, they throw all their clothes (shoes and accessories) into a large pile on the floor in a room with a mirror (and preferably some privacy to try things on). All the participants are encouraged to dive into the pile and search for clothes that appeal to them or would be suitable for other family members. If you’ve got a lot of people at your event, you may want to set a ground rule that on the first and each subsequent pass each participant is limited to three articles of clothing at a time. Participants then try on the items they retrieved from the pile and decide if they want to keep them. If not the clothes get returned to the pile for others to try out.
Collect whatever clothes are left over at the end of the event into bags. Reserve one or two of the bags with the best selection to seed the next clothing swap, and donate the rest to a local charity of the group’s choosing. The next time you host or organize one of these, be sure to invite some new people to add some variety to the selection of clothing – both in terms of style and sizes.
If this seems like to much work or you can’t seem to get enough people to come to one to make it worthwhile, then consider finding a commercially organized event in your area. If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area then check Clothingswaps.com for local commercial events and information on their attempt to host events nationwide. You can also try clothesswap.meetup.com or use Google to identify local or regional clothing swaps in your area.
For those of you that own a small local retail business (i.e. a salon, clothing, shoe store or any type of retail space that you want to draw more attention to) hosting a clothing swap in your store is a great opportunity to connect with customers or prospects in your local community and increase visibility for your business!

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Green Your Wardrobe: A Different Take on Recycling

March 6, 2010 by Leave a Comment

If you’re serious about greening your lifestyle then greening your wardrobe needs to be part of that plan. This is one are of your life that is surprisingly simple to green. In fact, you may already be doing it without realizing that you are!

With spring coming up right around the corner, this is the perfect time to start working on your Spring Cleaning and weed out all the clothes, shoes and accessories you don’t need anymore. There’s nothing unusual about doing this and many of us do it if not every year, then at least every now and then. But did you know that recycling your clothing is one of the easiest ways to green your wardrobe?

The idea behind recycling in the larger sense is to breakdown items whose useful life has ended and re-use their raw materials or components to create new, similar or totally different items. Recycling clothes can be the same – i.e. tear it apart and collect all the pieces that could be re-used for something else like buttons, lace trim, fabric, zippers, snaps, etc. Well that can work out great if you’re a seamstress or have a seamstress in your life, but most of us don’t have the time, presence of mind, or money to consider recycling at that level.
So another way to look at recycling is to find a way for other people to re-use your clothes. This can be accomplished by donating your old clothes to disaster relief organizations or charities, or by placing them in consignment shops. In the former case, your donations will not only ensure that your clothes get a second life but will also have immediate and meaningful impact either by clothing those in dire need or by providing additional revenue streams to fund the work of the nonprofits who re-sell your clothes through their thrift stores. In the case of Goodwill Industries, one of the largest non-profits that do this, their stores also offer job opportunities to the unemployed and homeless. And because they sell lightly used clothes at substantial discounts, your donation also offers people on low or tight budgets the opportunity to acquire quality clothes at an affordable price. The ripple effect can be huge!

Do you recycle clothes by donating them to charities or disaster relief? If so, what organizations are the ones you most often or prefer to donate to?

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The 3 R’s of Going Green: Things You Might Repair Instead of Replacing

February 27, 2010 by 2 Comments

One of the key ways you can green your lifestyle is by following what I call the 3-Rs: Reduce, Re-use and Recycle – more or less in that order. To start reducing, think about the different ways you can lower your consumption. Buying and consuming less means you produce less waste – so maybe a simple first step is resolving to only buy products with the fewest ingredients and minimal packaging. So in your mind, replace the old adage “more is better” with “less is more.”

Buying food and goods produced locally can significantly cut the amount of energy required to transport them from far away places and not coincidentally, the associated carbon emissions. It also keeps the flow of currency in your community supporting the local economy.

Another important way you can reduce consumption is by re-using things either by donating them or giving them to other people who can use them rather than just tossing them out. Of course, if your stuff has reached the end of its lifecycle then the last resort is to recycle it.

But take the time to consider the second R and the different ways you can give a second or even third life to some of your possessions, either by patching, repairing or giving them away to someone else. Clothing swaps and shopping at thrift stores are a great way to re-use clothing, shoes, accessories, and furnishings for your home. Many thrift stores have merchandise that is almost like new and they use the money from your purchases to support worthy causes.

Another important thing you can do, is repair things around your house so that you can either re-use them or give them away in a condition that allows others to make use of them.

The Daily Green put together this cute little slide show with their suggestions for 15 Things You Should Repair Instead of Replace which includes some unexpected items towards the end!

While you’re there, check out their link to 17 Things You Can Rent Instead of Buying for a chuckle!

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