Thank you to my intern, Alexis Piascik, for writing this awesome blog post!
As Spring finally rears its sunny head, as does the urge to get the spring cleaning over and done with, and where’s the first place to start? Your closet. But it’s hard to know what to do with all those old clothes – t-shirts with stains on them, panties with holes in them – which is where I come in. I have compiled a list of 5 things you can do with old garments that gets them out of your wardrobe but NOT into a landfill, and with all these creative outlets, there’s no reason they should.
1. Donate to H&M – In 2013 H&M launched a campaign in effort to spread sustainability throughout the fashion industry. You can take literally any of your old clothes that you don’t want anymore: stained bedsheets, lonely socks, ripped stockings, take it all! You can even get a $5 clothing voucher for every bag you drop off! Don’t believe me? Check out their video here to see how they recycle it.
2. Reuse it yourself – Old clothes are perfect things to craft your heart out with. Turn t-shirts into a blanket, turn flannels into washcloths, turn denim into bags, and tank-tops into scrunchies. The possibilities are endless!
3. Rewear it – Not being your size is one thing, but not being your style? That’s no excuse. If you don’t like it, you should have no problem taking a pair of scissors to it and turning it into something you do like. Cut out patterns and graphics and patch them onto your jeans, cut 4 inches off those pants or the sleeves off that sweater, take a blazer and stitch a scarf onto it. There’s so many things you can try in order to revamp your pieces! And hey, if you still don’t like it afterwards, throw it in a bag and haul it over to H&M.
4. Garage Sale – One man’s trash is another man’s treasure – especially in this weather. Selling your clothes at a garage sale can be totally easy, from throwing it all in a box and making people dig, to folding it on a table, to even hanging everything on a clothes rack. Just pick a day and time and advertise your garage sale on things like Craigslist, garagesalefinder.com, and yardsalesearch.com. And then anything that doesn’t sell, gets donated!
5. Keep them – I know it’s not the most ideal of options, but it’s always important to have at least one old shirt and a pair of jeans that you can do things like paint in, hike in, or wash your dog in. I don’t know about you, but I can’t live my whole life in an Armani pantsuit – I’ll get it dirty.
