Sustainable closet clean out. Because what the t-shirt says.

So you decided to organize and whittle down your closet at 9pm on a Sunday. Next thing you know you have piles of clothes everywhere and you really don’t want to finish what you started. You’re all “what a stupid idea, I hate when I get irrationally motivated”. But you power through and bag up what you don’t want. Or you leave it in the middle of your floor for a month. Either way, now what?

Consumers throw away shoes and clothing [versus recycle], an average of 70 pounds per person, annually. Yeah, sometimes I have actual facts. And that one sucks.

So I did it. I cleaned out my closet and set out to dispose of my unwanted things in a sustainable way. Prepare to be impressed. But not by my before closet. That is an absolute mess.

Step 1
I tore through my my closet making quick yes or no decisions creating one “no” pile and several “yes” piles separated by category. BTW, I didn’t use the Marie Kondo method because I can’t really say my maternity leggings bring me joy but I wear them at least once a week. No, not because I have to! It’s because maternity leggings are the most comfortable things you can put on your legs, ever. And they cost $80. Anyway, I parted ways with a bunch of crap and made some very adult decisions. I can now say I no longer own any booty-cutting shorts. But is that a good thing? Who’s to say.

From left to right: NO. What is that even? Abercrombie circa 2004 called…

Step 2
I put all my keeper clothes/shoes into my closet. It has been so nice being able to see everything and make thoughtful decisions about what I can wear each day! J/K anyone who has seen me lately knows this hasn’t changed a damn thing. But my eye does twitch a little less when I look at it.

I learned the finger space hanger technique working at Express in the early aughts.

Step 3
I organized my “no” clothes and accessories into piles by condition. Perfect, good or should be burned.

Step 4
Now where to dispose of them in a green way?

• Jeans- I brought 6 pairs of my worn jeans to Madewell. In exchange they gave me 6 $20 off coupons for new Madewell jeans. Don’t get too excited, you can only use one coupon per jean purchase. But what’s great is they will accept any jeans. They don’t have to be Madewell jeans and they don’t even have to be women’s jeans! And why is this a green move? Madewell takes the jeans and makes then into housing insulation for charity’s such as Habitat for Humanity. Read more about it here.

• New or barely used clothes and shoes- I had a small pile of new/barely used stuff I tried to sell on Poshmark. Quite frankly it’s taking too goddamned long and I want this stuff out of my face. So I looked into alternatives and found ThredUp. ThredUp is an online used clothing store/consignment shop. You sign up for a shipping label, fill a shipping box with your stuff and send it to them. They look at the items and assess their sell-ability and they may or may not agree to sell it. They say they take about 40% as they have high standards in regards to the condition of the items. But you can opt to have them send the stuff back to you if they don’t take it (with a fee of course). Or you can opt to have the unaccepted items recycled (there’s the green part). You can also opt to donate any money you make via them to a charity they support. It’s a lot of details. I just sent my first box so I am not clear on how difficult or not the process is yet. So I will amend this post when I see how it all shakes out. I am gonna guess no one is getting rich doing this but you could possibly get a little something. Not to mention the sense of pride you will feel because you didn’t just trash your unwanted stuff. To learn more about ThredUp lookie here.

• Beat up clothes and shoes- Please don’t donate beat up, stained or unwearable clothing to say a Good Will or a Salvation Army. If YOU wouldn’t wear these items because of wear and tear, then no one should. Damaged items should be donated to a recycling program. I dropped my bags off at a Planet Aid box but have since learned some bummer stuff about their charity involvement. They do repurpose/recycle the stuff you drop off (so goal made) but apparently for their own profit. There are a lot of clothing recycling programs out there so make sure to look into them before you commit and make sure they do what they say they do (learn from my mistake). You can find a recycling drop location near you here.

• Clothing and shoes in good shape- These can be donated in the good old fashioned way at a Good Will, Salvation Army or any charity of your choice! I actually didn’t have much in this category. It was either brand new or staying together by a thread.

If you want to read more about the fashion indusry and it’s huge waste issues, click here.