I ushered in the week by donating a carload of used clothing to my favorite charity thift. I have also started working on Secondhand Wardrobe Week for next year. Here is what I have in mind–a contest where blog readers post photos of thirift store bargains and vote for which they like the best. The winners will receive gift certificates to local thrift stores. I have started talking to thrift store managers about donating gift certificates and have begun working on both the legalities and the technical issues involved in contests so that I’m ready in 2012. I will keep you posted.

My New Treasure

Most of my wardrobe is secondhand, but I occasionally sew myself a new garment. Since I don’t have a lot of time to sew, I want these items to turn out wonderfully—but life doesn’t always work the way I want it to. I once spent forever altering a jeans pattern, thinking I could make it fit perfectly. Unfortunately, the finished jeans looked like they were sprayed on. I could barely breathe in them, even though the addition of lycra to the fabric blend made them stretchy. I also once made myself a jacket that I painstakingly hand quilted only to find that all those stitches made the material so stiff that it hung on my body like cardboard. I donated those two garments to my local thrift store. That way somebody else could enjoy my work.

But sometimes the tables get turned. Just last week I became the one who gets to enjoy somebody else’s work. I paid two dollars for a hand crocheted sweater that looks like it’s never been worn. Could it have been an unwanted present, or did the person who made it find that it just wasn’t right after they sewed on the last carefully selected button? The sweater isn’t revealing its origin, so I’ll never know. I’ll just have to wear it and enjoy.

The other day a friend of mine asked me what she should do with her daughter’s wedding dress. The marriage was brief and unhappy. The daughter doesn’t want the dress, of course, and the mom, my friend, also doesn’t want it, but it’s been hanging in her closet for years now. She’s been hoping to give it to somebody who could really use it.

I suggested that she donate it to a thrift store, where lots of people can try it on. It’s much more likely that someone who needs the dress, loves it, and just happens to fit into it will discover it there than if it stays in her closet. She can get those bad memories out of her house, get a tax deduction and provide the thrift store of her choice with something that they can sell.

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.

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.

After my friend Shirley lost her wonderful father, 19 years ago, she wanted something of her dad’s that would keep him close. She brought home a few of his big, baggy shirts and whenever she feels down, she puts one on and it comforts her.  

Shirley also brought home her father’s golf clubs even though she has never played golf nor does she have any interest in the game. The bag, clubs and various accessories are still in the cobwebby corner of her basement where she plopped them down 19 years ago. 

When I recently visited Shirley, I had a look at the golf set. The plastic golf bag is torn, but there’s also a pushcart, a few dozen balls and fourteen clubs. Everything is dusty and cobwebby, but except for the golf bag, it all appears to be in good shape.  

Somebody else could be enjoying the set that her dad used with such pleasure. My family is planning a yard sale this summer. Wish me luck—I’m going to try to convince my good friend to dust off the golf set and join us in passing our things on to other people who will love them.

Today I found a pair of new Eddie Bauer pants for $3.00 at one of my secondhand store haunts. I knew that they hadn’t been worn because they had a little plastic bag with a spare button attached to the inside of the waistband.  

There is so much more new stuff at the thrift stores these days than there was decades ago when I first started shopping for used clothing. I’m guessing that the increase in volume has to do with two things: one is that now, more than ever before, everybody is racing around so much of the time that they don’t bother to return clothing that they don’t want; another is that retail stores discount items so often and so deeply that people buy things that they would otherwise leave on the rack at the store. It’s a great boon for us used clothing fiends, but not so great for those who aren’t getting use from what they buy.