Category — Reuse and Recycle

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.

In my last blog, I mentioned that I bought myself a Gap corduroy pea coat when I was out looking for secondhand bargains. Here in the Northeast, we usually have only a few weeks per year of weather that requires a mid-weight coat like this one, so they can be hard to find. A few years ago, I bought a coat for just this sort of in-between weather. It’s a lined LL Bean field coat (via Salvation Army) that I’ve never found especially flattering on me. I’ve been on the lookout for an upgrade for a few years now. Now that I found my pea coat, I’ll pass LL Bean on to my favorite charity. There’s no reason for it to take up space in the landfill because it’s still in great condition and this way it will become someone else’s exciting treasure.

Although I tend to think of used clothing as something that’s great for those of us who don’t have loads of cash, on my visit to Connecticut where I found the pair of Ferragamos, which I’ve written about in the last 2 entries, I noticed an unusually large number of consignment shops. They were all in wealthy suburban areas, close to New York City, and I wondered why people who live in such lavish homes are selling their used clothing. And do the people in those lavish houses also buy from the consignment shops? 

I don’t have any satisfying answers here.  One friend suggested that women who don’t have jobs but who do have lots of expensive stuff might need to sell off some of their $1,000 purses and $2,000 dresses just to have cash for themselves. That made some sense, but it doesn’t explain the sheer number of consignment stores. Anyone out there want to enlighten me?

Today I’ll continue with the topic that I began in my last entry, pre-owned jewelry. The two costume sets that I wrote about were in perfect condition, but I also buy jewelry to take apart and use to make other items. For example, many of the unappealing plastic beads in one necklace that I bought for a dollar or two a few years ago went right into the trash. The rest of the beads, and there were quite a few, were sterling. I’ve used these silver beads in countless other necklaces that I’ve made. Also, most of the old earrings that I buy are clip-ons, which were very popular in America until the 1960’s, when ear piercing became the rage with us groovy hippies. I fiddle around with the clip-ons until I figure out a way to add earwires so that they work with my pierced ears.

 I’ve been making beaded jewelry for about 15 years, so I have the tools that I need to update pieces such as ugly necklaces and clip-on earrings. If noodling around with old jewelry sounds like fun to you, I suggest visiting a bead shop with knowledgable staff. They will sell you the right tools and give you the information to turn your old treasures into something wearable that you can enjoy today.