Category — Donating

I’ve been searching for a pair of skinny jeans for the last year. With all my looking, I’ve found thousands of 80’s acid-washed, pleated jeans, which I left hanging on the racks, but no skinny jeans. Is it too much to ask that this fairly trendy item show up in quantity and in my size?

Some fashions hit the thrift stores in large numbers right after they are introduced. The baby-doll shirts that were popular in the last few years come to mind. But skinny jeans just don’t seem to be making it into the secondhand stores. Or at least they aren’t making it into the secondhand stores close to where I live. Dresses are also supposed to be very popular right now, but they aren’t making it into my local thrift stores either. What gives? Did people bring their baby doll tops home, decide they hated them and then do a mass donation? Are they so in love with their skinny jeans that they can’t bear to part with them? Are they wearing their dresses so frequently that they completely wear out and never make it to my thrift stores? Whatever the reasons, I’m getting pretty sick of looking through racks and racks of pants. If you spot me wearing pair of acid-washed pleated jeans, you’ll know that I finally just gave up. 

The purpose of Secondhand Wardrobe Day is to celebrate the joys of creating a wardrobe from secondhand finds. I’m going to mark the day is by donating the clothing that my family no longer wears to my favorite thrift store charity. We have bags and bags that need to go.

I try to make only excellent choices when I buy clothing, but sometimes it’s only after I wear an item a few times that I realize that it isn’t the most flattering. I could toss it into the trash, but it’s so much more satisfying to take it someplace where it will be used and appreciated. Sending my clothing off to the thrift store is a fine way, I think, to enjoy Secondhand Wardrobe Day.

I was one of those teenagers who really suffered because my family couldn’t afford to dress me like the other kids at school. I wasn’t picked on because of it, I just felt uncomfortable every single day. I wish I’d known that there was an alternative so inexpensive that even I, a kid with just a teeny bit of my own money, could have afforded it.  

Now I jump at the chance to speak to groups of teenagers about how they can find wonderful clothing at thrift stores. The kids never have much to say. Some of them are grossed out by the whole idea. But I’m sure that some stay quiet because they don’t want the other students to know that they wear used clothing.  

I’ll keep giving these talks because I understand how valuable it is to know that you can dress well even when your finances are tight. I also keep hoping that some of the kids will learn that donating is a much better alternative than tossing still-good clothing into the trash.

We give away a lot of clothing. We have to; our house would explode if we didn’t. Any item that’s on its way out to the secondhand shop gets piled onto the stepladder in our kitchen. The stepladder pile is currently three feet high and includes a winter hat, a pair of unworn shoes, pants, shorts, a tee shirt, a sweater, two pairs of sunglasses, a purse and two books. Why, we could outfit several people and have them sit out in the bright sun while they do some reading. Instead I’ll pack it all up and bring it and the other bags of clothing that have been patiently waiting in my garage to my favorite local charity. 

My favorite charity is not the one that has a huge thrift store three blocks from my home. This huge thrift is a church-affiliated store. A year ago I went to their church for the funeral of a dear friend. During the service the pastor announced that we would get to see my friend again in the afterlife, but only if we believed as he told us we must.

I decided right then that I would no longer support this particular charity by giving them my used stuff. Instead I drive an extra 10 minutes to my favorite place, the one with all of the great community programs. I really love this particular organization. I have volunteered my time at their women’s shelter, food pantry and day care center. Although I don’t always have time or money to give them, I frequently have stuff that they can either use or sell to keep doing what they do so well.

I was reading over the parent newsletter from my daughter’s high school, yawning away, when an article suddenly jolted me into wakefulness. The article was a call for donations of slightly worn formal wear for prom. A few students are organizing the effort and their plan is to make the clothes available to kids who can’t afford to buy new formal clothing. The students are calling their project Cinderella’s Closet. Since reading the article, I’ve learned that across North America there are hundreds of Cinderella’s Closets. They are also known as Fairy Godmother’s Closet, Operation Fairy Dust and the Corsage Project. 

Perhaps the best known of these programs is the Glass Slipper Project, located in Chicago (www.glassslipperproject.org/index.html). They have provided prom clothing to more than 10,000 girls since they began in 1999.  

The benefit of these groups is not just that they help kids dress appropriately for their proms; they also actively help to reuse garments that usually get worn just one time. What a great idea.